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PUBLIC LIBRAR
IN THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
PART I
1876 REPORT
UHl^t:'::-
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PUBLIC LIBRARIES
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University of Illinois
Graduate School of Library Science
MONOGRAPH SERIES
NUMBER 4
University of Illinois Graduate School of Library Science Monograph
Series
Harold Goldstein, ed. Implications oj the New Media for the Teaching of
Library Science. (No. 1), 1963. $2.00 paperback, $3.00 hard cover.
Elizabeth W. Stone. Training jor the Improvement oj Library Administration.
(No. 2). In preparation.
1962 Statistics of Public Libraries Serving Populations of 35,000 and Below.
(No. 3). In preparation. (Compiled by the U.S. Office of Education)
The Library of Congress. Descriptive Cataloging Division. Rules for
Descriptive Cataloging in the Library of Congress. (1949). (No. 5), 1966.
$2.00 paperback, $3.00 hard cover.
Distributed by the lUini Union Bookstore, 715 South Wright Street,
Champaign, Illinois 61820.
1876 AND NOW— THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
The year 1876, when this Special Report on Public Libraries in the
United States was published, holds special significance for librarians.
That was the year that a number of librarians — custodians for some two
million volumes, we are told — met during the Centennial Exposition in
Philadelphia to form the American Library Association. That same year
the American Library Journal was established as a monthly publication.
That was the year, too, in which Melvil Dewey of the Amherst College
Library first explained (in this report) a uniform system of cataloging
books which he had devised after several years of experimentation.
Each of these events signified an early advance by American librarians
toward professionalism. This goal has long since passed from hope to fact.
No longer need librarians complain, as some did in this report, that their
jobs were considered sinecures or that they were bestowed on professors
to permit them to pursue favorite studies. The modest contention that
"only a man specially trained can successfully fill the place of the librar-
ian" has been entirely vindicated.
But the most important message the Special Report had for librarians
of that day, as well as for ours, is that public libraries are auxiliaries to
public education, that "librarians should not only understand their pri-
mary duties as purveyors of literary supplies to the people, but also
realize their high privileges and responsibilities as teachers." Professional
librarians who regarded their calling as a privilege as well as a responsibil-
ity have helped the United States to assemble the largest and finest
libraries in the world . . . and within a remarkably short time. According
to this Special Report, the 29 public libraries in the 13 original colonies
held about 45,000 volumes in 1776. One hundred years later, in 1876,
we had 3,682 libraries with 12,276,964 volumes and 1,500,000 pamphlets.
We can draw deep satisfaction from the progress we have made since
this Report was published. In 1965, we have 8,000 public library systems
with more than 200,000,000 volumes. We have added to this storehouse
of learning millions of films, records, slides, and tapes to breathe new life
and zest into the learning process. Some of our libraries use giant elec-
tronic brains to digest texts and transfer them to phototype machines
setting 3,600 words a minute.
But even so, our progress has been too uneven to allow us to be
complacent. Our libraries are still 100,000,000 volumes short of meeting
approved standards. Almost 70 percent of our public elementary schools
have no libraries at all. The majority of our college and university
facilities are below par. Our knowledge has so far outstripped our ability
to classify and store it that the Office of Education is now engaged in a
five-year program to make available at all educational levels the library
facilities essential to high quality education throughout the Nation.
We have made a bold beginning. With the help and guidance of the
library community, we can and will remedy the deficiencies that have
crept upon us over the years. We are determined that before the time
comes for another Special Report, our libraries will fulfill in every respect
their high station as indispensable aids to public education, to the priv-
ilege and responsibility of instructing our American democracy.
Francis Keppel
Former U.S. Commissioner of Education
PUBLIC LIBRARIES
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
HISTORY, CONDITION, AND MANAGEMENT
SPECIAL REPORT
DEPARTME]^T OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OP EDUCATION
I>.A.I^T I
WASHINGTON
Government Printing Office
1876
EERATA.
Page 14. For "Bellamont" read Bellomoat.
Page 143. For "Baptist Theological Se mi aary" read Baptist Unioti Theological Semi-
nary.
Page 252. For " capitol " read capital .
Page 271. For " W. P. Taylor" read W. B. Taylor.
Page 538 (note.) For "rdrjog" read rdnoc.
Page 618. For -'Begua (ia 1872) by C. K. Lowell, etc.," read Begun by C. R. Lowell ;
finished, after his death, and edited by C. A. Cutter. The first sheet was issued June 25,
1872.
PART II.
Page 5. For "Journal of Speculative Philosophy for 1869" read Journal of Specula-
tive Philosophy for 1870.
^ L5X
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Page.
Letter of the Commissioner of Education to the Secretary of the Interior vii-ix
Introduction xi-xxxv
Chapter I. Public libraries a hundred years ago, Horace E. Scudder 1
II. School and asylum libraries, editors 38
III. College libraries, editors 60
IV. Theological libraries in the United States :
Part I, a librarian 127
Part II, Prof. John S. Sumner, S. J 137
Part III, editors 142
V. Law libraries, Stephen B. Gris wold, LL. B Ifil
VI. Medical libraries in the United States, J. S. Billings, assistant sur-
geon, U. S. A 171
Vn. Scientific libraries in the United States, Prof. Theodore Gill, M. D.,
Ph. D 183
VIII. Libraries in prisons and reformatories, editors 218
IX. Professorships of books and reading :
Part I, F. B. Perkins 230
Part II, William Mathews, A. M , 240
X. Libraries of the General Government, editors 252
XI. Copyright, distribution, exchanges and duties, editors 279
XII. State and Territorial libraries, Henry A. Homes, LL. D 292
XIII. Historical societies in the United States :
Part I, Henry A. Homes, LL. D 312
Part n, W. L Fletcher 325
Part III, editors 332
XTV. Young men's mercantile libraries, F. B. Perkins 378
XV. Young men's Christian associations, Cephas Brainerd 386
XVL Free libraries, J. P. Quincy 389
XVII. Public libraries in manufacturing communities, W. I. Fletcher 403
XVIII. Public libraries and the young, W. I. Fletcher 412
XIX. How to make town libraries successful, F. B. Perkins 419
XX. Reading in popular libraries, Justin Winsor 431
XXI. Art museums and their connection with public libraries. Prof. H. S.
Frieze, LL.D 434
XXII. Free town libraries, editors 445
XXin. Free reading rooms, W. C. Todd 460
XXIV. Library buildings, Justin Winsor 465
XXV. The organization and management of public libraries, William F.
Poole 476
XXVI. College library administration, Prof. Otis H. Eobinson 505
XXVII. Library catalogues, C. A. Cutter 526
XXVIII. Catalogues and cataloguing :
Part I, Melvil Dewey 623
Part II, S. B. Noyes 648
Part III, Jacob Schwartz 657
Part IV, John J. Bailey 660
IV
Contents.
Page.
Chapter XXJX. On indexing periodical and miscellaneous literature, Prof. Otis
H. Kobinson , 6«3
XXX. Binding and preservation of books, A. R. Spofford 673
XXXI. Periodical literature and society publications, A. K. Spofford.. 679
XXXII. Works of reference for libraries, A. E. Spofford 686
XXXIII. Library memoranda, Justin Winsor 711
XXXIV. Titles of books, Prof. Otis H. Robinson 715
XXXV. Book indexes, F. B. Perkins 727
XXXVI. Library bibliography, A. R. Spofford 733
XXXVII. Library reports and statistics, editors 745
XXXVIII. Public libraries of ten principal cities, several contributors.. . 837
XXXIX. General statistics of all public libraries in the United States,
editors 1010
Index 1175
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page.
Loganian Library, Philadelphia, Pa 7
Red wodd Library, Newport, R. 1 17
Wellesley College Library, Wellesley, Mass 91
Library of the College of New Jersey, Princeton, N. J 101
Public Library, Concord, Mass 391
Roxbury Branch Boston Public Library, Boston, Mass 397
Public Library, Northampton, Mass 441
Public Library, Worcester, Mase 449
Cornell Library, Ithaca, N. Y 457
Boston Public Library, Boston, Mass 861
Boston Public Library, (Bates HaU,) Boston, Mass 865
Boston Public Library, (reading room for periodicals,) Boston, Mass 869
Public Library, Cincinnati, O., (extetior) 909
Public Library, Cincinnati, O., (interior) 913
Lenox Library, New York, N. Y 947
Library Company of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa 955
Ridgway Library, Philadelphia, Pa 959
Apprentices' Library, Philadelphia, Pa 971
LETTER.
Department of the Interior,
Bureau of Education,
Washingtonj D. C, August 31, 1876.
Sir : I have the honor to submit the completed report on Public
Libraries in the United States, undertaken in the year 1874, and ordered
printed by your predecessor.
This report, it will be observed, constitutes a part of the exhibit made
by this Office at the Centennial Exhibition, and is modified accordingly.
Lack of funds prevents the reproduction here of the graphic views of
the growth of libraries based on the statistics of this report, which form
a part of that exhibit. The other portions of the special exhibit are made
up of views of library buildings and collections of reports and catalogues
of libraries.
In no other country, it is believed, do so many libraries publish either
catalogues or reports.
It having been decided to do what was in the power of the Office to
increase the usefulness of public library work in this country, by pub-
lishing information respecting public libraries and the results of the
experience of librarians, the undertaking was committed to the special
care of Mr. Samuel R. Warren, who manifested an intelligent interest in
the subject, and whose attention bad already been occupied with it in
connection with the statistics of libraries collated and published in my
annual reports. He has remained in charge until its compl-etion, and
much of the value of the report is due to his judgment, scholarship, and
fidelity.
After the difficulties ot the task had so increased as to require addi-
tional labor, Maj. S. N. Clark, long before favorably known to me for
his ability, extensive reading, facility in research, and thorough method
of work, temporarily employed in the Office, was assigned to assist Mr.
Warren, They are the editors. Their labors have not been limited to
the forms or hours of office work.
Special acknowledgments are due Mr. Thomas Hampson, the accom-
plished proof-reader of the Office, not only for the unwearied care he
has bestowed upon the proofs, but also for his many important critical
suggestions in every part of the work ; also to Miss Mary E. McLellan,
an assistant in the statistical division of the Office, for the excel-
lent manner in which she has performed the difficult task of compil-
ing the statistical tables; also to my chief clerk. Dr. Charles Warren,
viii Public Libraries in the United States.
for the care with which he has carried out my wishes when he has acted
in my place. I am indebted to the officers of the Grovernment Printing
Office, especially to Capt. H. T. Brian, foreman of printing, for efficient
assistance in the mechanical execution of the work ; to many gentlem en
who have aided by advice and suggestions in the preparation of this re-
port; to Mr. A. R. Spofford, Librarian of Congress, who has throughout
the progress of the work cordially given the benefit of his wide experi-
ence and intimate knowledge of the subject; to Mr. Justin Winsor and
Mr. F. B. Perkins, of the Boston Public Library; to Mr. C. A. Cutter,
of the Boston Athenaeum ; to Mr. W. F. Foole, of the Chicago Public
Library ; to Mr. H. A. Homes, of the New York State Library ; to
Mr. W. H. Venable, of Cincinnati; and to the other contributors,
nearly all of whom have rendered much valuable aid in addition to the
treatment of the special subjects confided to them. To many librarians
and others interested in libraries whose names do not appear as con-
tributors, many thanks are due for valuable assistance and advice,
among whom should be mentioned President D. C. Gilman, LL. D., of
the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore ; Rev. Frederic Vinton, A. M.,
librarian of the College of New Jersey; Mr. Thomas Hale Williams,
librarian of the Minneapo is Athenaeum, Minneapolis, Minn. ; Mr. S. S.
Green, librarian of the Worcester (Mass.) Free Public Library; Mr.
Charles Evans, librarian of the Public Library of Indianapolis, Iiyi. ;
Mr. E. B. Elliott and Mr. Rafael A. Bayley, of the United States Treas-
ury Department ; Mr. J. G. Barnwell, of the Philadelphia. Mercantile
Library; General 3- S. Ewell, president' of the College of William and
Mary, Virginia ; Mr. R. A. Brock, secretary of the Virginia Historical
Society ; Rev. William S. Southgate, Annapolis, Md. ; Mr. J. L. Ridgely,
G. C. Secretary L O. O. F., Baltimore; Mr Addison Hutton, architect,
Philadelphia; Mr. J. W. McLaughlin, architect, Cincinnati; Mr. R. M.
Hunt, architect. New York ; Messrs. Sturgis and Brighani, architects,
Boston; Mr. W. A. Potter, late Supervising Architect United States
Treasury Department; and the Hon. George F. Hoar, of Worcester,
Mass. To the many school officers, librarians, and officers of societies
and other correspondents, who have kindly furnished reports and infor-
mation, thanks are gratefully tendered.
The issue of this report makes it proper to call attention to some
features of the plan of work in this Office.
It has been my desire in reference to each phase of education or class
of institutions, such as colleges, libraries, and normal schools, embraced
in the annual reports of the Office —
First, to perfect the statistics as far as the means appropriated would
permit and as voluntary cooperation should be accorded.
The extreme diversity in the manner of conducting the business and
keeping the records of educational institutions of all classes in the coun-
try rendered that harmony of results essential to useful comparison and
correct inference difficult of attainment ; and required (a) sound discrim-
Letter. ix
ination in selecting the points of the various systems concerning which
inquiries should be addressed; and (6) great care in devising a nomen-
clature which, suitable for general adoption, should mean the same to all.
Second. A second part of my plan of work has been, when the statis-
tics of any class of institutions become reasonably complete, to use them
as the basis of a special report, embracing the most important points in
their history, administration, and management ; then to bring out, for
the benefit of each, the most instructive lessons in the experience of all.
This report is the first attempt to carry out the second portion of the
scheme.
Third. As a third item in the plan of work upon statistics, I have kept
in mind a correspondence in substance and form which should enable a
student in the future to gather those rich results that can only be
derived from facts noted year by year and extending through a long
period of time.
Fourth. A fourth item in the plan looks toward bringing into a com-
mon nomenclature the statistics of the principal phases of education or
classes of institutions throughout the world.
It will be observed that neither the third nor fourth part of this plan
for the statistical work of the Office has been attempted to any consid-
erable extent in this report. If the means of the Office were adequate,
it would be my desire to treat each year, in a special publication, some one
class of institutions or systems included in the tabulated portions of my
annual report. The value of a series of these comprehensive surveys of
various systems, methods, or Institutions of education couM hardly be
overestimated. The demand for them is increasing, and will not long be
satisfied without them. Those who comprehend the general plan of the
work of this Office need no explanation of its difficulties.
Acknowledging, with great pleasure, the constant and cordial cooper-
ation of your Department,
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JOHN EATON,
Commissioner.
Hon. Z. Chandler,
Secretary of the Interior.
INTEODUCTION.
PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND EDUCATION.
For forty years the importauce of public libraries as auxiliaries to
public education has beeu recognized and dwelt upon by American edu-
cators wherever common schools have flourished. Beginning as ad-
juncts of the district schools in New York and Massachusetts, free
public libraries in some form have been established in nearly twenty
States of the Union. It was known that within the last quarter of a
century the number of public libraries had greatly multiplied, and that
they had assumed a position of commanding importance as an educa-
tional force, but there were no data for determining the^extent of their
influence.
THE LIBRARIAN AN EDUCATOR.
The influence of the librarian as an educator is rarely estimated by
outside observers, and probably seldom fully realized even by himself.
Performing his duties independently of direct control as to their details,
usually selecting the books that are to be purchased by the library and
read by its patrons, often advising individual readers as to a proper
course of reading and placing in their hands the books they are to read,
and pursuing his own methods of administration generally without ref-
erence to those in use elsewhere, the librarian has silently, almost un-
consciously, gained ascendency over the habits of thought and literary
tastes of a multitude of readers, who find in the public library their only
means of intellectual improvement. That educators should be able to
know the direction and gauge the extent and results of this potential
influence, and that librarians should not only understand their primary
duties as purveyors of literary supplies to the people, but also realize
their high privileges and responsibilities as teachers, are matters of
great import to the interests of public education.
NECESSITY FOR A SPECIAL REPORT.
Recognizing these conditions, the United States Commissioner of Ed-
ucation began in 1870 to gather and publish the statistics of public
libraries in this country, a work which has been steadily continued each
year since that time. As the statistics became more complete and the
number of libraries making reports increased, the awakened interest of
all engaged in educational work expressed itself in more frequent calls
xii Public Libraries in the United States.
for information regarding not only the uumbef and extent of libraries
already existing, but also respecting the diflferent plans of organization,
sources of revenue, etc. ; and asking advice and information on the sub-
jects of library economy and administration, the selection, arrangement,
cataloguing, binding, and preservation of books, the proper buildings,
and all the multifarious interests of a public library. Similar calls came
from librarians, from library committees, and from others charged with
the duty of organizing new libraries, but having little experience in such
affairs.
At the same time it became evident that the number of iibraries con-
tinued to increase in an unexampled ratio, and that a reasonably com-
plete account of their condition could be obtained only by a special and
systematic inquiry. The increasing demands for information already
mentioned not only made the need of such an inquiry imperative, but
required that the result should be accompanied by the suggestions and
conclusions of librarians and others whose ability and experience enable
them to speak with authority on library subjects.
Another consideration was influential in determining the preparation
of this report. The interest of the General Government in libraries, as
shown by its liberal grants to the Territories and by the building up at
the capital of the nation of valuable working libraries for the several
Departments, and its disposition to add to the general sum of knowl-
edge among the people — as evinced by the liberal expenditures for the
publication and distribution of public documents — have never been
measured. It is known, in a general way, that many million volumes of
Government publications of greater or less value have been distributed
among the people at a cost of some millions of dollars; how many no
one can tell. Notwithstanding the depreciatory criticism of this class
of publications, there is probably hardly one among them that does
not possess positive value to many persons. The results of the explo-
rations and surveys that made the Pacific Eailroad a possibility were
published by the Government; the patent room of the Boston Public
Library containing the slighted Patent Office Eeports and Specifications
was visited for study and consultation last year by 1,765 persons ; and
the number of users of these reports is yearly increasing; the Medical
and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, published by the Gov-
ernment, forms one of the most valuable contributions to medical and
surgical science that has appeared within the last century; ^nd an
element of actual value belongs to most if not all these publications.
They are designed for the use and benefit of all the people, and should
be placed where they will be readily accessible to all. It is hardly cred-
itable that there should not be in any public depository in the United
States, even in the National Library, a complete series of Government
publications. Thanks to a higher estimate of their value and impor-
tance, earnest efforts are being made to supply this deficiency by several
libraries, especially the one mentioned, and it is hoped they may prove
Introduction. xiii
successfal. Many librarians are unacqaainted with the steps they
should take to procure these publications for their libraries as issued,
and so lose the opportunity of procuring them at all, and many larg^
communities are thus deprived of benefits intended for them. Private
individuals cannot be expected to collect complete series of public docu-
ments, and if they should do so the benefit to the public would be small.
Public libraries are the proper place of deposit for such collections, and
the time has arrived when, by knowledge of their privileges and of the
means of acquisition on the part of librarians, and by more systematic
and thorough methods of distribution by the Government, these collec-
tions will be begun and regularly increased and maintained in every
part of the Union.
A careful abstract of the laws and regulations governing the distri-
bution and exchange of public documents by the General Government
and the Smithsonian Institution, and a statement furnished by the
Treasury Department at the request of the Secretary of the Interior,
showing the amounts expended by the General Government for libraries
and for certain special publications for distribution, were therefore
deemed essential and will be found in the proper places in this report.
It has been judged both necessary and expedient to issue the report
at once and as a whole, rather than in a series of Circulars of Informa-
tion extending over a considerable period, not only because the proper
presentation of the subject and the exigencies of the case seemed to re-
quire it, but for reasons of economy as to time, labor, and expense.
PLAN OF THE REPORT.
After considerable study of the subject and consultation and corre-
spondence with eminent librarians, the following plan was adopted:
To present, first, the history of public libraries in the United States ;
second, to show their present condition and extent; third, to discuss
the various questions of library economy and management; and fourth,
to present as complete statistical information of all classes of public
libraries as practicable.
The number of libraries is so great and the history of many of them
so rich that to print even the briefest sketch of each one individually,
the plan adopted by Jewett and Ehees, would require many volumes,
and it therefore became necessary to divide them into classes and treat
of their history in that form, though this plan has been departed from
as regards the principal libraries of colleges, of theological schools, and
of historical societies, brief sketches of which will be found in the proper
chapters. A further exception will be found in Chapter XXXVIII,
which contains sketches of the public libraries in leading cities of the
United States, where the chief depositories of literary treasures are found.
Gentlemen who by their local information or their special knowledge
were considered competent were invited to prepare such sketches. It
has been found necessary, as the plan of this report has been modified
xiv Public Libraries in the United States.
by circnmstaDces, to abridge some of the notices furnished and to omit
others. In many instances work has been done and appears which
was performed by librarians of particular libraries, but the general re-
sponsibility remains with the authors whose names are given at the
beginning of the sketches for the several cities.
The one hundredth year of our existence as a nation was deemed a
suitable occasion on which to present a sketch of American public libra-
ries at the time of the Revolution. It has been prepared with great care
and most industrious research, and forms a chapter that will excite the
deep interest of every lover of his country who reads it and contrasts
the literary resources of our country one hundred years ago with those of
the present time.
Public libraries are next considered in their direct relations to edu-
cation, as adjuncts of common schools and academies, of colleges, of
professional schools, theological, law, medical, and scientific ; and as a
necessary factor in the elevation of the unfortunate in asylums, and in
the instruction and elevation of the vicious and criminal in reforma-
tories and prisons.
The necessity and practicability of enhancing the usefulness of col-
lege libraries by means of professorships of books and reading are dis-
cussed and advocated.
Next the history of the relations of the General and State Govern -
ments to public libraries is traced, showing the province of each as
defined by necessity and experience, and exhibiting in detail the results
that have followed.
Following this the libraries of historical societies, of young men's
mercantile and young men's Christian associations have been sketched,
and their influence on the increase and diffusion of intelligence described.
And last, free public libraries, established and maintained on the same
principle that free public schools are, receive attention and considera-
tion. These libraries are regarded as fulfilling for all a function similar
to that which the college libraries perform for those fortunate enough
to pursue a college course ; rightly administered they are indeed what
one writer has called them, " tlie people's colleges."
The propriety and feasibility of establishing art museums in connec-
tion with free public libraries are discussed, and considerations favoring
the creation of such museums urged.
The history of the several classes of public libraries, together with
some general considerations touching their management, and some facts
respecting their present extent and condition, having been presented,
the many details belonging to what may be called the economy and
administration of public libraries are considered. Here are presented
the fruits of the ripe experience and best thought of eminent librarians
respecting the different topics suggested by the above general defini-
tion; they will, it is hoped, answer satisfactorily the numerous appeals
for advice and information, as well as stimulate the already rapid growth
Introduction. xv
of free libraries, and so of general intelligence and culture. The division
and arrangement of subjects in this department are as follows : 1. Li-
brary buildings, including plans and descriptions. 2. The organization
and management of public libraries. 3. The administration of college
libraries. 4. Catalogues, comprising an essay on the subject by 0. A.
Cutter, librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, and a table, chronologically
arranged, of printed catalogues of American public libraries, followed,
in a succeeding chapter, by descriptions by their authors of two notable
catalogues now being published ; a plan of indexing and arranging a
library, which has received the approval of several distinguished libra-
rians, and is now in use in the library of Amherst College : and a descrip -
tion of the classification adopted for the Public School Library of St.
Louis. (The Rules for making a Dictionary Catalogue, by Mr. Cutter,
are printed separately as Part II of this report, for the convenience of
librarians, for whose use they were mainly prepared.) 5. Indexing
periodical and miscellaneous literature, giving a description of the ex-
cellent plan in use by Professor Robinson, of the University of Rochester,
1^. Y. 6. Binding and preservation of books. 7. Periodical literature
and society publications. 8. Reference books. 9. Library memoranda.
10. Titles of books. 11. Book indexes. 12. Library bibliography^
All of which, it is believed, will be found of high value to librarians
and others interested in the establishment and management of public
libraries.
REPORTS AND STATISTICS OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
Considerable space has been devoted to library reports and statistics
in Chapter XXXVII, where will be found, besides remarks and illustra-
tive tables showing the discrepancies in the reports of different investi-
gators and the difificulties of gathering such statistics, the following,
viz: A table of public libraries in 1776, 1800, and 1876 ; a table show-
ing the number and eltent of public libraries which now contain 10,030
volumes or more in the years 1836, 1846, 1849, 1856, 1857-'58, 1863,
1874, and 1875; a table showing the increase in number of American
public libraries during the last one hundred years, by periods of twenty -
five years each, and the number of volumes they contained in 1875 ; a
summary table of public libraries numbering 500 volumes and upward,
classified according to size ; a summary table of all public libraries in the
United States, by classes and States ; and a number of other tables re-
specting funds, circulation of books, loss and wear of books, etc., together
with sodie analyses of the library tables published by the Bureau of Ed u-
cation in 1871, 1872, and 1874; and last, the statement of the expendi-
tures of the General Government on account of libraries and publica.
tions, before mentioned.
Following this will be found sketches of libraries in ten of the chief cities
of the Union, prepared by gentlemen (generally librarians) in the respec-
tive cities. One of these papers, describing the libraries of Charles-
ton, S. C, contains also some notices of public libraries in the Southern
xvi Public Libraries in the United States.
States ; and another on the public libraries of San Francisco notices
other libraries on the Pacific coast. Chapter XXXIX comprises the
general table of statistics of all public libraries in the United States
from which reports have been received, prefaced by a summary of its
contents, and followed by a list of the names of librarians and other
officers reporting.
A few items gathered, from the tables of statistics will indicate the
remarkable growth and present extent and importance of public libraries
in the United States. So far as is known, there were in 1776 twenty-
nine public libraries in the thirteen American colonies, and they num-
bered altogether 45,623 volumes; in the year 1800 the number of li-
braries had increased to 49, and the number of volumes to about 80,000;
in 1876 there are reported (including the society libraries of students in
colleges, reported separately) 3,682 libraries, numbering in the aggre-
gate 12,276,964 volumes, besides 1,500,000 pamphlets; the latter very
incompletely reported.
The above do not include the libraries of common and Sunday schools,
except a few of the former class not of sufficient importance to materi-
ally modify the figures given. For several reasons, mainly because it
did not seem essential to the completeness of this report, no attempt
was made to collect the statistics of church and Sunday school libraries,
of which the number is almost as great as that of the churches in the
United States ; these contained altogether, according to the census of
1870, about 10,000,000 volumes.
Of the 3,682 libraries, 358 report permanent funds, amounting alto-
gether to $6,105,581, and 1,364 report that they possess no such funds,
while the returns of 1,960 libraries afford no information on the subject.
Only 742 libraries reported the yearly circulation, which forms an aggre-
gate of 8,879,869 volumes ; 1,510 reported an aggregate yearly increase
of 434,339 volumes; 830 reported a total yearly income of $1,398, '/56;
while 769 reported an aggregate yearly expenditure of $562,407 for
books, periodicals, and binding ; and 643 reported a total yearly expend-
iture of $682,166 for salaries and incidental expenses.
The increasing rate of growth of public libraries in the last twenty-five
years is well exhibited by the table, which shows that 20 libraries were
formed from 1775 to 1800, 179 from 1820 to 1825,551 from 1825 to 1850,
and 2,240 from 1850 to 1875. It is altogether probable that nearly all
the 688 libraries the dates of organization of which are not reported
were also begun within the last twenty-five years.
It has been impracticable to obtain definite and complete returns of
the total amount received by public libraries in the last century from
gifts and bequests in money; some $15,000,000 in all are reported, but
it is safe to estimate the whole amount at $30,000,000. This amount
includes only private benefactions and does not take account of money
received from Government, State, or municipal grants or taxation. No
estimate can be formed of the vast contributions of books that have been
made during that period.
Introduction. x^^i
PRIVATE LIBEARIES.
It will, of course, be understood that do attempt has been made to
collect information respecting private libraries. While a multitude of
these libraries exist, thoasauds of which are of great value, some rival-
ing in completeness, in special departments of knowledge, even the col-
lections of the leading public libraries, it would be impracticable, if
otherwise expedient, for the General Government to gather and present
reasonably complete and satisfactory information respecting them. On
this subject the remarks of Gen. F. A. Walker, Superintendent of the
Ninth Census, are regarded as conclusive. He says :'
At the ninth census (1870) the total number of libraries returned was 163,353, contain-
ing 44,539,184 volumes. Of these, 107,673 were private libraries, containing 25,571,503
volumes. No return under this head was made from the State of Connecticut, the
deputy marshal reporting that no exact information could be obtained. While this
increase in the number of private libraries and vojumes therein over the returns of
1860 shows that this portion of the census work has been performed with far greater
effort and care on the part of the assistant and deputy marshals charged wifh the col-
lection of this class of statistics, the results are yet manifestly far below the truth of
the case for the whole country, while, in respect to certain States, the figures of the
following table are almost ludicrously disproportionate. The only compensation for
this failure — for such it must be pronounced, in spite of the increase over the returns
of former censuses — is fouud in the consideration that the statistics of private libraries
are not, from any proper point of view, among the desirable inquiries of the census.
The statistics of the manufacture and importation of books would be far more signifi-
cant and instructive, while obtained with one-teuth of one per ceut. of the effort that
would be required to collect accurate statistics of private libraries based upon any
classification that might be adopted.
The last clause of the foregoing sentence intimates a practical difi&culty which,
however tte methods of the census might be improved, would always render the sta-
tistics of private libraries of the least possible value. Unless each one of the two or
three hundred thousand private collections of books which might claim admission to
such a table as that in contemplation of the census law were to be personally visited
and inspected by a competent judge, it would be impossible to prevent the intrusion
into that table of tens of thousands of such collections without any merit to entitle
them to a place there. No matter how carefully assistant marshals might perform
this duty, or how fully instructed they might be from the central office, the mere fact
of six or seven thousand persons being employed in collecting these statistics would
be sufficient to defeat, utterly and hopelessly, all approach to uniformity of treatment.
One-half of the assistant marshals would call that a library which the other half would
not, or, more probably, nine out of ten such officers would admit everything that
claimed to be a library to their lists.
The plan most commonly urged for preventing such a want of uniformity in the col-
lection of the statistics of private libraries is to fix a number of volumes below which
no collection of books shall be returned as a library, as, say, 100, 200, 300, or 500 vol-
umes; but it is quite sufficient, without argument, to disprove such a proposition, to
indicate the practical difficulties arising from such questions as these: What shall be
done with pamphlets and unbound volumes? With children's books? With school
books, old and new ? With public documents. State and national ? It is not too much
to say, that if all these classes were to be rejected, niue out of ten collections iu the
United States which would otherwise pass into a table of private libraries containing
one hundred volumes and over would be thrown out, while, on the other hand, it is
difficult to see what value such a table can have for auy use, scientitic or popular, if
these classes are to be indiscriminately admitted.
iNiuth CourUi of the United States : Population aud Social Statistics, pp. 472, 473.
K— 11
xviii Public Libraries in the United States.
PLAN OF aATHERING STATISTICS.
It may not be amiss to describe here the plan followed in gatheriug
the statistics, for this report. As has been already intimated, there was
until 1870 little information respecting public libraries in existence.
As late as 1850 an American Secretary of State was obliged to reply to
the application by a committee of the British Parliament for such in-
formation that, with the best disposition to do so, he found it impossible
to comply with their request.^ At that time the late accomplished
Professor Jewett was preparing for publication his report on public
libraries io the United States, which appeared the next year, and was
the pioneer attempt to give a description of all oar libraries. In 1859
Ehees published his Manual of Pnblic Libraries, which contains a list
of the names of 2,902 libraries; bat he was unable to obtain an
account of the number of volumes in more than 1,338 of them. The
works of Jewett and Khees were prepared with great care ami in-
dustry; but the rapid increase of public libraries within the last few
years has made them of little value for purposes of reference. Other
partial statistics were published at different times, but no systematic
attempt was made until 1870 to procure returns from all classes
of public libraries, except in the returns of the United States census in
the years 1850, 1860, and 1870. These returns did not attempt to name
and localize the different libraries, and were for other reasons incom-
plete and untrustworthy.^ The Keports of the Commissioner of Educa-
tion for 1870, 1871, 1872, 1873, and 1874 furnished statistics of several
huTidred libraries. Beyond this little was known save that there were
in the country two thousand or more public libraries, each exerting a
less or greater educational intiueuce, of which nothing was generally
known ; even a knowledge of their names and whereabouts was limited
to their immediate localities. It therefore became necessary to ascertain
first the name of every town in the United States the population of which
was sufficient to seem to justify the belief that it possessed a public
library of some sort. Letters of inquiry were sent to all such towns,
generally to the postmaster, asking whether a public library existed, and
its name ; the name of the library being obtained, direct inquiries were
sent to it. In each of the larger towns and smaller cities the superin-
tendent of public schools was chosen as a correspondent ; in the larger
cities persons were selected to make special investigations ; the directo-
ries of cities were consulted ; gazetteers were examined ; the officers of
all institutions and societies that might be supposed to possess libraries
were applied to for information ; and correspondence opened with clergy-
men, officers of courts, of cities, counties. States, and with other persons
likely to possess information on the subject of libraries in their respective
localities. The reports of Professor Jewett and Mr. Rhees, and a list of
' For his letter see page 759.
2 Ninth Census of the United States : Population and Social Statistics, p, 472.
IntrodactiGn. xix
societies and institutions published in 1872 by the Smithonian Institu-
tion also afforded considerable information respecting the names of
libraries.
This preliminary work involved the writing of some 10,000 letters, to
which the responses hav^e generally been most prompt and gratifying. A
mass of information was thus gathered which formed the basis for subse-
quent specific inquiry and correspondence ; and the cordial cooperation
of all interested enables us to present, astheresultof much time and labor
expended, definite and trustworthy information respecting nearly 3,700
public libraries of all classes.
It will be observed that the table includes statistics of some public
libraries containing no more than three hundred volumes each. These
have been added in cases where the recent dates of the establishment or
other known circumstances of the libraries justify the expectation of their
permanence and rapid growth.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Each of the library buildings chosen as a subject for illustration has
been selected with reference to its historic or representative character.
Thus representations of the Redwood and Loganian Libraries are given
solely because of the historical interest that attaches to them as the
first on the Western Continent devoted entirely to library purposes.
Both were built about the same time, a quarter of a century before the
Revolution, and one of them, the Redwood Library, though greatly en-
larged, is still devoted to library uses. The Lenox and Ridgway Libra,-
ries, now nearing completion, each the gift of a single individual, are
also represented ; and perhaps no more striking evidence of the vast
growth of public libraries in this country could be found than is afforded
by the contrast between the first two buildings (each also the gift of a
single public spirited citizen) and the two last named. College libraries
are well represented by illustrations of the library building of the Col-
lege of New Jersey and the interior of Wellesley College Library, (for
women,) each of which is a monument to the munificent liberality of a
wealthy citizen. Engravings of the Boston Public and Cincinnati Pub-
lic Libraries are presented as examples of the largest free librarries in
the United States built and maintained at the public expense ; while
the Concord,^ Roxbury Branch, Northampton, Worcester, and Cornell
Libraries are included as representatives of free library architecture in
the smaller cities and towns. The last, bearing the name of its builder
and founder, who presented it to his fellow citizens, is properly assigned
a place with the remarks respecting patronymic libraries, in Chapter
XXI1.2 A cut of the building of the Library Company of Phila^lelphia,
organized by Franklin in 1731, properly represents the early proprietary
libraries. It was the third library built in this country, dating from
' For this cut ackaowledgments are due Messrs. Harper & Brothers.
2 Page 457.
XX Public Libraries in the United States.
1792, and is still devoted to its original uses. The cut of tlie Appren-
tices' Library of Philadelphia represents a class of libraries that has
conferred great and lasting benefits on many young artisans, but which
is being rapidly superseded by the free and other public libraries which
offer equal advantages to all.
While perhaps no one of the buildings represented may be regarded
as a model in all respects, neither is any one without its points of excel-
lence, and several are admirably adapted to their special uses. Taken
together they fairly represent the past and present of library architect-
ure in America, and certainly show an improvement in some degree
commensurate with the growth of the libraries they shelter.
The plans accompanying Mr. Winsor's contribution on library build-
ings (Chapter XXIV, pp. 473-475) are the expression of long experience
and careful study of the subject, and will doubtless prove of much prac-
tical value.
With the exception of the Wellesley College, Concord Public, Cornell,
Loganian, Library Company and Apprentices' of Philadelphia, *and the
Cincinnati Public (exterior) libraries, the engravings have been executed
by Miss C. A. Powell, a graduate of the Cooper Union Free Art School,
of Xew York.
SUNDAY READING IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
Within the last few years several public libraries in the larger cities
have thrown open their rooms for reading on Sundays; notable among
these being the Boston Public Library, the Free Public Library of Wor-
cester, Mass., the Cincinnati Public Library, the Chicago Public Library,
and the Public School Library of St. Louis. The reports show that a
large number of persons avail themselves of this privilege for improve-
ment and recreation, and that the number of Sunday users of books
and periodicals at most of the libraries has steadily increased from year
to year.
The number of Sunday readers at the Free Public Library of Wor-
cester, Mass., the first public library in [N'ew England to open its doors
to Sunday visitors, for each year since 1872, when the privilege was
first granted, was as follows : In 1872-'73, Sunday readers, 5,706 ; 1873-
^74, 7,179 ; 1874-'75, 10;i42.
The superintendent of the Boston Public Library, in his report for
1873, remarks that the use of the reading rooms for periodicals on Sun-
days " was from one-half to three-quarters of the average week day use.
The frequenters were uniformly decorous ; the most favorable feature
of the result being that a large proportion of the Sunday visitors were
not such as are seen in the rooms on week days." And in his report for
1875, in summing up the experience of the library in this regard, he
says, " that from the start the use of the Central reading room has
been abundantly commensurate, and has justified the movement."
Some interesting remarks on the results of the Sunday opening of the
Introduction. xxi
Public Library of Cincinnati and of the Public School Library of St.
Louis will be found in the sketches of those libraries in another part of
this report.
ART MUSEUMS AND THEIR CONNECTION WITH PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
While the plan of making art museums adjuncts of public libraries,
as advocated in Chapter XXI, may at first seem unpractical and un-
wise a study of the experience of the British Free Libraries in this
regard leads to a directly opposite conclusion. The art gallery of the
Birmingham Free Library was established in 1867 ; in the five follow-
ing years it was visited by more than 600,000 persons ; in 1872 it was
open 36 Sundays, 49 Saturday evenings, and 289 week days ; the Sun-
day visitors numbered 13,064, the Saturday evening visitors 12,817, and
the week day visitors 119,880, making a total of 145,761 for the year.
The gallery then contained 35 paintings, 4 statues and busts, and 11
collections, more or less extensive, of artistic manufactures in glass,
pottery, and metals, owned by the corporation, a large proportion of
which had been presented ; 9 paintings, an interesting series of draw-
ings from nature, and a collection of enamels deposited by the Birming-
ham and Midland Institute ; and 23 paintings and three collections of
Japanese enamels and metal work lent for exhibition by their owners.
The library committee in its report for 1872 says :
The reading rooms, especially at nigbt, have been greatly crowded during the year,
and the art gallery has also been used by a largely increased number of visitors.
Looking to the growing usefulness of all departments of the libraries and of the art
gallery, and to the advancing demands upon their spa«e, the committee regard with
much satisfaction the wise and liberal resolution of the town council authorizing the
extension of the libraries and the art gallery.
The report of the Liverpool Free Public Library, Museum, and Gal-
lery of Art for the year 1873 contains the following :
The success of the annual exhibitions of pictures held during two successive years
naturally drew attention to the want of a suitable building where a permanent, gal-
lery of art might be collected, and the annual exhibitions held without the necessity
of disturbing the arrangements of the museum for several months in the year, as has
hitherto been the case.
An application to the city council for aid to provide a proper building
was unsuccessful, but the mayor of the city announced his interftion to
devote £20,000 for a building.
The same report con tinues :
The subcommittee have now the pleasure to report the results of the late autuoux
exhibition of pictures at the Free Library and Museum.
The exhibition was opened to the public from Monday, September 1, to Saturday,
November 29, during the day, at a charge of !«., and in the evening, from Monday
October 13, to Saturday, November 29, at id.
The number of adipissions by payments at the door amounted to 13,318 in the morn-
ing and 1H,361 in the evening, making a total of^I,679, besides ^3 season tickets, and
about 10,000 pupils of educational establishments of all classes and denominations ad-
niitted gratuitously.
xxii Public Libraries in the United States.
The number of works exhibited consisted of 454 oil colors, 56S water colors, 35 pieces
of sculpture aud other works of art, forming a total of r,057.
Of these, 972 were for sale, and 271 were actually sold for sums amounting to
£7,402 17«. Qd.; £787 lOs. being expended by the corporation in pictures for the per-
manent gallery of art now in the course of forujation. The total receipts amounted
to £1,566 Is. 3d., leading a profit of £466 Is.
The general results of this exhibition have been encouraging, as the following figures
denote, and when their nature is examined they are still more satisfactory :
Daily
1872. average.
Day admissions, (Is., 12 days at 6d. each)... 13,276 90 days 147||i
Eveningadmissions, (12 nights at 3(?) 9,618 43 nights 200^1
1873.
Day admissions, (all at Is. each) 13,318 78 days 170^
Evening admissions, (all at 3d!.) 18,361 .42 nights 43rfsr
"SViiter 8culp-
Oil. color, ture, etc.
Works exhibited, 1873 454 568 35
Works exhibited, 1872 430 501 29
Increase 24 67 6
The large increase in the number of season tickets, viz, 523, as against 332 in 1872,
demonstrates the existence of a rapidly increasing section of the public who return
again and again to study the pictures carefully, and who will in time form a body of
independent and cultivated art opinion, the effects of which must be most advan-
tageous to the town.
Hitherto the committee have been somewhat disappointed at the comparative apathy
of the artisan class, but this year the attendance in the evenings has been very hope-
ful, so much so, indeed, as to warrant the expectation that an interest in art may be
thoroughly excited, and a knowledge diffused among that class which may be pro-
ductive of valuable industrial results. The presence of art galleries and museums in
Paris has enabled that city, fti the absence of most material advantages, to become
a large manufacturing centre, owing solely to the educated taste of her artisans.
London has, within the last few years, become the seat of art manufactures which
have in several instances been the direct outgrowth of South Kensington, and which
in most cases owe their success to the interest in art it has excited and the opportunity
of study it affords. If Liverpool is to become eventually more than a mere warehous-
ing port, any means of attracting such manufactures into her midst should be most
anxiously improved. The attendance of the artisan class at these exhibitions is,
therefore, a most important element from an industrial point of view.
In addition to the art gallery thus successfully established, the Liver-
pool Free Library possesses also a valuable museum of natural his-
tory, etc.
The annual report of the Museum Library and Park Committee of the
borough of Salford, for 1873-74, shows that there were in that year
627,500 visitors to the museum, 800,000 to the park, and that the issue
of books belonging to the Central Library and its two branches (contain-
ing altogether 53.024 volumes) was 313,389, while the number of readers
in the reading and news rooms was 477,000.
Like satisfactory results have followed the joining of art and natural
history museums with other free libraries in England, and it is believed
that similar benefits would accrue from the union of public libraries and
museums here.
Introduction. xxiii
THE STUDY OF LIBRARY SCIENCE.
Considerable space has been devoted, under the title of Professorships
of Books and Keading, to the discussion of the question of a new col-
lege professorship the duties of which should be to teach students what
and how to read. While this would meet the needs of college students,
the much larger constituency of the public libraries would still remain,
as now, generally dependent on the librarians for advice and direction.
Hence, it is clear that the librarian must soon be called upon to assume
a distinct position, as something more than a mere custodian of books,
and the scientific scope and value of his office be recognized and esti-
mated in a becoming manner. To meet the demands that will be made
on him he should be granted opportunities for instruction in all the de-
partments of library science.
In Germany the importance of this is beginning to be realized, and
the plan of making it a subject of special study in the universities finds
advocates. Under the title of The science of library arrangement with
a view to a common organization among libraries, and to the special
study of library science in German universities. Dr. F. Kullmann, libra-
rian of the University of Freiburg, says :^
It is very desirable that library science should, more than has been the case hitherto
in Germany, form a subject of discussion at the meetings of librarians, and that one of
the points to be discussed should be whether library science is to form a special branch
of study at the universities.
I. LIBRARY SCIENCE SHOULD HAVE A COMMON ORGANIZATION.
Three points have to be considered in this connection :
1; The system. — The best authorities agree as to the desirability of a uniform library
system for Germany. At present there are very few systems which entireljr satisfy the
demands of our age. This is not the place, however, to criticise the faulty systems of
various libraries, as they are sufficiently well known.
In creating a good bibliographic system we meet with considerable difficulties,
especially with regard to the harmonizing of all the theoretical and practical require-
ments, so as to combine a scientific with a convenient arrangement. At present one of
the two generally preponderates. It frequently occurs that one and the same work is
ranged under twelve different heads in twelve different libraries, which, of course, is
very confusing. All this tends to show that it should not be left to the will of every
librarian to establish a system for his library, but that there should be a uniform sys-
tem throughout the country.
In order to produce a uniform system, it is of course necessary that individual views
should readily submit to the wishes of the majority. The chief feature of such a
system should be the logical arrangement of the details, without, however, carrying
the method of headings and subheadings too far. Smaller libraries, especially, will be
able to do without many of the headings required by larger ones.
2. The catalogue. — The new system, of course, presupposes a rearrangement of the
catalogue. We would not advocate absolute uniformity of aatalogues, because the
results would not be commensurate with the amount of labor bestowed. It would,
however, be very useful if the "catchwords" iu all the German libraries could, as
1 Die Bibliothekseinrichtnngskunde zum Theile einer gemeinsamen Organisation,
die Bibliothekswissenschaft als solche einem besonderen Universitatsstudiura in
Deutschland unterworfen, von Dr. F. RuUmann, Gustos der Frpiburger Universitats-
bibliothek. Freiburg i. Br., 1874, 28 pp.
xxiv Public Libraries in the United States.
mnch as possible, be selected and be treated according to a nniform principle, so a»
not to let individual opinion be the only gnide in the matter. To show how necessary
this is, we will only mention, as an instance, the different way in which various im-
portant questions are answered, e. g., regarding anonymous books, compound words,
obsolete words, etc.
3. Placing of hooks. — The most convenient way will be to place the books on the
shelves from the left to the right, commencing from the lower shelves, and to have
every book numbered. This numbering should not be continuous through a whole
library, but merely through a division, as the very high numbers, especially in large
libraries, would cause considerable inconvenience.
As in many German libraries the system, cataloguing, and arrangement have not
kept step with the times and with the development of science, and will therefore have
to be changed sooner or later, all such libraries, after they have been authorized by
their respective authorities to make a new organization, might derive the full benefit
of a common discussion of the whole subject. Other libraries might without great
difficulty adopt some things immediately, but should certainly, whenever circum-
stances demand it, carry out practically all the theories, after they had helped to
discuss them in the interest of library science.
What excellent results could in this way be gradually obtained, not only with
regard to the mutual usefulness of all libraries, but also with regard to their individual
usefulness !
Many of the present inconsistencies and egotistical arbitrary rules would vanish*
because these things could then be under much more thorough supervision and con-
trol.
It would, moreover, simplify the conscientious fulfilment of the librarian's duties,
so that it would no longer be necessary for each librarian to have detailed accounts
regarding his treatment of library science. Such a "diary," as Ebert calls it, is,
unfortunately, seldom made, for many librarians do not leave any manuscript notes
for their successors regarding their work and the principles according to which they
have carried it on. This circumstance proves very detrimental to the library in case
of removal or death of the librarian, especially if no oral tradition has been pre-
served regarding the method of working. This will explain, to a great extent, why
at present so many libraries, in spite of an immense amount of work, do not reach
their object as fully as would be the case if a uniform system were established. Such
a system, by making librarians at once at home in any library, and by producing a
uniform method of working in all, greatly facilitates the use of libraries for our men
of science. Thus it will not be entirely chimerical to suppose that in course of time,
even if centuries should pass, a general systematic repertory of literature will be the
result, which would at once show any gap still existing in a library.
II. LIBRARY SCIENCE A SPECIAL STUDY AT THE CXIVERSITIES.
Supposing that a uniform library system according to our ideas should gradually
become prevalent, we do not thereby have a sufficient guarantee of the greatest possi-
ble perfection of our libraries. For this will essentially depend on a suitable library
administration ; and this leads us to the question, how the qualifications requisite for
a librarian can best be obtained.
Although the importance of the office of the librarian has from time immemorial
been fully appreciated, such appreciation has hitherto not been sufficiently general.
For not only was a librarian's place often considered as a pleasant and respectable
sinecure, or as an office of secondary importance which would allow the office holder
conveniently to pursue his favorite studies, but even to the present day has the office
of a librarian at our universities not generally been considered an independent office,
but has been given to one of the professors.
We are glad to see, however, that, both theoretically and practically, the opinion is
gaining ground that only a man specially trained for it can successfully fill the place
Introduction. xxv
of librarian. Such a special training belongs very properly to the university course,
as we intend to prove by the following remarks.
In appointing librarians there is no such guarantee of their competency as is de-
manded of other aspirants to public oflQce when they finish their studies, A most
essential point is wanting here, viz, the opportunity for a suitable preparation. For
the occupation of an assistant librarian seems to be scarcely a full equivalent for it.
Aside from the fragmentary character of such a preparation, it can scarcely be taken
into account, because there are comparatively few such places, and the choice for future
librarians would be limited to a small number of persons.
Thus the practical occupation of the officer in the library has hitherto had to take the
place of his education for his duties. This had the great disadvantage, that especially
in modern times, when the extent of human knowledge has increased to such enor-
mous dimensions, it took, contrary to the true interests of the library, a very long
time for the librarian to acquire the necessary amount of knowledge in branches of
8(Jieoce with which hitherto he had'been but little familiar. Schrettinger, in his Manual
of Library Science, Vienna, 1834, was the first who advocated the necessity of a special
school for educating librarians. He only touches the subject very briefly, and desires
that such an education should be given at the chief library of the country, where his
mannal might form the basis of lectures on library science, and that only the futfure
library officers of that country should have the benefit of such instruction. This,
however, would scarcely supply the want of librarians for Germany, and we would
therefore, instead of instruction at a library, recommend that library science be studied
at the universities, not only in one state, but in the whole of Germany; i. e., we desire
that at one of our universities, gradually perhaps at several, lectures on library science
should be delivered by competent men. This course of lectures should extend through
three years. As on leaving the gymnasium most young men will have become proficient
only in German, French, Latin, and Greek, there will be required :
1. Further Unguistic studies, which may be pursued outside of the lecture room. As
most important in this respect we would recommend the study of Hebrew, English ,
Kalian, and Spanish.
These studies should be carried so far at least as to enable the student to read a
book with the help of a dictionary and grammar, and to acquire a knowledge of the
library technical terms.
IL Lectures should be attended on :
1,. General history and collateral studies, e. g., diplomacy.
2. Systematic universal encyclopaedia of sciences, with special regard to the best way
of defining the proper limits of each science.
3. Universal history of the more important literary productions, with special mention
of their scientific and booksellers' value.
4. Knowledge of manuscripts.
5. History of the art of printing.
6. History of the book trade.
7. Some knowledge of the fine arts, so as to enable the librarian to know the true
value of engravings, (copper, steel, and wood,) lithographs, and photographs.
8. Gradual development of library science and introduction to it.
9. The most interesting data concerning the well known libraries of the world :
" bibliothecography."
10. Library economy, (administration, financial management, etc.)
11. Practical exercises in cataloguing and classifying, (especially the more difficult
subjects, e. g., manuscripts and incunabula.)
12. Management of archives.
Of the subjects mentioned under IT, Nos. 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7 should be in the hands of
competent librarians or men thoroughly versed in library science ; Nos. 1 and 4 are
treated of in most universities.
After finishing such a course the student would have to pass an examination before
xxvi Public Libraries in the United States.
& special committee composed of the professors or persons lecturing on library science,
and receive a certificate of qualification for the office of librarian. Such a certificate
only should secure a person the office of librarian, and no distinction should be made
between students from the different states of Germany.
It will of course be understood that such a course of instruction in library science
ofters a great probability but no absolute certainty of being good in practice too.
Only in two cases does such a study not seem to offer any advantages : first, in places
like Strasbourg, where the number of officers is so large that there is a special librarian
for nearly every chief division. In this case the man acquainted with the specialty of
the library is to be preferred. Second, in special libraries.
But apart from these two exceptional cases, we may confidently look to a most bene-
ficial result from the study of library science.
First of all it will satisfactorily settle a question of vital interest to all libraries,
viz, regarding suitable selection in the buying of books. Such a study only will almost
entirely remove the danger of having certain portions of the library favored in au
undue degree, both as regards the direct expenditure in money, as also the indirect
expenditure by having the librarian's time too much occupied by special subjects.
Such cases have occurred particularly in university libraries; for these, whether in
the hands of " private professors" (Privat-Docenten) or not, have always been mau-
siged by specialists, who, as a general rule, favored their own studies at the expense of
the whole library.
Such a study of library science will also have the effect to produce, much more fre-
quently than is the case now, works on libraries and everything connected with them,
which of course will be an immense benefit to library science in general.
LIBRARY CONVENTION.
In May, 1853, a call, signed by Professor Jewett and other librarians,
was published, inviting " librarians and others interested in bibliogra-
phy " to meet in convention at New York, September 15, 1853, " for the
purpose of conferring together upon the means of advancing the pros-
perity and usefulness of public libraries, and for the suggestion and dis-
cussion of topics of importance to book collectors and readers."
The convention met at the time and place appointed, and remained
in session three days. About eighty librarians (representing libraries
containing altogether some eight hundred thousand volumes) and others
interested in bibliographical pursuits were in attendance.
The work accomplished was summed up by the editor of Norton's
Literary Gazette (October 15, 1853) as follows :
Acquaintances have been formed among numerous members of the librarian's profes-
sion, who had never seen or corresponded with one another before; an arrangement
has been noade for the regular interchange of catalogues aud reports ; the experience
of those who have long had charge of public libraries has been brought before those
who are novices in the work, upon a great variety of topics ; the Smithsonian system
of cataloguiug, which aims at most important changes, has been explained by its
originator, and carefully discussed ; facts and statistics concerning a large number of
widely scattered institutions have been collected and arranged ; certain new and in-
genious inventions for the preservation and exhibition of illustrated works have been
introduced to the public ; preliminary steps have been taken for preparing a complete
librarian's manual ; suggestions have been made in regard to the establishment of
popular libraries all over the country ; and measures have been taken to form a libra-
rians' association or bibliographical society of a permanent character, the object of
which shall be to promote, in every way, the establishment and efficient conduct of
collections of books.
Introduction. xxvii
The convention adjourned to meet at Washington at the call of the
committee on permanent organization, of which Professor Jewett was
chairman, but no meeting was afterwards held. Twenty-three years have
passed; libraries have increased in number fivefold, and in influence in
a much greater ratio ; all the conditions and necessities that demanded
the cooperation of library officers then are more important and urgent
now, and others equally requiring to be met have arisen. In view of
the magnitude of the interests involved, social, financial, intellectual,
and moral, it seems proper and expedient that librarians and others
interested in the welfare of libraries should again meet to interchange
views, compare methods and the results of experience, and discuss
practical questions. In August, 1875, Mr. Thomas Hale Williams,
librarian of the Minneapolis (Minn.) Athenaeum, wrote suggesting such
a national meeting ; his suggestions were favored by a number of the
leading librarians of the country, and have recently taken practical
form in a preliminary call for a conference of librarians, signed by gen-
tlemen representing libraries numbering in the aggregate more than
two million volumes. Three of the signers of the call representing, re-
spectively, proprietary, college, and free public libraries, were delegates to
the convention of 1853, and have been continuously in library service
since that time ; two in the same libraries they then represented, while
the other, the accomplished author of Poole's Index to Periodical Litera-
ture, has since successfully organized the two largest free public libra-
ries ill the West. The proposed convention will be held at Philadelphia,
October 4, 5, 6, 1876.
A LIBRARY JOURNAL.
Another evidence of a revival of interest in public libraries is afforded
by the proposition to establish a journal to be devoted to the discussion
of practical questions relating to. the management of public libraries,
and the dissemination of information regarding them. It is expected
that the first number of the American Library Journal, to be published
monthly, ^yill appear in September. On account of the importance of
such a journal to the library interests of the country, an abstract of the
prospectus of the American Library Journal is herewith presented.
xxviii Public Libraries in the United States.
THE AMERICAN LIBRARY JOURNAL.
Pablished monthly.
MELVIL DEWEY, AMHERST COLLEGE LIBRARY, MANAGING EDITOK.
Associate editors.
Jnstiu Winsor, Boston Public Library.
James L. Whiitney, Boston Public Library.
Fred. B. Perkins, Boston Public Library.
Charles A. Cutter, Boston Athenaeum.
John Fiske, Harvard University Library.
Ezra Abbot, Harvard University.
Reuben A. Guild, Brown University Library
W. I. Fletcher, Watkinson Library.
J. Carson Brevoort, Astor Library.
H. A. Homes, New York State Library.
S. B. Noyes, Brooklyn Mercantile Library.
Frederic Vinton, Princeton College Library.
Lloyd P. Smith, Philadelphia Library Company.
A. R. Spofford, Library of Congress.
John S. Billings, Surgeon-General's Office.
Wm.F. Poole, Chicago Public Library.
Charles Evans, Indianapolis Public Library.
Thomas Vickers, Cincinnati Public Library.
Wm. T. Harris, St. Louis.
John Jay Bailey, St. Louis Public School Library.
A. E. Whitaker, Mercantile Library, San Francisco.
Publisher : F. Leypoldt, 37 Park Row, New York.
P7-08pectus.
Extract from the annual report for 1869 of the superintendent of the Public Library
of Boston.
" We have no schools of bibliographical and bibliothecal training whose graduates
can guide the formation of and assume management within the fast increasing libra-
ries of our country, and the demand may, perhaps, never warrant their establishment ;
but every library with a fair experience can afford inestimable instruction to another
in its novitiate; and there have been no duties of my office to which I have given
more hearty attention than those that have led to the granting of what we could from
our experience to the representatives of other libraries, whether coming with inquiries
fitting a collection as large as Cincinnati is to establish, or merely seeking such mat-
ters as concern the establishment of a village library."
To further these and like purposes it is proposed to publish an American Library
Journal. The rapid growth of libraries in this country makes such a medium of ex-
changing experience vitally necessary, ^nA it will be a means of economizing both tim&
and money. The Journal is meant to be eminently practical, not antiquarian, and
the following departments are proposed :
Editorials and contributed papers by specialists on library economy, bibliography,
classification, construction, and arrangement of library buildings, and like topics.
Library notes as to statistics of growth and circulation, donations, new enterprises^
improvements in binding, cataloguing, library fittings, shelf arrangement, charging,
loan, and return of books, regulations, restrictions, etc.
Bibliography. — Record of every new catalogue, report, or other publication bearing
directly on the library interest, in any language. The more Important will be reviewed
by specialists.
Current periodical literature. — Reference to or analysis of articles of library interest^
appearing in American or foreign periodicals.
Introduction: xxix
Pseudonyms. — A record of all paeudonyms, anonyms, etc., of which any new informa-
tion can be given.
Correspondence.— liibraij letters from abroad and from various parts of our own
coontry.
Notes and queries.— A department that should be of special value. Questions on any
subject coming within the scope of the journal will be received, and, if possible, an-
swered editorially in the next issue. Otherwise they will be referred to readers for reply.
Du-pUcates.— Lists of the more important books offered by the various libraries for
sale or exchange.
Books wanted. — By purchase or exchange.
Situations.— AMvesses of librarians and cataloguers desiring engagements, and of
libraries needing such services.
Annual index.— A complete index to each volume of the American Library Journal,
which will form a finding list of all topics of library interest during the year.
The Journal, containing about 32 pages small quarto, will be issued every month
from the ofiSce of the Publishers' Weekly, 37 Park Row, New York. The managing
editor's office is at 13 Tremont Place, Boston, where it seemed desirable that the journal
should be chiefly edited, that the fullest advantage mrght be taken of the daily expe-
rience of the justly famed libraries and librarians of that vicitfity. The time chosen
for starting the Journal seems very opportune, especially since it follows closely the
publication of the Special Report on Public Libraries in the United States, issued by
the United States Bureau of Education. Th6 real object of the Journal is, in fact, to
form a periodical supplement to this work. The active cooperation of librarians, by
way of subscription, as well as by contributions, communications, etc., is earnestly so-
licited.
Libraries are especially requested to send to the managing editor of the Journal
copies of new catalogues, annual reports, regulations, etc. Scraps or notices of articles,
reviews, notes in local papers, or any other information concerning library interests,
will also be thankfully received.
In connection with the American Library Journal it is proposed to form a collec-
tion of everything of special interest to librarians for common reference and use by
all contributing to it. For this purpose it is requested that every library send to
the managing editor of the Journal two copies of every blank, form, card, slip, cata-
logue, or anything portable that it may use in its administration, and is willing to
contribute ; one set to be arranged by libraries, showing as completely as possible the
methods and catalogues of each library by itself; the other under classification show-
ing the various methods used by different libraries in the same work, e. g., all the differ-
ent catalogue cards that are in use in different libraries. The specimens sent should
all be marked with the date, cost, and manner of using; and if, after practical trial,
any improvement can be suggested to other libraries using a similar form or appliance,
this should also be added. This collection, like the Journal itself, is something to
which all should cordially contribute, and from which all may freely draw.
Tbe printing of accurate titles of new books in such a way that they can be used for
the card catalogues of libraries in general, at a slight expense, is an important field for
cooperation. The early completion of Poole's Index to Periodical Literature and ar-
rangements for annual or monthly supplements, the preparation of a guide to the special
collections and rare and valuable books in the libraries of the United States for the
purpose of special research and study, and other enterprises of similar character and
intent, are among the purposes which it is hoped to accomplish through the agency
of this journal in securing fhe cooperation of all interested in library work.
The circulation of such a journal being necessarily limited, the subscription price,
in order to put the enterprise on a safe footing, must be made $'-> for the first year. To
insure its success will require the hearty cooperation of librarians in pecuniary as well
as literary support. Subscriptions should be addressed to F. Leypoldt, 37 Park Row
New York; inquiries and other communications to Melvil Dewey, 13 Tremont Place,
Boston.
XXX Public Libraries in the United States.
It may be reasonably expected that, conducted in accordance with
the plan above described, under the direction of the gentlemen named,
and receiving, as it doubtless will, the hearty support and cooperation
of active librarians and educators throughout the country, the Library
Journal will find a wide field and abundant opportunities for usefulness.
COOPERATIVE CATALOGUES AND INDEXES.'
A further illustration of awakened interest, and of the desire to efl'ect
cooperation in library work and bring the librarians of diflerent
libraries into more intimate relations, is found in the propositions of
Professor Robinson and Mr. Winsor in this country, and of a writer in
the Academy in England, to economize the labor and expense of cata-
loguing and indexing, by associated effort on the part of publishers and
librarians of different libraries and countries. These propositions are
noticed in detail elsewhere in this report.*
PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN CANADA, MEXICO. BRAZIL, AND JAPAN.
The following brief notices of public libraries in the countries above
named will, it is thought, be of interest to Americans. They comprise
all the trustworthy information on the subject that has been found
available.
Dominion of Canada.
Ontario. — Within the past twenty-five years Canada has shared in*
the general growth of public libraries. A brief account of the excellent
school library system of the province of Ontario will be found in Chap-
ter II, pp. 57-58. According to the report of the chief superintendent
of education of that province, there were, in 1874, 1,334 libraries of this-
class, containing in all 266,046 volumes.
An examination of the revised catalogue published by the depart-
ment of education shows that great care has been exercised in the
choice of books, and that a judicious selection from it would form an
excellent library in all departments of literature for adults as well as.
for pupils in the public schools.
According to the same report, there were also in the province 1^^
other public libraries, not including those of Sunday schools, contain-
ing in all 142,732 volumes, making an aggregate of 1,427 public libra-
ries, with 408,778 volumes.
Quebec. — The following extract from a letter of the secretary of the
minister of public instruction of the province of Quebec, dated March
8, 1875, shows the number and extent of public libraries in that
province :
' lu a letter dated Auyiist. 4, 1676, Piofessor Kobiu«ou writes : " I may add that 1 have
the honor to be chairman of a comoiittee recently appointed at the convocation of the
regents in Albany, by the college officers of this State, to devise a general plan oii
which the colleges may unite in cataloguing and indexing. I hope something may be--
doue in this direction."
^ See pp. 513, .'314.
Introduction. xxxi
From the best information we can obtain there are 612 libraries, divided as follows :
I^umber. Volumes.
Parish libraries 160 92.967
Universities 3 53,500
Colleges, Catholic 12 83,624
Colleges, Protestant 4 2,000
Industrial colleges. Catholic 15 29, 244
Industrial colleges, Protestant 1 70
Normal schools 3 7,850
Academies for boys, and mixed. Catholic 43 7,016
Academies for boys, and mixed, Protestant 29 2, 267
Academies for girls. Catholic 66 33, 923
Model schools. Catholic 233 22,005
Model schools, Protestant 43 2,720
Total 612 337, lb6
If we add to this the library of the local parliament, that of the department of public
instruction, and a certain number belonging to the different literary societies, which
cannot be less than 100,000 volumes, and which are more or less open to the public,
we have a total of 437,186 volumes.
The educational reports of the other proviaces ot the Dominion do not
afford specific information in regard to libraries.
Mexico.
The sketcli of the public libraries of Mexico, prepared by Fernando
C. Willett, esq., secretary United States legation, Mexico, was kindly
furnished by Hon. J. W. Foster, American minister to that republic.
The following exhibits the number of states in the republic which have public libra-
ries, the number of volumes in each state, and the total number of volumes : Aguas-
Calientes, 1,400 ; Campeche, 2,024; Chiapas, 3,758; Durango, 5,022; Guanajuato, 11,382 ;
Jalisco, 22,000 ; Mexico, 8,904 ; Michoacau, 12,038 ; Oajaca, 12,922 ; Puebla, 24,821 ;
Queretaro, 10,130 ; San Luis Potosi, 2,624 ; Vera Cruz, a library, but not reported ; Yu-
catan, 1,143; Zacatecas, 10,000; Federal District, 106,700; making a total of 234,868
volumes.
It will thus be seen that of the 29 states and territories of the republic only 16 have
any public libraries at all, and respecting those which do exist it should be noted that
only a small proportion of the books which they report are of modern dates or of any
great value except to the antiquarian and historian, the great majority of them having
been obtained from the old ecclesiastical libraries of the closed churches and convents.
There are doubtless among these old collections rare copies of valuable works from
which something may be realized for the purchase of modern books, but the great bulk
of these collections from the convents and churches consists of the religious writings
of priests and monks, the value of which almost entirely departed with the age that
produced them. The principal library in the republic is the
BIBI.IOTECA XACIOXAL.
A visit to this library, and an interview with the courteous librarian, Don Joaquin
Cardoso, elicited the following facts respecting its origin and present condition :
Previous to the promulgation of the laws of reform there existed in the City of Mex-
ico the cathedral and university libraries and those of the convents. After the triumph
of the liberal party the government came into possession of these libraries, and steps
were at once taken to unite them into one, as the basis of a grand national library ; but
not until the year 1867 was any definite plan to this end inaugurated. In that year
xxxii Ptcblic Libraries in the United States.
the fiue old church of Sau Agustiu was taken possession of as a library building, and
the work of refitting it for its new nse was begun. The sum of $142,714 Las been
appropriated for this purpose, aud when completed it will be one of the fiuest buildiags
of its kind on the continent. The work, however, progresses very slowly, and no one,
I believe, ventures to predict when it will be finished. In the mean time the large
chapel adjoining the church is being used as a library building, where the books are
collected, and the work of classification and cataloguing is slowly progressing. It is
estimated that there are in all something over 100,000 volumes, but these for the most
part are of the character above referred to ; and there being several religious libraries
thrown together in the collection, there are, as might be expected, a great many dupli-
cates.
Some fifteen or twenty young men were consulting books in the reading room when I
called, and, ai an indication of the increasing- improvement in the reading habits of the
people, the librarian stated that two years ago, when he "first became connected with
the management, only four or five would call daily, and they generally only to read
the papers or trashy novels. Now the attendance averages over fifty daily, and the
demand for scientific, historical, and the better class of literary works is steadily on
the increase.
For the last four years the sum of $4,000 has been annually appropriated by congress
for the purchase of new books, but only a small portion of this sum has been actually
expended, as it is not deemed best to increase materially the number of books until the
new building is ready for their reception. By law two copies of every work published
in Mexico must be presented to this library.
CINCO DE MAYO LIBRARY.
This is the only other public library in the city of Mexico, and is under the manage-
ment of the Lancasterian Society. In the society's report for the last year the follow-
ing reference is made to this library : " It is open to the public every day from 8 in
the morning until 10 at night, and is constantly attended by persons from all classes
of society, but principally by artisans and poor scholars from the national schools, who
being in want of text books, are able to procure the use of them in the popular library
This establishment received during the year 1873 donations of books not only from the
members of the Lahcasteriau Society, but from various other persons, among whom
the Messrs. Appleton, of New York, had the goodness to send to the popular library a
generous contribution of works of the highest utility."
Nearly all the periodicals of the country are found here, but no foreign ones.
LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.
There are in the republic seventy-three associations of this character, of which
tweuty-nine are scientific, twenty-one literary, twenty devoted to the cultivation of
arts, and three mixed. The most important of all is perhaps the Society of Geography
and Statistics. This society was establi;shed in 1851, and comprises among its active
members many of the leading scholars of the country. It holds its sessions every Sat-
urday, and its discussions cover a much wider range of subjects than the title of the
society would indicate, embracing, besides the mere subjects of geography and statis-
tics, the various topics of history and science. In the fine building where the meetings
are held are the museum and excellent library of the society, the latter being more rich
in scientific and historical works than any other in the country.
The government annually appropriates $6,000 to defray the expenses of a keeper of
the archives, clerk, janitor, and the publication of the society's bulletin.
PERIODICAL LITERATURE.
The periodical publications in the republic during the year 1874 amounted to 168,
of which 18 were scientific; 9, literary; 2, artistic; 26, religious, and 118^ political.
Of these there belong to the city of Mexico alone 12 scientific, 3 literary, 4 religious,
Introduction. xxxiii
aud -20 political pHblications, fourteen of the latter beiu{( daily papers, though it should
be uotedthat these dailies are all small, not specially noted for the collection and pub-
lication of news, and resorting very little to the use of the telegraph, which now extends
to most of the states of the republic.
The press association as it exists in the United States is an institution unknown in
Mexico,';and there is but one steam printing press in the republic.
Brazil.
The following iuformatiou respecting the libraries of Brazil is drawn
from an official report entitled The Empire of Brazil at the Universal
Exhibition of 1876, in Philadelphia.
The most important library iu Brazil is the National Public Library,
situated at the imperial capital, which numbers more than 120,000
printed volumes, besides valuable collections of manuscripts, maps,
charts, and national and foreign newspapers.
Of the five main sections or departments into which the library is
divided, that of theology numbers 15,000 volumes ; that of history,
biography, and voyages, 24,000 volumes; that of science, (moral, politi-
cal, and physical,) 39,000 volumes; that of belles-lettres; 10,000 volumes ;
that of Greek and Latin classics, 4,000 volumes ; that of arts and trades,
about 3,500 volumes ; that of periodical and miscellaneous literature
makes np the remainder.
The library is free to the public, and is open six days in the week,
from 9 a. m. to 2 p. m., and from 6 to 9 p. m. From 1,000 to 1,300 per-
sons use the library monthly.
Prior to 1873 the yearly grant for the maintenance and increase of the
library amounted to £2,500; in 1873 the grant for these purposes was
increased to £6,785.
At the capital of the empire there are many libraries belonging either
to public educational institutions or to associations and religious com-
munities, the principal of which are the following : The library of the
Faculty of Medicine, 17,317 volumes; the Marine Library, 19,000 vol-
umes; Library of the Polytechnic School, 6,000 volumes; Library of
the Military School, 2,100 volumes ; the National Museum Library, 8,000
volumes ; Library of the Academy of Fine Arts, 1,000 volumes ; Library
of the Imperial Blind Institute, over 1,000 volumes; Portuguese Eead-
ing Room Library, 52,000 volumes ; Library Fiuminense, 42,000 volumes ;
British Literary Club Library, 6,219 volumes; Germania Association
Library, 5,781 volumes ; Historical, Geographical, and Ethnographical
Brazilian Institute, 6,841 volumes; St. Benedict's Monastery, 8,000
volumes; the Municipal Library, 14,500 volumes. In the several prov-
inces of the empire there are many important libraries, some of which
have been recently established under the name of " popular libraries."
According to the official document named, the aggregate number of
volumes iu all the libraries of the empire which are accessible to the
public is 400,272. In 1875, the libraries were attended by 85,044 per-
sons.
E— III
xxxiv Public Libraries in the United States.
Not only government, bat private individuals continue to evince
solicitude in the establishment of libraries, not only in the capital, bnt
in all the provinces of the empire.
Japan.
As a vivid illustration of the spread of western ideas in regard to
popular education among the nations of the East, the free public library
recently established at Tokio, in Japan, deserves to be mentioned.
For the following brief account of this library we are indebted to the
kindness of our countryman, Hon. David Murray, Ph. D,, LL. D., super-
intendent of educational affairs in the department of education of the
empire of Japan :
I think tins library is the first in Japan in which foreign books were to con^stitiite a
feature. It is designed to comprise books in Japanese and Chinese, and in European
languages.
It is a public library, open to all persons, native or foreign, who may desire to con-
sult it. In general, the books are not to be taken from the building ; but certain speci-
fied classes may, under the sanction of the minister of education, be permitted to borrow
from the library.
It is in the city of Tokio, (Yedo,) and is now temporarily bestowed in the ancient
temple of Confucius, which, although probably the most beautiful building in Tokio,
is not specially adapted to the purposes of a library. It was founded by the Mombusho
(department of education) and opened to the public in 1875. The nucleus of the col-
lection of foreign books was the private library purchased from Hon. Mori-Arinori,
formerly the representative of Japan in the United States. By purchase, donation,
and otherwise, the foreign department has largely increased. Tlie Japanese and
Chinese department has been obtained chiefly from donation by departments of the
government and wealthy families.
I estimate the foreign collection now to contain, say, G,000 volumes, and the Japanese
and Chinese, say, 4,000 volumes.
A small annual allowance is made for the support and increase of the library. Ex-
traordinary grants will be made from time to time. The management of the libr.ary
is in the hands of a bureau of the department of education.
CONCLUSION.
It is not to be expected that a report covering so long a period of time,
and treating of a subject regarding which so little definite information
could be obtained from the labors of other investigators, will be com-
plete and perfectly accurate ; but it may be fairlj^ claimed that this
work, prepared as it has been with painstaking research and attention
to accuracy in details of lesser as well as greater importance, may be
accepted with a considerable degree of confidence, at least so far as
statements of fact are concerned.' Every one who has pursued a sim-
' On pages 446 and 447 of this report it is stated that the shares of the Social Library
of Castine, Me., became the property of the town in 18i7. Tiiat statement, made on
the authority of the present librarian, is, it appears, incorrect. He states, in a letter
dated August 2, 1876, that the town did not establish a public library until March, ISuf),
the year- subsequent to the enactment of the state law authorizing the establishment
of free town libraries. This information was, unfortunately, received too late for the
correction of the error in the proper place, and necessitates this explanation.
Introduction. xxxv
ilar investigatiou of any subject knows how elusive facts are when ob-
scured by the mists of a hundred, fifty, or even twenty-five years ; how
difficult the verification of a date a half-century old ; how unsafe a tra-
dition or reminiscence of an event antedating the inquiry by even a few
years.
It will be observed that on several subjects, as cataloguing and novel
reading, different opinions are expressed by different contributors ; but
as the contrariety in each case respects questions that are still unset-
tled and matters of discussion, it is thought quite proper that all sides
should be heard. There is also necessarily som.e repetition, resulting
from the intimate relations of certain subjects assigned to different con-
tributors, who prepared their papers without opportunities for consulta-
tion with each other. Usually the texts of both or all have been re-
tained, either because each possesses distinctive features of its own, or
because the importance of the subject justifies reiteration.
In the editorial chapters, the endeavor has been to state facts and the
conclusions they appear to justify with as little comment as practicable ;
and in the presentation of statistics, the temptation to " estimate " and
" approximate " has been steadily resisted. In yo table of statistics in
the work does a figure or other item appear that is not substantiated
by what in our judgment is the most trustworthy evidence procurable.
To the official acknowledgments made elsewhere for assistance and
advice in the preparation of this report, the editors desire to add their
personal thanks.
S. E. WARREN,
S. N. CLAEK,
EUltors.
CHAPTER I.
PUBLIC LIBRARIES A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
BY HORACE E. SCL'DDER.
Resources fok literary cuLxuiiE a century ago — Proprietary axd subscrip-
Tiox libraries — College libraries — Parish libraries.
la taking account of the present state of society and education in our
country as compared with conditions a hundred years ago, one of the
most suggestive points of comparison is in what may be called the im-
mediate resources of literary culture. Although true culture can never
be attained except by the foregoing of indulgence in meaner pleasures,
yet it almost seems as if the day had gone by in the more closely in-
habited parts of our country when the obstacles in the way of book-
learning required to be overcome by extraordinary means. In our
j)rincipal cities and large towns there are free libraries ; bookstores dis-
play not only American books but fresh importations constantly from
England and the continent, while magazines and newspapers of general
or special character are made accessible to the poorest person living in
the remotest hamlet. Moreover the business connected with the pro-
duction and distribution of literature has become so important an in-
dustry that reading is forced upon the notice of people, and by new sys-
tems of dealing, the customer for books and periodicals is not waited
for but souglit out.
A hundred years ago the country was not only sparsely settled, but
communication between the different portions was irregular and infre-
quent ; there was no highly organized postal system to act as an ex-
press from the publisher to his remotest customer; the large towns
themselves were very imperfectly supplied with bookstores and print-
ing of&ces, and education was much more confined than at present to
certain classes of society. The idea of a free public library could hardly
find general acceptance until the idea of free public education had be-
come familiar to men's minds, and the libraries existing at the time of
the Eevolution were necessarily representative of the existing state of
public opinion on the subject of culture. They were, with scarcely an
exception, either connected directly with 'institutions of learning or the
outgrowth of associations of gentlemen having tastes and interests in
common.
EXPERIENCE OF FEANKLIN.
Perhaps nothing could make this clearer than to recite the experience
of Benjamin Franklin, who easily represents for us the i)Oor boy of the
IE
2 Public Libraries in the United States.
period, with a mind quick in its appetite for literary knowledge, and the
sagacious citizen whose perception of the wants of his countrymen would
lead him to take measures to satisfy them. In what he did not, as well
as in what he did, may be read the condition of the most advanced pub-
lic sentiment in his time. "From a child," he tells us in his autobi-
ography,^ "I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came
into my hands was ever laid out in books. Pleased with the Pilgrim's
Progress, my first collection was of John Bunyan's works in separate
little volumes. I afterward sold them to enable me to buy E. Churton's
Historical Collections; they were small chapmen's books and cheap,
forty or fifty in all. My father's little library consisted chiefly of books
in polemic divinity, most of which I read, and have since often regretted
that, at a time when I had such a thirst for knowledge, more proper
books had not fallen iu my way, since it was now resolved I should not
be a clergyman. Plutarch's Lives there was in which I read abundantly,
and I still think that time spent to great advantage. There was also a
book of De Foe's, called an Essay on Projects, and another of Dr. Ma-
ther's, called Essays to do Good, which perhaps gave me a turn of
thinking that had an influence on some of the principal future events of
my life." This bookish inclination, he adds, determined his father to
make him a printer, and he was accordingly apprenticed to his elder
brother James. " I now had access, " he continues,^ " to better books.
An acquaintance with the apprentices of booksellers enabled me some-
times to borrow a small one, which I was careful to return soon and
clean. Often I sat up in my room reading the greatest part of the night,
when the book was borrowed in the evening and to be returned early
in the morning, lest it should be missed or wanted. And after some
time an ingenious tradesman, Mr. Matthew Adams, who had a pretty
collection of books, and who frequented our printing-house, took notice
of me, invited me to his library and very kindly lent me such books as
I chose to read About this time I met with an odd volume of
the Spectator. It was the third. I had never before seen any of them. I
bought it, read it over and over, and was much delighted with it. . . .
And now it was that, being on some occasion made ashamed of my igno-
rance in figures, which I had twice failed in learning when at school, I
took Cocker's book of arithmetic, and went through the whole by my-
self with great ease. I also read Seller's and Shermy's books of Naviga-
tion, and became acquainted with the little geometry they contain, but
never proceeded far in that science ; and 1 read about this time Locke
on the Human Understanding and the Art of Thinking, by Messrs. du
Port Koyal."
These memorabilia of Franklin indicate sufficiently the resources
'The Life of Benjaruia Franklin, written by himself: now first edited from originai
manuscripts and from his printed correspondence and other writings. By John IJig-
elow, Philadelphia, 1875, vol. i, p. 105.
s Ibid., p. 107.
Public Lihraries a Hundred Years Ago. 3
which a bright boy of the time — the first quarter of the lastjCentury —
had in Boston. A few theological books in his father's library, the use
of a book now and then from the bookstore, the chance of borrowing
from a " pretty collection of books," and the occasional purchase of a
book which was mastered and turned inside out by use, as in the case
of the odd volume of the Spectator, which served him, as he tells us, for
a copy-book in his attempts at producing literature — these were his lit-
erary resources. He was about seventeen years old when he left Boston
and began that striking career which has especially identified him, so
far as his fame and his induence had losal bounds, with the city of
Philadelphia.
It was by chance, seemingly, that he went there. One printer only
was in New York at the time, and he had no employment for him, but
told him that the recent death of a young man in Philadelphia had left
a vacancy in a printing office there, and, consequently, Franklin ex-
tended his journey to that town. It gives us a lively notion of the
slight place which literature held in the economy of the time, when we
discov^er that, in 1723, there was but one printer in New York and
two only in Philadelphia, both of these poorly qualified for their
business, one being illiterate though bred to the business, and the other
something of. a scholar but ignorant of press-work. Perhaps an even
more significant commentary is in the incident related by Franklin of
his return to Philadelphia the next year, when he had been to Boston
and had brought back with him his books, together with those of his
friend Collins, "a pretty collection of mathematics and natural philoso-
phy." Franklin brought the books with him in a sloop by which he
traveled from Boston to New York. " The then governor of New
York," he relates,' "Burnet, (son of Bishop Burnet,) hearing from the
captain that a young man, one of his passengers, had a great many
books, desired he would bring me to see him. I waited upon him ac-
cordingly, and should have taken Collins with me but that he was not
sober. The governor treated me with great civility, showed me his
library, which was a very large one, and we had a good deal of conver-
sation about books and authors. This," he adds complacently, " was
the second governor who had done me the honor to take notice of me,
which, to a poor boy like me, was very pleasing."
THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY AND THE PHILADELPHIA
LIBRARY.
It was about six years after this, when Franklin was fairly established
in Philadelphia as a printer, that his interest in philosophy and litera-
ture led him to combine with certain associates to form a debating soci-
ety, called " The Junto," which grew into the American Philosophical
Society, and also was the cause of the establishment of what he calls
1 Ibid., p. 138.
4 FuUic Libraries in the United, States.
" tbe mother of all the North American subscription libraries."^ His
account^ of the origin of the library is interesting for the picture it gives
of the period:
At tlie time I established myself iu Philadelphia, there was uot a good bookseller's
shop in any of the colonies to the southward of Boston. In New York and Philadel-
phia, the printers were indeed stationers; they sold only paper, etc., almanacs, ballads,
and a few common school-books. Those who loved reading were obliged to send for
their books from England ; the members of the Junto had each a few. We had left the
ale-house, where we first met, and hired a room to hold our club iu. I proposed that
we should all of us bring our books to that room, where they would not only be ready
to consult in our conferences, but become a common benefit, each of us being at liberty
to borrow such as he wished to read at home. This was accordingly done and for some
time contented us. . . . The number was uot so great as we expected ; and though
they had been of great use, yet some iuconveniences occurring for want of due care of
them, the collection, af.er about a year, was separated, and each took his books home
again. And now I set on foot my first project of a public nature, that for a subscription
library. . . . I drew a sketch of the plan and rules that would be necessary, and got
a skillful conveyancer, Mr. Charles Brockden, to put the whole in form of articles of
agreement to be subscribed, by which each subscriber engaged to pay a certain sum
-down for the firet purchase of books, aud an annual contribution for increasing them.
So few were the readers at that time in Pliiladelphia, and the majority of us so poor, that
I was not able, with great industry, to find more than fifty persons, mostly young trades-
men, willing to pay down for this purpose forty shillings each, aud ten shillings per an-
num. On this little fund we began. The books were imported ; the library was open one
day in the weekfor lending to the subscribers, on their promissory notes to pay double
the value if not duly returned. The institution soon manifested its ability, was imi-
tated by other towns, and in other provinces. The libraries were augmented by do-
nations ; reading became fashionable ; and our people having no public amusements to
divert their attention from study, became better acquainted with books, and in a few
years were observed by straugers to be better instructed and more intelligent than
people of the same rank generally are in other countries.
In 1732 the first books were received from London, arrangements for
settling the bills having been made with Peter Collinson, mercer, iu
Gracious street, London. This gentleman took a lively interest in the
matter, and himself added two books, which he accompanied with the
following letter :^
London, July 22, 1732.
Gentlemen : I am a stranger to most of you but not to your laudable design to erect
a public library. I beg your acceptauce of my mite, Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy
and Philip Miller's Gardener's Dictionary. It will be an instance of your candour to
accept the intention and good will of the giver and not regard the meanness of the
gift. I wish you success, and am, with much respect, yours,
PETER COLLINSON.
The books were at first kept in the chamber of Eobert Grace, one of
Franklin's friends, and an associate in establishing the library. A libra-
rian was iu attendance an hour on Wednesday and two hours on Satur-
day, and he was allowed to permit, as the record shows, " any civil
gentleman to peruse the books of the library in the library room, but
' Ibid., p. 208. ' Ibid.^ p. 2<>0.
3 Notes for a history of the Library Company of Philadelphia, [by W. Smith.,]
published in Waldio's Portfolio. Philadelphia, 1835. Part ii, p. 100. (Sept. 26.)
Piiblic Libraries a Hundred Years Ago, 5
not to lend or to suflfer to be taken out of the library, by any person
who is not a subscribing member, any of the said books, Mr. James
Logan only excepted." ^ The exception is a notable one, Mr. Logan being
at the time a Friend, advanced in years, who had been secretary to
William Penn, and having a high reputation as a man of learning and
a collector of books, had been consulted by the young associates as to
the choice of their books. Joseph Breiutnall, Philip Syng,and Benjamin
Franklin were afterward presented with the freedom of the company,
that is, excused from paying the yearly contribution; Breintnall for his
trouble as secretary six years, Syng for engraving the seal, and Franklin
for printing notices each two years.
Something of the simplicity of the early years of the library may be
discovered in the entries which appear in the records shortly after the
formation. Thus we read that, "one of the subscribers having some
weeks ago brought to the library a book for the directors to see, and
buy if they pleased, belonging to a gentleman lately from London, who
is a transient person, the committee this night agreed to buy it for the
library, and ordered the librarian to pay the price of fifteen shillings for
it, that being less than a cent on the first cost, and the book undefaced.
To be paid out of money received for forfeitures or penalties from bor-
rowers of books delinquent. 'Tis a Voyage to the South Seas and along
the coast of Chili and Peru in the years 1712, 13, and 14, by Mons. Fre-
zier, in folio, with thirty seven copper cuts, and well printed and bound
on good paper." ^ Ou the 12th of March, 1733, William Rawle presented
"six volumes or books of the works of Mr. Edmund Spenser;" whereat
the worthy secretary observes, after stating that the directors kindly
received this gift for the company, "the famous old English poem called
Spenser's Fairy Queen is included in these works.' ^
TnE UNION, ASSOCIATION, AND AMICABLE LIBRARY COMPANIES MERGED
IN THE PHILADELPHIA LIBRARY.
In 1740 the books were removed to the upper room of the western-
most office of the State-house, the use of which had been granted to the
company by the assembly. One more removal was made in 1773 to the
second floor of Carpenters' Hall, where the library remained until the
present building was erected. The company was regularly incorporated
in 1742, and by its general prosperity and its excellent management
gradually drew to itself other collections of books. Thus in 17G9 the
Union Library Company, in 1771 the Association Library Company and
the Amicable Company were merged in the Philadelphia Library Com-
pany as the institution was called. These libraries were established sub-
sequently to the Philatlelphia Library, and were indeed suggested by it.
THE LOGANIAN LIBRARY.
A more importantjunqtion, however, was that of the Loganian Library,
which still forms an important and individual part of the library. James
1 Ibid., p. 100.
6 Public Libraries in the United States.
Logan, wbom the young tradesmen had consulted when they began their
adventure, had himself a valuable private library, especially rich in
classical and foreign works, which he had been fifty years gathering.
The character and value of these books may be inferred from the fol-
lowing extract from Mr. Logan's will :
lu my library, which I have left to the city of Philadelphia for the advancement and
facilitating of classical learning, are above one hundred volumes of authors, iu folio,
all iu Greek, with mostly their versions. All the Roman classics without exception.
All the Greek mathematicians, viz, Archimedes, Euclid, Ptolemy, both his geography
and almagest, which I had in Greek, (withTheon's commentary, in folio, above 700 pages)
from my learned friend Fabricius, who published fourteen volumes of his Bibliotheqne
Grecque, in quarto, iu which after he had finished his account of Ptolemy on my in-
quiring of him at Hamburgh, how I should find it, having long sought for it iu vain
in Eugland, he sent it to me out of his own library telling me it was so scarce, that
neither prayers nor price could purchase it : besides there are many of the most valu-
able Latin authors, and a great number of modern mathematicians, with all the three
editions of Newton, Dr. Watts, Halley, etc.
What a pleasing glimpse this allows us of the book hunter and the
book-reader as well. He found time to play a little with literature, and
when about sixty years old made a translation of Cicero's tract De
Senectute, enriched with notes, which Franklin printed ten years after-
ward, himself furnishing a preface. He proposed to erect this collec-
tion into a public library, and accordingly, in 1745, conveyed a lot of
ground on the west side of Sixth street, between Chestnut and Walnut
streets, with a building,^ and some- three thousand books to trustees for
this purpose, at the same time placing certain rents in their hands
to defray the expenses of a librarian and to increase the library.
•He afterward canceled the deed and began the preparation of another,
but died before he completed it. After his death, his widow and heirs
made a trust-deed, carrying out his wishes. By this deed it was pro-
vided " that there should be a perpetual succession of trustees, part of
whom should be of the descendants of James Logan, preferring the
male line to the female, as long as any of his descendants remained ; that
one of his male descendants, taken in priority of birth, and prefer-
ring the male line to the female line, should be librarian of the said
public library, with a power of employing deputies; that the library
should be opened for the public use of the citizens, and that books
might be borrowed thereout under certain restrictions." ^ This, we be-
lieve, is the only case iu America where a public ofliee is hereditary. A
younger brother of James Logan, Dr. William Logan, of Bristol, England,
collected many books, which fell to the possession of James Logan's son
William, who added to the number, and bequeathed i hem, some thir-
' On page 7 will be found a view of this building, the first iu the United States
devoted to the uses of a public library. — Editors.
^Cata'ogue of the Books belonging to the Logauian Library, to which is prefixed a
short account of the Institution, with the law for annexing the said library to that
belonging to the Library Company of Philadelphia, and the Rules regulatiug the
manner of conducting the same. Philadelphia, 1795, p. vi.
LOGANIAN LIBKART, l745-'50.
7-8
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 9
teen hundred volumes, to the library of which he had been librarian, in
accordance with the terms of the trust. After his death, however, in
1776, the library remained closed for several years, and fiuallj'^, in 1792,
the only surviving trustee, of those originally appointed, James Logan,
at Franklin's suggestion, applied to the legislature of Pennsylvania to
vest the property in the Library Company. This was accordingly done
by an act which provided that the books should be kept separate, and
that one of the trustees should continue to be a descendant of James
Logan, but the librarianship was not so restricted, the office passing into
the control of the Philadelphia Library Company.
The Loganian Library, as we have seen, was chiefly a library for
scholars, but the origin of the Philadelphia Library had the effect to
make its books read by all classes. There is a small volume of letters,*
published in 1774, written by Eev. Jacob Duche, an Episcopal clergy-
man, residing in Philadelphia, in which the writer says : " You would
be astonished at the general taste for books which prevails among all
orders and ranks of people in this city. The librarian (of the City
Library) assured me that for one person of distinction and fortune there
were twenty tradesmen that frequented this library.''
In another letter ho says :
There is less distinction among the citizens of PhiladeFphia than amono; those of any-
other civilized city in the world Literary accomplishments here meet -with
deserved applause. But such is the prevailing taste for books of every kind, that almost
every man is a reader ; and by pronouncing sentence, right or wrong, upon the various-
publications that come in his way, puts himself upon a level, in point of knowledge,
with their several authors. ^
The character of the books at first composing the Philadelphia Library
may be guessed to have reflected to a considerable degree Frankliu's^
own taste. He printed a catalogue in 1741, and afterward, without
date, but presumably within a few years, a list of " books added to the
library since 1741." These two catalogues, which have no other arrange-
ment, than the mechanical division of books into folio, quarto, octavo,
and duodecimo, show very simply, within certain limits, the class of
books most in vogue at that time in Philadelphia. Of theological books^
and controversial tracts there is scarcely one. There is rather a small
allowance of books in polite literature; but travels, science, philosophy,,
natural history, and especially the mechanic arts, are well represented.
History makes a good show, but politics is not very prominent. A
single page in the catalogue is devoted to a short account of the library^
probably by Franklin, in which there is held out an inducement to sub-
scribe to the stock. A share, it declares, " is now valued at £G 10s.
But for this small sum, which, laid out in books, would go but a little
' Observations on a variety of subjects, literary, moral, and religious ; in a series of
Original Letters written by a gentleman of foreign extraction who resided some time iu
Philadelphia. Revised by a Friend, to whose hands the manuscript was committed for
publication. Philadelphia, 1774.
2Ibid., p. 11. 3ibiil.,p. 29-30.
10 Public Libraries in the United States.
way, every member has the use of a Library now worth upwards of
jCoOO, whereby knowledge is in this city rendered more cheap and easy
to become at, to the great pleasure and advantage of the studious part
of the inhabitants. It is now ten years since the company was first
established; and we have the pleasure of observing. That tho' 'tis
compos'd of so many Persons of different Sects, Parties and ways of
Thinking, yet no Differences relating to the affairs of the Library have
arisen among us; but every Thing has been conducted with great Har-
mony, and to general Satisfaction. Which happy Circumstance will, we
hope, always continue."^ The character of the library at a later period
may be inferred from the correspondence which passed between the
committee on importation and their London agents in 1783, when, after
an enforced restraint of nine years, the library resumed its collecting. In
their letter accompanying a remittance of £200, the committee say : " We
shall confide entirely in your judgement to procure us such books of
modern publication as will be proper for a public library, and though
we would wish to mix the utile with the dulce, we should not think it
€xpedient to add to our present stock anything in the novel way ;'' ^ a
principle of selection which has largely governed since.
The Philadelphia Library passed through the scenes of the Revolu-
tion without suffering any special detriment. Fears, indeed, were enter-
tained for it, and an attempt was twice made, without effect, to call a
general meeting for the purpose of empowering the directors to remove
the books and effects of the company in case of an emergency. Both
of the opposing parties had the benefit of the library. In August,
1774, it was, upon motion, ordered "that the librarian furnish the gen-
tlemen who are to meet in congress in this city, with such books as
they may have occasion for during their sitting, taking a receipt from
them ;"3 and the British army officers who occupied the city during the
winter of 1777-'78 were in the habit of using the library, but invaria-
bly paid for the privilege. At the close of the war the number of books
was about five thousand.
PHILADELPHIA LIBRARY BUILDING.
The library was housed in its present quarters in 1790, the first stone
of the edifice being laid August 31, 1789. A tablet was prepared and
inserted in the building bearing this inscription :
Be it remembered
ia honor of the Philadelphia youth
(then chiefly artificers)
that in M D CC XXX I .
they cheerfully,
at the instance of Benjamin Franklin
* A Catalogue of books belonging to the Library Company of Philadelphia. Philadel-
phia, 1741, p. 56.
2 Smith's notes, in Waldie's Portfolio, p. 102.
3 Ibid, p. 102.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 11
one of their number,
instituted the Philadelphia Library
■which, though small at first,
is become highly valuable and extensively useful,
and which the walls of this edifice
are now destined to contain and preserve :
the first stone of whose foundation
was here placed
the thirty-first day of August 1769.
The inscription was prepared by Franklin, with the exception of the
reference to himself, which was inserted by the committee. The refer-
ence was deserved, though it may be doubted whether the committee
in inserting it did not seek the honor which Franklin's name lent to the
library quite as much' as they sought to add to his fame. He probably
felt more direct interest in the companion Philosophical Society, to
which he left a larger bequest in books ; and it does not appear that
during his lifetime, after the first institution of the library, he either
added much to its collection or gave much thought to it. His absence
from America would naturally withdraw him from it, while his connec-
tion with the more personal Philosophical Society was easier to main-
tain. Be this as it may, the conception of a free public library, as now
held, did not occur to Franklin, while the scheme for aiding apprentices,
which lay nearer his heart, has been practically dissipated, owing to
changes in the social condition of the people, which he did not foresee.
The statue of Frankin, which occupies a niche in the front of the
building, was. given by William Bingham, who, in consultation with the
directors, learned that Dr Franklin " would approve of a gown for his
dress and a Roman head."^ It would be a curious inquiry to learn
what successive distortions of some simple remark of the doctor re-
sulted in this queer recipe for a statue. However, Mr. Bingham, to
make sure of the Roman head perhaps, sent an order to Italy, accom-
panied with a bust belonging to the Pennsylvania Hospital and a draw-
ing of the figure. The resultant statue, we are told, was regarded by
his contemporaries as showing a good likeness.
Franklin called the Philadelphia Library the mother of all the Korth
American subscription libraries, and while some of those existing when
he wrote, (1771,) have very possibly been allowed to die, there still
remain several libraries whose origin dates from near the period when
this present enterprise attracted attention from its success.
UNION AND CHESTER LIBRARY COMPANIES.
In Pennsylvania there were two other libraries of similar character;
one, in Hatborough, a town about sixteen miles north of Philadelphia,
the Union Library, founded in 1755, and, perhaps, saved from the fate
of other libraries by a bequest which in later years brought a substan-
' ' 'Ibid., p. .103.
12 Public Libraries in the United States.
tial building for its preservation ; the other in Chester, the oldest town
in the State, the library company being formed in 17C9 by an associa-
tion of citizens who contributed thirty shillings each.
JULIANA LIBRARY.
A third library, dating from 1770, is the Juliana Library, in Lancaster,
established by Thomas Penn, one of the proprietaries, and named by
him after his wife. But this probably cannot be classified among the
subscription libraries. The Juliana Library maintained an indepen-
dent but not very animated existence until about 1838, when the books
were sold to pay long accruing rents to the heirs of Caspar Weitzel, the
last librarian, in whose house the books had been kept. Some of the
books found their way into, the Juvenile Library and Young Men's
Reading-Room of Lancaster,^ some into a private circulating library,
and some were scattered among private citizens; but there is little to
show that the library ever had any other impetus than that given by
the original founder.
CHARLESTON LIBRARY SOCIETY.
Outside of Pennsylvania, several libraries appear in the old colonies
which may very possibly point to the Library Company as the original
suggestion. "The Charleston (S. C.) Library Society" — we quote
from the preface to the catalogue of 182G — "owes its origin to seventeen
young men who, in the year 1748, associated for the purpose of raising
a small fund to collect such new pamphlets and magazines as should
occasionally be published in Great Britain. They advanced and re-
mitted to London ten pounds sterling as a fund to purchase such pam-
phlets as had appeared during the current year, acting at first under a
mere verbal agreement and without a name. Beibre the close of the
year their views became more extensive ; and on the 28th of December
rules for the organization of the society were ratified and signed, when
they assumed the name of a Library Society, and made arrangement for
the acquisition of books as well as pamphlets; . . . the society be-
came popular, and before the close of the year 1750 numbered more than
one hundred and sixty members." ^ An effort was made to obtain an act of
incorporation. For three successive years applications were made to
the colonial assembly, and upon defeat by the governor's veto, to the
privy council in Great Britain, but without success.
It is difficult now to ascertain the causes which created these obstructions to the
incorporation of a literary society. But the effect was iujurious, and had nearly pro-
duced a dissolution of the association. The members finally resolved to place their
funds at interest, and make no further purchases until a charter could be obtained.*
The act of incorporation was finally secured in 1755.
From this time the progress of the society was rapid and satisfactory. The members
continued to invest a portion of their income in bouds, and soon began to embrace in
■Catalogue of the books belonging to the Charltstou Library Society. Charleston,
182G, p.viii.
= Ibid.,p. iv.
Piiblic Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 13
their views the establishruent.of an institution for education in connection with their
library. Such \7a8 the increase of their funds that in January, 1775, the amount in
bonds was £18,000 (about $11,000) and between two and three thousand pounds were
added to this sum between this period and the 1st of January. 1778. The library of
the society, at the same time, was receiving regular addition from annual purchases,
and the donations of individuals, which were then frequent. Great attention appears,
from the minutes'of the society, to have been paid, at this period, to classical literature,
and many discussions took place as to the portion of the funds which should be annu-
ally applied to this department. The collection of classical authors, and of commenta-
tors on the classics, was not only respectable from its number, but valuable for the
eelection; for some excellent scholars then superintended this portion of its labors.^
m'kenzie library a tart of the society library.
The society kept to its intentiou to establish a college eventually, and
this probably " induced Mr. John M'Kenzie, a lawyer of eminence, wbo
died in 1771, to bequeath a valuable" library to the society for the use of
a college, when erected in the province. . . . These books were received,
distinctly marked, and always kept apart from the books of the society."^
This library, like others, as we shall see, suffered considerably from the
derangement of society and affairs during the Eevolution, when Charles-
ton was occupied by the British, and also by the calamity of fire, which
iu other cases also wrought great havoc, so that of the five or six thou-
sand volumes which had beeu carefully collected, only one hundred and
eighty-five were, saved. The M'Kenzie library fared better j its size is
not indicated, but the statement is made that two-thirds of the books
were saved. For several years the society kept alive as a social club,
and the books that had been saved, together with the few added from
time to time, served as a nucleus for the present library, which was or-
ganized anew in 1790.
winyaw indigo society.
The only other public library south of Philadelphia which we can
discover to have existed prior to the Eevolution, is that which was
attached t© the academy under the control of the Winyaw Indigo
Society, in Georgetown, S. C. This society, formed about the year 1740,
by the planters of Georgetown district, was originally a social club,
which met once a month to discuss the latest news from London and
the culture of indigo, the staple product of the county. The initiation
fees and annual subscription of the members were paid in indigo, and
as the expenses were light, there had accumulated by 1753, a sum which
seemed to require some special application. The loresident of the society
proposed that the surplus fund should be devoted to the establishment
of an Independent Charity School for the Poor; and out of this proposi-
tion sprang the establishment of a school which, for more than a hun-
dred years, was the chief school for all the country lying between
Charleston and the North Carolina line, and resorted to by all classes.
' Ibid., p. iv. - Ibid., p. v.
14 PuMic Libraries in the United States.
The society was chartered ia 1755, and a library was accumulated, but
no records remain to indicate how large it became — the occupation of
the academy building at Georgetown during the late war leading to
the destruction both of papers and books.
NEW YORK SOCIETY LIBRARY.
In the Northern States there were others, some of which still exist
in dififerent degrees of prospority. The present New York Society
Library was incorporated in 1754, twelve years after the incorporation
of the Philadelphia Company. It did not at first take that name, but
that of the City Library-, and owed its origin to the efforts of a body of
gentlemen who clubbed together for the purpose and raised in a few
days nearly £000,^ which was laid out in the purchase of about seven
hundred volumes of " new, well chosen books." The books were at
first deposited in the City Hall, and with them were placed what
remained of two previous collections of books, one a small library pre-
sented in 1700, by Bev.* John Sharp, chaplain of Lord Bellamont, the
other a gift from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts, to whom, in 1729, alibrary of 1,G22 volumes^ had been bequeathed
by the Rev. John Millington, rector of Newington, England. This last
gift was made to New York " for the use of the clergy and gentlemen
of New York and the neighboring provinces," and the two collections
were for a time thus maintained; but the librarian dying, the books
were neglected and almost forgotten, until the founding of the Society
Library in 1754, called fresh attention to them. In 1772, a charter was
granted to the society under the name it now bears, but the war not
only interrupted the growth of the library, but nearly destrDyed it. It
appears from the minutes that " the accidents of the late war having
nearly destroyed the former library, no meeting of the proprietors for
the choice of trustees was held from the last Tuesday of April 1774,
until Saturday, 21.st December, 1788, when a meeting was summoned
and the operations of the society were resumed." ^ In 1789, the original
charter was revived, a new collection was begun, and in 1793, a cata-
logue was published containing about five thousand titles. It is plain,
therefore, that when Benjamin Franklin and John Collins, two young
tradesmen, brought their books in a sloop from Boston to New York,
the event was significant enough to lead Governor Burnet to make the
acquaintance of a young man who contrasted in respect to his love for
literature with those about him. It was the gentlemen, indeed, of New
York, who, perhaps under the example of the Philadelphia mechanics,
- In New York curreucy, or $1,500. — Editous.
2<'J^riZ 22, 1730.— The library from the society for propagating the gospel, etc.,
arrives, being 1,64'2 voluoies to be pyiced in the City Hall until a place be made to
receive them." History of the Now Netherlands Province of New York, etc., by Will-
iam Dunlap, New York, 1840, v. ii, appendix, clxii. — Editors.
' Alphabetical and analytical catalogno of the New York Society Library, with a
brief historical notice of the institution, the original articles of association in 1754,
and the charter and by-laws of the society. New York, 1838, p. viii.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 15
clubbed together to form the Society Library, and it was in a similar
class of society that the Eedwood Library of Newport, had its origin.
REDWOOD LIBRARY.
There was in Newport a literary and philosophical society, founded in
1730, though it does not appear that a collection of books formed at
first any important part of their plans. It was founded in part by
Bishop Berkeley, who was at this time residing in Rhode Island, a colony
exceptionally marked by its wealth and culture. Newport then held a
relative commercial importance much beyond its present position, and
New York was described as " near Newport." Out of the action of the
society there grew a demand for a library, and finally in 17.47, the gift to
the society of £500 sterling, from Abraham Redwood, for the purchase of
books led to the inauguration of direct measures. Mr. Redwood's gift
was a liberal one, but we have rarely seen an acknowledgment of a
public benefaction so grandiose as the following, taken from an early
catalogue of the Redwood Library. It seems to be in keeping with the
general sentiment among book-men, that led them to catalogue and
classify their books according to their size, treating folios with a respect
which those clumsy books seldom receive in this day.
The generous Abraham Redwood Esq ; of Newport on Rhode-Island, sensible of the
distinguishing Favour, whereby Heaven had blessed bim with an ample Fortune, pro-
posed to acknowledge it by a Design, which could only be the genuine Effect of a
grateful Mind, the improving the Place of his Residence in Knowledge and Virtue;
that from the Inhabitants some Revenues of Honour might return and be paid to the
Douo"i: of all Mercies. To accomplish this happy End, he freely, and without a Prompter,
devoted and paid down Five Hundred Pounds Sterling, for purchasing a Liurarv
of all Arts and Sciences, put under the most prudent Limitations and Restrictions ;
whereuuto the curious and impatient Enquirer after Resolution of Doubts, and the
bewildered Ignorant, miglit freely repair for Discovery and Demonstration to the one,
and true Knowledge and Satisfaction to the other ; nay to inform the Mind in both, in
order to reform the Practice. Now to conduct this Design to the best Advantage, he
proposed to form a Company of some of the best Repute and Character, who might
join in Consultation upon the most suitable Methods to bring so important a Pioject
to a happy Issue.i
REDWOOD LIBRARY BUILDING.^
Five thousand pounds^ were subscribed in the town for a suitable
'Laws of the Redwood Library Company. Newport, 1764, p. 3.
2 A view of this building is given page 17. "An Historical Sketch of the Redwood
Library and Athenaum," by David King, M.D., contains the following description:
"The Library Building, which is a beautiful specimen of the Doric order, was begun
in 1748 and completed in 1750. The plan was furnished by Peter Harrison, assist-
ant architect of Blenheim House, England. The principal front is ornamented with a
portico of four Doric columns seventeen feet in he ight and projecting nine feet from
the walls of the building. The edifice consists of a main building and two small
wings. The wings furnish two rooms, each about twelve feet square. The principal
Library room, occupying the hall of the main building, is thirty-seven feet long, twenty-
sis feet broad, and nineteen feet in height. The building on the outside is worked in
imitation of rustic and is adorned by the ornaments appropriate to the Doric order."
The building was enlarged in 1858. In 1875 further es:tensive additions were begun,
which will be finished the present year. — Editors.
3 Colonial currency.— Editors.
16 Public Libraries in the United States.
library building, and iti 1750 the present beautiful bouse was built
upon land which had been given by Henry Collins. The books
bought were mainly of a classical and theological cast, these being the
lines of study chiefly pursued by the scholars of the day, and the pro-
vision in Newport was for the gentlemen of the colony. Such was the
attraction of this library that it was the principal inducement to Dr.
Ezra Stiles to Mx his residence in Newport in 1755, and there he re-
mained for twenty years, acting as librarian, and by his influence drew
many books to the shelves.
There is a suggestive entry on the fly-leaf of Montanus' Biblia Sacra
Polyglotta, in the handwriting of Dr. Stiles, showing the primitive maq-
ner in which books were bought, and perhaps, also, the value set upon
a work which required such a company of gentlemen to lift it.
Jan. 5, 1774. — Montanus' Polyglot &c in 8 vols., folio, price 21^^ dollars or £4 I6s.
sterling was given to the Eedwood Library in Newport, E. I., by the following persons;
viz., the Hon. Abraham Eedwood Esq., the founder, two guineas, or 9^ dollars ; Mr.
Francis Malbone 1 dollar; Mr. James Eod Eivera, 1^ dollar; Mr. Aaron Lopez, 1
dollar ; Dr. William Hunter, 1 dollar ; Mr. John Bours, 1 dollar ; Mr. Isaac Hart, 1
dollar; Mr. Samuel Eodoian, 1 dollar; Mr. John Cranston, 1^ dollar; Ezra Stiles,!
dollar ; viz. 21^ dollars. The books received find deposited in the Eedwood Library by
Ezra Stiles, librarian. i
From the years 1750 to 1310, not a single tax was laid on the proprie-
tors to increase the library. The books bought with Mr. Kedwood's
money were considered at the time the finest collection of works on
theology, history, the arts and sciences in the American colonies, and
very possibly this deterred merchants and others in Newport from
giving money further, leading Dr. Stiles to resort to si)ecial subscrip-
tions when he wished to purchase particular books. Gifts, indeed, of
value, were made from time to time ; but the revenues of the library
arising from fines and an annual tax of twenty shillings on each share,
were employed for discharging officers' salaries, incidental charges, and
unavoidable repairs.
The occupation of Newport by the enemy during the Revolution
broke up Dr. Stiles's congregation, so that he removed to Portsmouth,
N. H., and with the destruction of the commercial prosperity came the
reduction of the place to an unimportant town. The library, as in the
case of the New York Societ^y Library, suffered during the war, and no
meetings of the company were held from 1778 to 1785. The building
was defaced, many of the books carried off", and it became necessary to
begin almost anew the collection and cataloguing of books, a matter
which was the more difficult since the glory of the town had quite de-
parted, and upon the death of Mr. Kedwood in 1788, the interest in the
library became feebler. The revival of society interest in Newport has
led, however, to a renewed prosperity for the library.
1 A catalogue of the Eedwood Library and Athenaeum in Newport, E. I., together
with a supplement, addenda ai>d index of subjects and titles ; showing all the books
belonging to th^ company on the 1st of June, 1880; to which is prefixed a short account
of the institution, with the charter, laws and regulations. Boston, 1860, p. xii.
REDWOOD LIBRARY, 1748-'50.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 19
PROVIDENCE LIBRARY.
There was another librar^^ in Ehode Island, less conspicuous than the
Redwood — the Providence Library. It was established in 1753, and
suffered the customary trial by fire in 1758, when, along with the town-
house, in which it was placed, it was burned, only about seventy volumes,
loaned at the time to members, being saved. An effort was made by the
proprietors in 1762 to revive it, and some books were imported from Lon-
don and i)laced in the new court house, the occupation of a room there
being granted in consideration of the free use of the library by the mem-
bers of the assembly. The library must have received considerable
attention, for in 1768, when the population of Providence was less than
four thousand, the proprietors had collected nearly a thousand volumes.
It was for a time the only library used by Rhode Island College, after-
ward Brown University, which removed to Providence from Warren in
1770. The books were badly used, partly on account of the somewhat
irresponsible bauds in which they were placed, and the company accord-
ingly sought an act of incorporation, which was granted in 1708. It
kept up an independent existence until 1836, when it was united with
the Providence Athenaeum.
EARLY LIBRARY AT PORTLAND, ME.
The city of Portland, Me., had not the relative importance to Provi-
dence in its earlier days that it now has; but it was one of the few
towns possessing a library formed by the voluntary contribution of
citizens. We copy from a paragraph in William Willis's History of
Portland :
The state of literature iu towu previous to the Revolution was not of a very ele-
vated character; nor indeed from the situation of the people could much have been
expected. Yet when the small population of the Neck is considered, not exceeding
1,900 at the ver^' eve of the war, perhaps it contained as large a proportion of edu-
cated men as any other place in that day. In 1763 several gentlemen upon the Neck,
desirous of promoting the ditfusion of useful knowledge and extending the means of
information, made some attempts to establish a library. In 1765, twenty-six persons
had associated together for this pui-pose, all but two or three of whom lived upon the
Neck. The progress of their laudable undertsfking was extremely slow, and at the open-
ing of the library in 1766 it contained but ninety-three volumes, of which ancient and
modern universal history comprised sixty-two volumes, just two-thirds of the whole
number. Only part of this work was first put in, but in 1765 a subscription was raised
among the members to complete the set, and £39 1.5s. were contributed on this occasion.
Books at that period were not thrown from the press with the rapidity and iu the
quantity they are at this time : book-shops were rare, and all works of standard value
were imported from England. It will be seen that among those which constituted the
first library here, not one was printed in this country. Not much addition was made
to the books previous to the Revolution, and in the destruction of the town, the little
coHection was widely dispersed and a number of the books lost.i Such of the books
as remained were afterward deposited iu the Portland Athenseum.
iThe History of Portland from 1632 to 1864, with a notice of previous settlements,
colonial grants and changes of government in Maine. By William Willis. Portland,
1865, p. 380.
20 Public Libraries in the United States.
REVOLVING LIBRARY.
A library, half public, half private, that dates from the same period
is the " Revolving Library, for the benefit of the first and second par-
ishes in Kittery, (Maine,) and one in York." This library, which, true to
its name, revolved bodily upon a small axis, was the result of a gift of
Sir William Pepperell and others of books from their private libraries
for use as above. The books were at first in the possession of the Rev.
Benjamin Stevens, pastor of the first church at Kittery from 1751 to
1790, and the collection had grown, by a special gift from Sir William's
son, until the whole library was quite a substantial one of standard
books. After Mr. Stevens's death the library for a time remained with
his son-in-law, the Rev. J. Buckminster, and then began its revolutions,
falling into the hands successively of the oldest settled minister, and
traveling about among the parishes. It probably never numbered
over three hundred books, and it may be guessed that its wandering
life was not calculated to increase the number of the volumes. "Two
years ago, (1873,)'' writes a friend, who lately saw the library, " when
the present pastor at Kittery Point took possession of the parsonage,
he found the library dumped down on the attic floor, like a load of coal,
the wife of the former incumbent considering books unhealthy, and so
being unwilling to have them in any living-room. The books are now
placed on shelves in the minister's study, and though man y have fallen
out of the ranks, it contains fine old valuable copies of the standard
works of the last century."
SOCIAL LIBRARY AT SALEM.
In 1760, a number of gentlemen united to form the Social Library of
Salem, Mass., placing the shares at five guineas each, and making the
number of shares thirty-two. The library could not have been very
extensive. A catalogue was published in 1809, showing about 800 books.
On a fly-leaf of the copy in the Harvard library is written :
A few of us also possess iu this town of Salem a Philosopaical Library of several hun-
dred volumes, including the memoirs of the French Academy from the beginning, the
Royal Society Transactions from the beginning, Memoirs of the Berlin Academy,
American edition of the British Encyclopedia, Harris's Lexicon Technicum, &c., be-
sides the philosophical works of Boyle, Newton, Wolf, Leibnitz, Bernouille, Buftou,
Franklin, Priestley, Maupertius, «&c., and works by Smith, Maclaurin, Leadbetter, Keil,
Stewart, Arbuthnot, Rehault, Spalanzini, Pringle, Price &c., and of several Literary
Institutions.
This library was captured during the war by an American privateer
from a vessel crossing the Irish channel, brought to Beverly, and sold
to the gentlemen of the Philosophical Society. It belonged originally
to Ur. Richard Kirwan, who, with very good grace, declined to receive
the remuneration which the society ofl'ered him.
SOCIAL LIBRARY AT LEOMINSTER, MASS.
The Leominster, Mass., Social Library was formed in 1763, with about
one hundred volumes. For fifty-two years it was kept in the library of
Puhlic Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 21
the Eev. Francis Grardner. The case which held it is still in the posses-
sion of his niece, Miss E. G. Gardner, and it is designed to deposit it in
the Public Library. It hardly seems worth while, perhaps, to call a
hundred books a library, but it should be remembered that at that early
day we were still colonists of Kiug George, and American literature
was still a thing of the futiire. In 1820 the books of this old library
were sold and the proceeds invested in a new collection bearing the
same name,
SECOND SOCIAL LIBRARY AT HINaHaM, MASS.
This library, still in existence and containing 1,750 volumes, was
begun in 1773. Owing to the absence of records no facts respecting its
earl}^ history can be obtained except that, in 1793, there were seventy-
six shareholders.
•The libraries, then, mentioned above, represent the chief means of
general literary culture open to Americans a hundred years or more ago :
one in Philadelphia, two or three small ones in Pennsylvania, one in
Charleston, one in New York, one in Newport, one in Providence, one
in Portland, one in Salem, one in Leominster, one in Hingham, and the
Revolving Library 'of Kittery and York. But the distinction between
these public libraries and the libraries connected with colleges was not
so great then as now, so far as the persons using them are concerned.
The Philadelphia Library was an exception and a very interesting one,
but the other libraries were mainly formed and used by the persons
who in other places, as Cambridge and New Haven, would be using the
college libraries. Harvard Library was at the service of the educated
men in Boston and the neighborhood, and the same is true of the other
college libraries, though they were, of course, most convenient for facul-
ties and students. The idea of a free public library has gradually
served to separate the great lending and consulting libraries from those
connected with institutions, which have gradually come to be more
strictly confined to the use of the ofiQcers and students comprising the
institutions.
COLLEGE LIBRARIES.' — HARVARD.
Of these college libraries the most notable is that of Harvard College.
The founding of the library was contemporaneous with the founding of
'Almost as soon as the first English settlement was made at Jamestown, Va., the
jnitial steps were taken to establish an institution of learning in the infant colony by
the grant, at the instance of Sir Edwin Sandys, treasurer of the London Company, of
15,000 acres of laud towards the endowment of a college at Henrico for the colonists
and Indians. King James, in 1619, issued a " brief" asking contributions from the
English churches to aid the company in "y^ erecting of some churches and schools for
ye education of y* children of those Barbarians." The sum of £1,500 was conti'ibuted
in response to the King's letter. Other liberal benefactions came in from other aources.
The officers and sailors of an East Indiaman gave £70 Ss. 6d. "towards the building of
a Free School in Virginia, to be called the East India School." In January, 1621, "a
small Bible with a cover richly wrought, a great Church Bible, the Booke of Common
22 Public Libraries in the United States.
the college. Like that, it was small and increased only by a slow
growth ; but the few books which had been gathered in the course of a
hundred and twenty-six years, were, almost without exception, destroyed
in the fire of January 34, 1704. This collection of five thousand volumes
was the most extensive college collection in the country, although it is
doubtful if it was intrinsically more valuable than Mr. Logan's collec-
tion then existing. The fire gave an impetus at once to the efforts of
the friends of the college to re-establish the library, and the records of
the college at the time enable us to form quite an exact notion of the
choice of books then made, and of the disposition cf the donors. The library
was to be constructed anew, and there is good evidence of the wide-
spread interest in the college both in this country and in England.
RESTORATION OF THE LIBRARY.
The fire occurred January 24, 1764. Governor Bernard promptly
sent a recommendation to the legislature that they should take measures
to replace Harvard Hall, and, accordingly, the sum of £2,000 was voted.
A general subscription was made among the towns and counties of the
Prayer, and other bookes were presented to be sent to Virginia, in the name of a per-
son who had the yeare before seat lor the use of the CoUedge at Henrico : S. Augustine
De ciuitate Dei, Master Perkins, his workcs, and an exact map of America. The giuer is
not known, but the books are valued at £10 0 0.
"Giuen by Master Thomas Burgraue, and Minister in Virginia, deceased, for the use of
the Colledge, a library valued at 100 marks."
In the same year the "gentlemen and manners that came lately home from the East
Indies in the two ships called the Hart and Boe-Bucke, being at the Cape of Bona-Spe-
ranza, homeward bound, gave towards the building of the aforesaid Free Schoole in
Virginia the summe of £66 13s. 4d."
Charles City was fixed on, from its convenience to Uenrico, as the place for the East
India School, and early in 1622 carpenters were sent from England to put up the nec-
essary buildings. The school was designed to prepare students for the college at Hen-
rico. There George Thorpe, charged with the preliminary work of organization, had
settled with one hundred colonists on the college lands.
Rev. Patrick Cppeland, chaplain of the East India Company, a zealous friend and
generous patron of the East India School, was appointed president of the New Col-
lege and general manager of its property. In April, 1622, being then in London, he
was " requested by the company to deliver a thanksgiving sermon . . . for all the
late mercies of God to the colony and for the bright prospects before them."
About three weeks before this, on the 22u of March, 1622", the torch and tomahawk of
the savage had laid waste the infant settlements on the James, and nearly three hun-
dred and fifty settlers had lost their lives — among them the noble Thorpe. The savage
deeds of that day drove all thoughts of peaceful efforts to civilize and educate the In-
dians from the minds of the colonists, who entered on a war of revenge and extermi-
nation against their savage foes. More than sixty years elapsed, and then Virginia saw
another and happily successful effort made to establish a college, which, in spite of re-
peated misfortunes, still lives, the second college in point of age in the United States.
For authorities consulted, see Annals of America, by Abiel Holmes D.D., volume i,
second edition, Cambridge, Hilliard and Brown, 1829; Old Churches, Ministers and
Families of Virginia, by Bishop Meade, volume i, Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott & Co.,
1857 ; and Papers Relating to the History of the Church iu Virginia, edited by William
Stevens Perry, D.D., privately printed, 1870.— Editors.
Ptiblic Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 23
State, amouuting to £878 16s. M., and Thomas HoUis of Loadou, a
former benefactor of the college, sent £200 for the same purpose. But
it was in the special gifts of books that the general interest was most
displayed. In May the overseers took measures to raise subscriptions
for the library. Mr. Hollis, writing some time afterwards, thinks " the
government of the college in the wrong, that they did not take a differ-
ent method to obtain assistance toward repairing their library than in
their weekly papers, (which are seldom read in England.) The method
most likely," he says, " was to have made the publication in all the Eng-
lish papers and magazines, to have engaged all the booksellers in
England in the cause of collecting, etc, etc., but as that was not done in
proper season," he recommends " that it be done now; that an account
of the fire and the loss be drawn up and published; that the necessity
and liberty and consequently the charity of contributing toward the re-
pairing the library be properly and pathetically set forth ; the benefac-
tions already received gratefully and genteely acknowledged, (studious-
ly avoiding the naming particular benefactors,) and at the same time
pointing out how very inadequate the books already received are to the
greatness of the loss or to the purposes of such a library; that all the
booksellers of any note in the kingdom be engaged to undertake for
you and appointed to receive donations; that some gentleman of letters
and leisure be pitched upon in London to correspond with them and to
receive the books or monies to lay out in books." ^
NOTABLE GIFTS.
Mr. Hollis gave something more than good advice. In addition to
his gift for the building, he gave a like amount to be expended in books,
and from time to time sent over special books which he had picked up,
and left a sum of money to the college, the interest of which is still ex-
pended in the purchase of books. The college had many friends in
England. Their agent in London at this time was Jasper Mauduit, and
much of the business was transacted through him. He writes, April
17, 1764:
I am to acijnaiut you that the New Eugland Company for Propagating the Gospel
with you aud parts adjacent at a General Court have ordered me to lay out £200 in
such books as shall be most suitable for those persons who shall be willing to qualify
themselves for missionaries to go and preach the gospel to and among the Indians.
You may therefore please to send me a list of such as were destroyed by the late fire
and will be useful.^
The society that gave this liberal gift had always been generously
disposed towards the college ; and some notion may be formed of the
standard of qualification for missionary work among the Indians when
the list of books, 1,101 in number, supplied for this laudable purpose is
examined and found to contain solid works in science and classical lit-
erature as well as in religion. It is evident that their conception of an
1 Harvard College Papers, vol. ii, 1764-178.5. ^IhiA.
24 Public Libraries in the United States.
education which would quality a man for missiouary work in Natick
did not materially differ from what they would have required in one to
deliver a Thursday lecture in the First Church in Boston.
Other English donors were the archbishops of Canterbury and York,
the trustees of the British Museum, who gave two folio volumes of the
Harleian manuscripts ; Messrs. Dilly, the booksellers, who gave Lang-
horne's Plutarch; A. Kiucaid, of Edinburgh, the King's printer, who is
credited with a gift of forty-three volumes ; and the Rev. George White-
field, who gave his collection of books, procuring, also, by his influence
a large number of valuable books from various parts of Great Britain.
The purchases of books were necessarily made in England, and the prov-
ince of New Hampshire voted £300 sterling to be used in purchasing
books for the library. A catalogue was transmitted to the Rev. East
Apthorp, in London, by whose care 743 books were purchased. It looks
as if the books were more costly than those purchased by the Society for
Propagating the Gospel. Besides these- large gifts and purchases, there
were many gifts of single books from friends living in America. Lieu-
tenant Governor Hutchinson gave his History of Massachusetts Bay,
in three volumes, and Harris's collection of voyages. John Greenleaf
gave Henry's Expositions, in six volumes, and Rev. Dr. Byles Caffellus's
Commentary. Mr. Fleet, presumably the printer and bookseller, gave
Thomie Willis, M.D., Opera, and John Hancock, Calasio's Hebrew Lexi-
con, in four volumes, folio, a work which that light-minded man was doubt-
less glad to be comfortably rid of. Hancock also made a very liberal gift
of £500 sterling for the purchase of books. Rev. William Adams, of Rox-
bury, is credited with the generous gift of " his sermons and other books,"
and Hon. Nathaniel Sparhawk, of Kittery, with six copies of the Dissent-
ing Gentleman's Answer to White, which may fairly have been distrib-
uted among those who were specially qualifying themselves to preach the
Gospel to the Indians. Thomas Palmer gave twenty volumes of Roman
antiquities, which called out a vote of thanks from the corporation " for
the nable addition he has been pleased to make to the library, of that
truly royal work The Antiquities of Herculaneum, and a complete set
of the remaining monuments of Roman grandeur."^ One gentleman,
John Barnard, of Marblehead, who wished to contribute his mite, added
also the sentiment : " May Harvard Library rise out of its Ashes with
new life and Vigour, and be durable as the Sun, tho' the Building is a
Nusance, and may the Blessing of Heaven continue upon that Society
at Cambridge and make it a Nursery of pure Religion and accomplished
Literature thro'out all Generations."^ The curious phrase respecting the
building is not probably as contemptuous as it first strikes the ear, the
word "nuisance" being used to' describe the condition of the ruined
building.
1 The History of Harvard University. By Josiab Quincy, LL.D. Boston, 1860, vol.-2,
p. 487.
-Harvard College Papers, ii.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 25
The growth of the library from this time up to the war was quite
rapid. The number of books caauot be determined exactly, but it
probably was not far from ten thousand volumes, and certainly the col-
lection was in many respects made with great care, the books especially
selected by Mr. Hollis being substantial and in good editions. The war
interrupted the work of the college, and the library was removed, part
to Concord, part to A-udover, and deposited for safety elsewhere. It
was iucreased also by the grant on the part of the general court of se-
questrated libraries from the possession of loyalists, which had been
deposited in the province-house, and in some stores.
COMPOSITION OF THE LIBRARY.
There is in the library a manuscript catalogue, not dated, but prepared
about this time, which gives the names of all the books in the library,
together with the names of donors ; and the first general catalogue,
printed iu 1790, is classified by subjects, and enables one to make some
comparison of the prominence given to certain classes of books. We
do not know how far Hancock advised as to the selection of books bought
with his £500, but they comprise the largest part of such polite litera-
ture as the library contains. Spenser, Chaucer, Pope, Dryden, Gay,
the Gentleman's Magazine, Vjltaire, and Rabelais were among his gifts,
while Hollis gave Milton, Boccacio, La Fontaine, and Shakspere. That
he should have given Milton is easy enough to understand, since he was
an ardent admirer of his works, and indeed of all writing that breathed
the. rarer air of mental and political liberty. The mention of Shakspere
reminds us how meager was the entire showing of dramatic works.
Franklyn's translation, the works of Moliere, Colley Cibber, one Igno-
ramus, and two editions of Shakspere comprise nearly the whole of
the dramatic reading at Harvard, but the general drift of the library
will be seen when we say that of the 350 pages in the catalogue of 1790
100 are devoted to theological tracts and 50 to theological books. Indeed,
the tracts, so called, constitute about two-fifths of all the titles in the
library, and indicate how considerably the authorship of the day was
expended on these ephemeral publications. They are by no means to
be confounded with the siugle-leaf little missiles which are shot out by
religious publication societies, but were frequently very solid produc-
tioQS. They answered to the articles in our periodicals to-day, to our
editorials and newspaper contributions, and, by their form and bearing,
testified to the high respect which men of letters entertained toward
books. A sudden energy of writing could find vent in a tract, but a
book was a much weightier matter. We note also in this catalogue
that its list of Bibles occupies three pages and a half, while three-quarters
of a page suffices for its periodicals. Books of travel occupy four pages
and Greek and Latin authors ten.
We have lingered over the Harvard library because the peculiar cir-
cumstances of its reconstruction render it the best exponent we have of
26 Public Libraries in the United States.
the literary taste and the resources of our ancestors a hundred years
ago. There were, however, six other college libraries in existence at
the same time.
WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE.
The College of William and Mary, in Virginia, was founded in 1692,
and a library at some unknown subsequent date was established there,
but it was small when the war of the Revolution came.^
1 The college of WilJiam and Mary was the most richly endowed institutiou of learning
in North America at the outbreak of the war for independence, its annual income from
all sources amounting to nearly £4,000 sterling.
The first commencement was held in the year 1700. The nucleus of a library was
formed, which was destroyed with fhe college building in 1705. The second college
building was not completed till 1723.
The record book of the faculty contains the following, under date of August 10, 1723,
desiring that the income of a certaiu fund, bequeathed by Hon. Robert Boyle for the
education of Indian youth, should be devoted to the purchase of books :
"Instructions from the President and Masters of William and Mary Col-
lege, IN Virginia, to John Randolph, Esq., now bound for England.*
"We have now in bank upon that fund about five hundred pounds, part of which we
desired to lay out in a well-chosen library, which wo judge necessary, and, indeed, the
most necessary thing that is now wanting towards the tinishing their education and
fitting them for what was intended, the being put in orders, and sent out pastours to
preach in their own country language, and instruct and convert their own people. As
we do not live in an age of miracles, it is not to be doubted that Indian scholars
will want the he'lp of many books to qualify them to become good pastours and teach-
ers, as well as others. And the fund allotted for their education being able to supply
them, what reason can be given why part of it may not be employed that way ? If it
be alleged that our College Library, it may be expected, should supply them, it may be
truly answered that at present our funds are so poor, and theirs so rich, that they can
better supply us than we them, and so it would be no hardship upon them, if whilst
we found them with Masters and Professors to teach them Latine, Greek, and Hebrew,
and Philosophy, Mathematics, and Divinity, they should in their turn help themselves
and us to a few necessary books for those studies. But we are willing to compound the
matter with them : we have, we can't say good store of books, but enough to. make a
good fouudation and beginning of a library, to the use of which they are welcome, and
if we were able, would buy a great many more, which we and they want. This want
is their loss as well as ours. What can be more reasonable thau that since their fund
is able to do it, and ours not able, they should contribute their share towards so neces-
sary means of education ? Some, perhaps, will be apt to object that by this means we
think to make a considerable addition to the College Library at their expense, and if it
were so, there would be no great harm in it, since the College Library is to be a common
Library to them and us. But the case will be really much better ou their, side, for what-
ever books are bought with their money shall not only be reposited in distinct presses
marked with the name of Boyle or Bratferton, and at their own house, (being without
the college,) but every particular book shall have that inscription on the back of it ;
80 that, as to the use we shall have the benefit of their books, as they shall of ours, yet
really the property shall not be altered. Every one shall know his own ; and this assist-
ance of books we think as necessary a means and instrument of their education, as the
paying for their victuals and cloaths, and master's salary, and medicine, and falls fully
* Papers relating to the History of the Church in Virginia, A. D. 1C50-1776. Edited by William
Stevens Perry, D.D. Privately printed, 1870, pp. 550, 551.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 27
YALE COLLEGE LIBRARY.
Yale College, established ia 1700, had, so to speak, its library before
it was organized, since its establishment was symbolized by the gift of
books. President Clap, in his Annals of Yale College, tells the story,
and as he also recites the several gifts which the library received down
within the desiga of their noble founder, and therefore we hope the Earl of Burlington
and my Lord Bishop of London (whose directions we are to, follow in the management
of this charity,) will easily come into it, and then there will remain nothing (for we
shall give you a letter of credit to the cashier of this fund) but to take my Lord Bishop
of London, our chancellour, his advice concerning the properest books for our use, and
thejr best editions ; and to help you in this choice you will have with you two cata-
logues, one of those books the college is possessed of already and another of those
which an ancient minister designs shortly to leave to it,* that you may not buy them.
" Upon this occasion, too, we must desire you to wait on his Grace, my Lord Arch
Bishop of Canterbury, who, as he has been upon all occasions a notable friend of the
College, so was pleased particularly to signify his good intentions of giving or'loauing
something towards our Library; pray render our thanks to his Grace, and so consult
him in the books you may buy for us, that he may have his share of supplying us with
what part of learning he thinks hiost proper, that what you buy may not interfere
with his Grace's intended donation. These are the chief things w'ch occur to us at
present. Perhaps you may meet with some charitable benefactors, especially towards
our library, that being at present our chief want, and as all this will put you to trouble
and charge though you generously say nothing of it, we shall think it our duty not to
be ungrateful."
In July, 1724, Dr. Blair, minister of Bruton' parish, Williamsburgh, as well as
president of the college, wrote as follows :
" We have not, nor never had any Parochial Library. The college has a small library.
The key is kept by one of the masters." t
In 1724, the Rev. Hugh Jones, A.M., minister of Jamestown, and chaplain of the as-
sembly, in his Present State of Virginia, published in London that year, thus refers
to the college :
"There is a library without books, comparatively speaking." t
In 1743, Dr. Blair died, leaving £500 in money and his private library to the
college.
Although the library was not extensive, it was, for the period, very rich and valu-
able and appears to have numbered from fifteen hundred to two thousand volumes.
The following letter from R. A. Brock, corresponding secretary of the Virginia Histor-
ical Society, dated Richmond, Va., January 25, 1876, and including extracts from a
letter of Dr. Grigsby, president of the same society and chancellor of the college
will be found of interest. After explaining his delay in responding to the request for
nformation, he says :
"Neither my own library, nor those of the State, the Historical Society, nor of my
friends resident in the city contained the desired information.
" Mr. Grigsby, the president of our Historical Society, from his long connection with
the college and his known familiarity with its history, appeared to me to be the most
likely resort.
" I have been awaiting his reply, which reached me yesterday. He writes :
" ' In answer to your inquiry about the extent of the library bequeathed to William and
Mary College by President James Blair, I am inclined to believe from the number of
books bearing his name which I have seen in the college library, that they must have
reached between six and seven hundred volumes. If you will visit Henrico Court-
* Dr. Blair, who was undoubtedly the author of these instructions,
t See Papers relating to the Church in Virginia, p. 300.
J Ibid, p. 547.
28 Public Libraries in the United States.
to L766, we give here ia succession the several paragraphs in his A.n-
nals which contain the record of the gradual formation of the library:
The miuisters so nominated met at New Haveu, (1700,) and formed themselves into
a body or society, to consist of eleven ministers, including a rector, and agreed to
found a college in the colony of Connecticut, which they did at their next meeting at
Brauford in the following manuer, viz:' Each member brought a number of books and
House aad look into the record of wills from August 1, 1743, when Dr. Blair died, you
■will find his will, which may throw some light on the subject. The scattered books to
which you allude [I mentioned in my letter to him haviug seen a number of volumes
on theological and philosophical subjects, bearing the imprint of the seventeenth cen-
tury, and niarked with his label of ownership ' J. Blair,' in printed red letters, having
been exposed for sale at public auction in this city some years since — two of them are
in my library — R. A. B.] were either some of those which the commissary gave his
nephew John Blair, the father of the John Blair of the Supreme Court of the United
States, or were taken from the college library by borrowers and never returned.
" ' Several months ago I saw in Prince Edward County two folio volumes with the book-
mark of Dr. Blair, which had been borrowed by Frank Gilmer and kept by him during
life. But the books of Dr. Blair composed but a small portion of the library of William
and Mary. I have seen there books bearing the book-plates of nearly all our governors
from 1700 to'1775, and of our leading colonial men. There was the finest edition of
The Fathers, in many folio volumes, splendidly bound and gilt, which was presented by
the Archbishop of Canterbury to the college between 1750 and 1760. There was one
set of works in folio that was estimated to be worth in England, thirty years ago,
nearly $700. I should put down the books in 1776 as between fifteen hundred and two
thousand volumes of the most valuable kind in Latin, Greek, French, and English.
" ' The splendid set of the Eucyclop6die M^thodique in thirty-three folio volumes was
presented to the college by Louis the Sixteenth, at the close of the war. It must be
remembered that as late as 1776, all our English classics were in quarto fjrm — Shak-
spere to Hume,. Robertson, and Gibbon.
" 'AnTong the books in the college library before 1776 and until 1859, when the books
■were burned, was the Biblla Sacra Polyglotta, by Brianus Waltonus, printed in 1657,
in six volumes, folio. As late as 1843, a distinguished English divine pronounced this
work the most complete biblical apparatus in any language.
" 'Another book of immense value was the Lexicon Heptaglotton of Edmund Castell,
two volumes, folio, 1669. As nearly two-thirds of the edition was destroyed in Eng-
land, this great work rose in value, and was estimated in 1825 by Professor Campbell
to be worth in England seven hundred dollars. It was presented to the college by
Robert Carter Nicholas. But these books, which I took a note of many years ago on a
"visit to the library, will show its great completeness and its great cost.'
"As suggested by Mr. Grigsby, I have referred to the records of Henrico County court
without success. I hardly thought that the records of the ancient James City County
would have been lodged in another county. Those of James City were all destroyed
during our late unhappy war, as I was informed some years since by the then clerk of
the county. There are about a dozen early volumes, however, preserved in the Hen-
rico County Court-house, the earliest of date 1678."
President Ewell of the college writes under date of December 19, 1875 : " The books
given by Dr. Blair counted by hundreds; a complete set of the Church Fathers, said
to be the best in the United States, among them. There were books given by Queen
Anne and the Georges — the first two at any rate — and by Louis XVI of France." —
Editoks.
1 The Annals or History of Yale College, in New Haven, in the Colony of Connecticut,
from the first founding thereof, in the year 1700, to the year 1766, with an appendix
containing the present state of the college, the Method of Instruction and Government,
with the officers, benefactors, and graduates. By Thomas Clap, A.M., President of the
college. New Haven, 1766.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 29
presented them to the body ; and laying them on the table, said these words, or to this
effect : " I give these books for the founding of a college in this colony." Then the trustees
as a body took possession of them and appointed the Rev. Mr. Russel of Branford to
be keeper of the library, which then consisted of about 40 volumes in folio. Soon af-
ter they received sundry other donations, both of books and money which laid a good
foundation. This library with the additions was kept at Branford, in a room set
apart for that purpose near three years, and then it was carried to Killing worth.i
[1713.] About this time sundry donations of valuable books were made to the
library, particularly by Sir John Davie of Groton, who had an estate descended to
him in England, together with the title of baronet. Upon his going to England he
sent a good collection of books to the library. But, the greatest donation of all was
by the generosity and procurement of Jeremiah Dummer, esq., of Boston, then agent
at London, who in the year 1714 sent over 800 volumes of ve ry valuable books, about
120 of which were at his own cost and charge, and the rest by his procurement from
sundry principal gentlemen in England ; particularly Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Richard
Blackmore, Sir Richard Steele, Dr. Burnet, Dr. Woodward, Dr. Halley, Dr. Bentley, Dr.
Kennet, Dr. Calamy, Dr. Edwards, the Rev. Mr. Henry, and Mr. Whiston severally
gave a collection of their own works, and Governor Yale put in about 40 volumes, all
which I suppose to be worth £260 sterling.^
[1717.] Last year he (Yale) sent above 300 volumes, both which parcels I suppose to
be worth £100 sterling. Mr. Dummer at this time also sent 76 volumes of books,
whereof 20 were folios, in value about £20 sterling.^
[1723.] Mr. Daniel Turner of London sent to the library sundry volumes of his own
works on Physic and Chirurgery, and a collection of other valuable books, principally
on the same subject, and particularly the large volume of Cowper's Anatomy. Where-
upon the trustees sent him a diploma, creating him Doctor of Physic*
[1733.] At the same time the Rev. Dr. Berkeley pursuing his generous intentions
sent to this college the finest collection of books that ever came together at one time
into America. The number was near 1,000 volumes, (including those which he had
sent before,) whereof 260 were folios, and generally very large. I judge that this col-
lection cost at least £400 sterling. This donation of books was made partly out of the
doctor's own estate, but principally out of moneys which he procured from some gen-
erous gentlemen in England.^
[1742.] Before this time there never had been any perfect catalogue of the books in
the library, for want of which the students were deprived of much of the benefit and
advantage of this. The rector therefore placed all the books in the library in a
proper order, (but in honor to the Rev. Dr. Berkeley for his extraordinary donation,
his books stood by themselves at the south end of the library,) and put a number to
every book in its proper class and box, and took three catalogues of the books as they
stood in their proper order on the shelves, and another in an alphabetical order, and a
third, wherein the most valuable books were placed under proper heads, according to
the subject-matter of them, together with figures referring to the place and number
of each book. By which means it might be easily known what books were in the
library upon any particular subject, and where they might be found, with the utmost
expedition. This catalogue was printed and was a great incitement to the dili-
gence and industry of the scholars in reading of them.s
[1765.] We have a good library consisting of about 4,000 volumes, well furnished with
ancient authors such as the Fathers, Historians and Classics. Many modern valuable
books of Divinity, History, Philosophy and Mathematics, but not many authors who
have wrote within these thirty years.
It was two or three years before this that the building was erected
which contained the library until it was removed to its present quarters.'
I Ibid., p. 3. 2 Ibid., p. 15. 3 Ibid., p. 23. * Ibid., p. 34.
5 Ibid., p. 38. 6 Ibid., p. 43. ' Ibid., p. 86.
30 Public Libraries in the United States.
THE BROTHERS IN UNITY AND THE LINONIAN SOCIETIES.
At Yale also should be noticed the libraries of the two societies of
students, the Brothers in Unity and the Liuonian, established a half
dozen years before the Eevolution, and numbering each a hundred vol-
umes or so at that time. These societies with their libraries were the
precursors of the many similar societies in all our colleges. The libraries
probably owed their origin to the almost exclusive attention given at
that time by the college libraries to learned works.
COLUMBIA COLLEGE.
The library of Columbia College, IS"ew York, was established in 1757,
shortly after the foundation of the college. Joseph Murray, an English-
man, who had resided long in New York as one of His Majesty's coun-
cil and attorney-general for the province of New York, left the whole
of his estate, including his library, to Kings, now Columbia College,
shortly after it was founded. Rev. Dr. Bristowe, of London, also be-
queathed his library of about 1,500 volumes. Gifts were also made by
the University of Oxford, the Earl of Bute, and others in England, so
that the library was one of considerable value at the beginning of the
war, but the same fate befell it which the Society Library suffered. The
college building was required by the British as a military hospital, and
the books were deposited in the City Hall or elsewhere. The consequence
was an almost total loss of the library, only six or seven hundred vol-
umes being found some thirty years after in a room in St. Paul's Chapel,
though how they found refuge there was a mystery to every one. Some
of the books still show the book-marks of Murray and Bristowe ; these
are principally law books, theological treatises, and other ponderous lit-
erature in massive folios, which probably were too heavy to be easily
moved and destroyed. Mr. John Pintard, founder of the New York
Historical Society, used to say that he had seen the British soldiers
carry away the books in their knapsacks and barter them for grog.^
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
The library of the University of Pennsylvania was a very small one,
being composed mainly of books procured by individual donation. Its
chief distinction at the time was in the fact that it was the recipient,
during the war, of a gift from Louis XVI of books printed at the royal
printing office, consisting chiefly of mathematical works and works on
natural history.
COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY.
The library of the College of New Jersey, begun in 1755, was also a
very small one 5 it was entirely consumed by fire in 1801. In 1764
an account of the college, published by the trustees, gives the number
of books as 1,200, all gifts of patrons in Europe and America.
' Address delivered before the New York Society Library on the one hundredth anni-
versary of its incorporation, November 9, 1872. By Thomas Ward, M. D., New York,
1872, p. 10'.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 31
RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE.
We have already noticed that Brown University, then called Ehode
Island College, depended at first on Providence Library for its books.
The collecting of a library however began early, and there are some
slight feeling references to it in the correspondence of President Man-
ning with the English friends of the institution. In 1772 he wrote to
Dr. Llewellyn : "At present we have but about 250 volumes, and these
not well chaseu, being su«h as our friends could best spare ;"' a pathetic
comment which a good many young libraries could echo. A few mouths
later he wrote to Rev. Dr. Kyland :
By the last ship we received the works of the great and good Dr. Gill, with fifty-two
folio volumes of the Fathers, etc.,. the gift of Messrs. George Keith and John Gill, the
doctor's executors. This is by far the greatest donation our little library has yet had.*
A year later, November 25, 1773, he writes to the same gentleman :
Rev. Benjamin Wallin of Loudoa sent me an agreeable letter, accompanied with all
he has published, in ten volumes neatly bound and gilt, with the most valuable works
of John Bunyan in six volumes, the Reign of Grace, by William Booth, and Wilson's
Sermons — all for the college library.^
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE.
The only other college library was that of Dartmouth, but as the col-
lege was founded six years only before the opening of the Revolution,
its library was insignificant, and can scarcely be counted as a literary
influence.
pennsylvajSIA hospital library.
The professional libraries connected with theological, legal, and med-
ical schools did not come into existence until after the present century
opened, with the single exception of a library connected with the Penn-
sylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, which comprised only about a hun-
dred volumes before the Revolution. The library began in a peculiarly
quiet way. In 17G2 Dr. John Fothergill gave a single book, Lewis's
History of the Materia Medica, and the next year the hospital began to
exact a fee from students attending the wards in company with physi-
cians, which was devoted to the founding of a library.
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY.
The American Philosophical Society, which had its origin among the
same persons who started the Philadelphia Library, had a small collec-
tion of books at the time of the Revolution.
friends' LIBRARY.
The Library of Friends, of Philadelphia, was established by a bequest
from Thomas Chalkley, in 1742, of his library, consisting of 111 books,
' Life, Times, and Correspondence of James Manning, and the Early History of Brown
University. By Reuben Aldridge Guild. Boston, 1864, p. 194.
^ Ibid., p. 200. 3 fbid., p. 221.
32 Public Libraries in the United Stcdes.
which was accepted by the Monthly Meeting, and a librarian appointed.
The collection was gradually increased by purchase and donations, but
received little attention until a special effort was made in 1765, when
the scattered books were brought together, new ones purchased, and a
catalogue made. It was not until 1794, however, that the library
became considerable, when it received a large bequest from John
Pemberton.
PRINCE LIBRARY A.ND PARISH LIBRARIES.
Perhaps this library ought to be included in what are more properly
parish libraries.
There are occasional glimpses of these before the Revolution, but only
two can be named that were of any magnitude.^ The Prince Library,
1 Among the early libraries in the colonies, the parochial libraries, former! between
1698 and 1730, through the efforts of Rev. Thomas Bray, D.D., founder of the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, were prominent. Owing to the
zeal of their founder and patron, these libraries increased in number and extent during
his lifetime. As we have seen, the first public library of New York became indebted,
in 1729, to the society above named for a generous gift of books.
The parochial libraries, though designed especially for the use of the clergy, and not
public, in the popular sense of the present day, were readily opened to students, on
application, and were doubtless, iu many places, the chief means accessible for the
pursuit of knowledge.
The number of libraries founded in Maryland by Dr. Bray was 30, containing
altogether 2,602 volumes; iu the other North American colonies 8 libraries, with 1,1G2
volumes, were formed; and books to the value of £50 given to the College of William
and Mary, in Virginia.
" Before his laborious and useful life reached its close. Bray had the satisfaction of
seeing not less than thirty-nine parochial libraries established in North America. The
chief of them was at Annapolis — the princess after whom the city was named having
given most valuable contributions toward it ; and others, containing in some instances
more than a thousand volumes each, were spread over the whole country, from Massa-
chusetts in the north to the farthest borders of South Carolina."* The assembly of
South Carolina passed an act November 16, 1700, for the i)reservation of a library
which Dr. Bray and others had sent to Charleston for the use of the church in the
province.!
"In justice also to his' indefatigable zeal to promote the knowledge of true religion
it is proper to observe that besides founding the above-mentioned libraries he sent
into America upward of thirty-four thousand religious books and tracts to be dispersed
among the inhabitants."]:
Rev. William Stevens Perry, D.D., of Geneva, N. Y., in a recent letter on the subject,
remarks: "It should be noted that the venerable society, independently of Dr. Bray
and the doctor's Associates, frequently supplied large and v aluable parochial libraries
to the missions they had established in America."
The largest of the parochial libraries sent by Dr. Bray was that of St. Ann's parish,
af Annapolis, Md., which numbered 1,09.5 volumes. This library was probably scat-
tered or destroyed during the Revolution, as no trace of it can now be found.
A library of 42 volumes was sent to St. Paul's parish, Baltimore. Respecting the
* History of tb^ Colonial Church, by James S. M. Anderson, M. A. London, F. «fe J. Rivington, 1848.
8°. Vol. 2, pp. 624, 625.
tibid.. p. 90.
1 Public Spirit illustrated in the life and designs of the Rev. Thomas Bray, D.D. Second edition,
revised. 8°. London, 1808, p. 80.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 33
belonging to the Old South Church iu Boston, and lately deposited in
the Boston Public Library, is a very valuable collection of books and
manuscripts relating to New England history, formed by Thomas Prince,
one of the early pastors of the church, and held after his death in 1758,
as the public library of the church.
NEW ENGLAND LIBRARY.
At the same time he bequeathed a separate collection, to which
he gave the name of the New Eogland Library, consisting of books
and papers either published in New England or pertaining to its his-
tory and public affairs. He required that this should be kept in a dif-
ferent apartment from the other books, that no person should borrow
any book or paper therefrom, but that any person whom the pastors
and deacons should approve might have access to it. This collection,
numbering in 1814 two hundred and fifty-nine works, was deposited
with the Massachusetts Historical Society.
remains of this small collectiou, Dr. J. S. B. Hodges, rector of St. Paul's, writes, Jan-
uary 26, 1876 :
"As a parish library it does not now exist, but in an out-of-the-way place in the
church I have found the following volumes, which must have formed a part of the 42 so
given : Five books of S. Irenaeus, ed. 1702; Scrivener's Course of Divinity, 1674; Du-
pin's Ecclesiastical History, vols. 1 and 3, ed. 1693; Dupin's Ecclesiastical History,
vol. 7, ed. 1695; Bray's Lectures on the Catechism, 1697; Sermons on the Apostles'
Creed. These are folio volumes, and most of th'^m are imperfect."
The following interesting sketch of a parish library sent by Dr. Bray to St. James
parish, Anne Arundel County, Md., is kiudly furnished by Rev. T. C. Gambrall, the rec-
tor of the parish. He quotes the parish record as follows :
" ' 1698. Books received by y« Rev. Chs. Hen. Hall, y« — of May.
'•'A catalogue of books belonging to y* library of St. James parish, in A. A. co., in
Maryland, sent by y* Rev. Dr. Bray, & marked thus, — belonging to y« library of Her.,
ring Creeke, Ann Arundell County.'
"There were two lots. The first was received in 1698, as seen above. The second
was received June 5th, 1703, sent also direct to Herring Creek, by Dr. Bray.
" The first lot contained 125 distinct works in 141 vols.
"The second lot was composed almost entirely of such works as catechetical lectures,
tracts, &-C., tli6r<^ ^-Iso being many duplicates. The total number of copies in this col-
lection was at least 200, several items being merely denoted as parcels. The whole
collection, therefore, in 1703, was about 341 volumes.
" There were, in the lot of 1698, 29 volumes folio, 19 volumes quarto, 93 volumes octavo.
"The second lot of 1703, not specified.
" Some of the works were iu Latin, while the subjects covered the whole ground of
the literature of the day probably, being in theology, (controversial, exegetical, and
practical,) in philosophy, geography, history, and travels. These works were also of
high character, many of them being standards to-day, especially, of course, those in
theology.
" Iu 1748 the catalogue is given again, when the list numbers 168 volumes. This is
probably the true number and the highest belonging to the library proper, the many
duplicates above mentioned having been distributed.
" The library was preserved very well, probably down to the Revolution, it being the
law of the colony that the vestry should, from time to time, visit and inspect it. In
1740 we find as one of the grievances of the vestry against a rector of the parish, the
3e
34 Public Libraries in the United States.
LIBRARY OF KING'S CHAPEL.
There was one other library iu Bostou of this general character, that
belonging to King's Chapel, of which the following account is given iu
the Rev. Mr. Greenwood's history:
With the new Governor (May 1698) arrived a very valuable present of books to the
church from the Bishop of Loudon.
In a footnote M r. Greenwood adds : "The gift of books was actually
from the King. This I infer from its being afterward called the King's
Library.'" But this might easily have been an abbreviated form of King's
Chapel Library.
A complete catalogue of them is preserved in the book of records of this i)eriod, and
an examination of it enables ^,e to say that they formed a theological library, which
was, perhaps, the best at that time in the country, and would be now considered as of
great excellence, and such as any institution or individual might be glad to possess.
It was carefully deposited in boxes made for the purpose by order of the vrardens, and
placed in Mr. Wyles' (the rector's) house. It has since been neglected, dispersed, and
abused in various veays, till the sad remnant was saved by being deposited, a few
years ago, in the Library of the Bostou Atheuajum.i
The books were, however, first deposited in 1807 with the theological
library in the vestry-room of First Church, an institution established
shortly before that. A catalogue of the theological library, published
the year following, keeps the books of King's Chapel Library separate,
and bears out Mr. Greenwood's estimate of the value of them. Those
given originally by the bishop of London are mainly the writings of
complaint that he would not give the vestry the key of the vestry-house, that they
might perform '"this duty 'as the law directs.' The catalogue of 1748 was m.nde after
the d ath of a rector of the parish, as part of a general inventory of the property of the
parish, of which the rector had had charge during his life.
"This parish suffered, though not to as great an extent as some other places, in the
general confusion which befell the church in Maryland during the Revolution, and as a
consequence the library was not carefully preserved. We find, however, in 1789 the
vestry returning to the convention of the diocese an inventory of the parish property ;
and in it mention is made of the parish library, though many of the books are said to
have been distributed about the parish. Since that time every vestige has hopelessly
disappeared."
In a letter relating to the affairs of Christ Church, from Colonel Quarry and others,
to Governor Nicholson, dated Philadelphia, January 18, 169^, (printed in vol. 1, His-
torical Collections of the Church in Pennsylvania, edited by Rev. Wm. Stevens Perry,)
occurs the following: "We hope your Excelleucj^ will also remind his Grace of Plate
for the Communion Table and a Library." , The following extract of a recent letter
from Rev. E. A. Foggs, D.D., rector of Christ Church, shows the present condition of
the library :
"The library belonging to this parish was probably established in 169.5, by the first
rector. Some of the books were presented by Queen Anne. It contains now about
2,000 volumes, and consists mainly of old and valuable and rare theological works.
It is for the use of the clergy of the parish."
The first books for this library were in all probability furnished through the efforts
of Dr. Bray, by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. — Editors.
»A History of King's Chapel in Bostou, the first Episcopal church in New England,
comprising notices of the introduction of Episcopacy into the Northern Colonies. By
F. W. P. Greenwood. Boston, 1833, p. 55.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 35
the Fathers and the theologians of the Church of England ; the addi-
tions, which were not very numerous, comprise controversial works,
and especially apologies for the Ohurch of England, as would naturally
be expected in a library for the use of the rector.
BEGINNING OF FREE LIBRARIES.
It will be seen, from this survey, that the idea of a free public library,
as now practically exemplified in several of our States, was not recog-
nized in itg fullness before the Revolution.^ The nearest approach to
it was in the liberty given to persons not stockholders to consult the
books in the Philadelphia Library. The growth of the system has been
in the conjunction of private beneficence with public aid, especially
where a system of free schools has developed a sense of the need
of a public library. It is interesting, as one notes the development of
the best known public library in the countr^^, that in Boston, to see
how a city, with old traditions of education and intelligence, gave no
significant indications of considering this matter until within one or two
generations. Before the Revolution there were but two libraries of
public character, both of those of theological literature largely ; Harvard
College Library, it is true, was close at hand.
mein's circulating library.
And mention should certainly be made of a circulating library, es-
tablished in 17(35 by John Mein, afterwards a royalist refugee, and kept
^ Public Library and Library of King fFiUiani's School, at Annapolis, Md. — In the library
of St. John's College, at Annapolis, Md., are deposited 398 tattered and venerable
volumes that tell of the existence of one, and probably two, public libraries in Annapolis
as early as 1696-97, four years anterior to the foundation of the public library at New
York, by Rev. John Sharp. The circumstances under which one of these, the " pub-
lic library," was formed, are made the more interesting by the fact that they were marked
by the first official recommendation in this country for the application of public funds to
aid in the maintenance of a free public library. In 1697 Governor Nicholson proposed
to the house of burgesses " that His Majesty, William III, be addressed that some part
of the revenue given toward furnishing arms and ammunition for the use of the
province, be laid out for the purchase of books to be added to the books which had
been presented by the King, to form a library in the porta of Annapolis; and that a
portion of the public revenue be applied to the enlargement thereof; and that the
library should be placed in the office, and under the care of the commissary of the
province, permitting all persons desirous to study or read the books, to have access
thereto under proper restrictions."*
The library was kept in the State-house uutil that building was burned in 1704, when
it appears to have been removed to, and united with, the library of " King William's
School," (established in 1698-'97, and still remembered with pride by Marylanders as
the school where the learned and eloquent William Pinckuey received his early train-
ing,) which, -with other property of the school, was, in the year 1785, given to St.
John's College.
Rev. William S. Sonthgate, of Annapolis, recently inspected the remains of this
* Anuals of Annapolis, by David Eidgely, librarian of the State Library, Baltimore. Gushing and
Brother, 1841, p. 92.
36 PuM'ic Libraries in the United States.
at the London bookstore. It numbered some 1,200 volumes and
boasted a printed catalogue. The yearly subscription was twenty-eight,
shillings ; the quarterly, ten shillings and eight pence. In his adver-
tisement he states that he was influenced to undertake it "by the re-
peated request of a number of gentlemen, the friends of literature."'
Mein was a bookseller, and it gives some indication of the condition
of the book business in Boston at the time, that he advertised, shortly
after, a stock of above ten thousand volumes. We suspect that books
were more freely bought by private persons in Boston than •elsewher6,
and we have seen how Franklin had recourse to bookstores and to pri-
vate collections of books.
ALLUSION TO AN EARLY PUBLIC LIBRARY.
There is one curious bit of literary history which points somewhat in-
decisively to notions of a public library at a very early date. In the
Mather Papers in the Prince Library there is a will of John Oxenbridge,
in which occurs the bequest :
Item. — To the Public Library in Boston or elsewhere as my executors and overseers
shall juf'gebest Augustine's works in 6 volumes,. the Century's in 3 vols. The cat-
alogue of Oxford library.
The will is dated Boston, in New England, the 12th day of the first
historic collection, and liindly furnished the following interesting description for this
sketch :
" There is an alcove in the library of St. John's College, Annapolis, filled with a
miscellaneous collection of very old books, presenting a striking contrast to the new and
fresh appearance of the contents of the other alcoves. They are all in their original
leather binding, and in a very dilapidated condition. Some are stamped on the out-
side of the covers, ' De Bibliotheca Annapolitana ;' others, ' Sub auspiciis Wilheluri III.'
The greater portion have no stamp, book-plate, or writing of any sort to show froiu
wliat collection they came. They are in all probability the remains of the library
established in Annapolis by Governor Nicholson about 1697, and of the King William's
School Library, mentioned by Eidgely in his Annal& of Annapolis.
" This collection consists of about 188 folios and 210 quartos, octavos, and duodecimos.
They are principally theological works of the editions of the seventeenth century.
Prominent among them are the works of the Church Fathers, such as Ambrose, Athana-
sius, Aquinas, Augustine, Basil, Clement Alexandrinus, Chrysostom, Eusebius, Epipha-
nius,Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory the Great, Origen, Theodoret, Theophylact, Grotius, and
Jerome. Among the critical and historical works are the ^Critici Sacri, 9 vols., fol.,
1660; Corpus Juris Canouici, 3 vols., fol., 1671; Concilia Generalia, 9 vols., fol., 1636;
Baronius, Annales Ecclesiastici, 5 vols., fol., 1601. Of English writers we find such as
Cave, Selden, Bishop Bull.Thos. Hobbes, Bishop Pearson, Goodwin, Charnock, Ham-
mond, Bray, Chillingworth, Jewell, Andrews, Patrick, More, Bishop Hall, and Boyle.
In the classics there are editions of Virgil, (2 vols., 1598 ;) Plutarch, 1574; Euripides,
1694; Aristophanes, 1607 ; and Delphine editions (1674 to 1691) of Claudian, Q. Cur-
tius, Eutropius, Horace, Livy, Martial, Ovid, Plautus, »fec.
" One of the most interesting books of the collection is a catalogue of the American
Library, presented by White Kennet to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
in Foreign Parts, in 1713, for use by the colonial missionaries in the West Indies.
" These books ard of littltj use where they are, and would be a valuable acquisition for
the library of a theological school."— Editors.
Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago. 37
month, 167f. Oite other reference appears in the town records for
March 11, 1695 :
Voted, that the bookes of the Register of birthes and deathes Ln the to^'a of Boston
shall be demanded by the Sslect-men, in whose hands soever they be, and that all bookes
or other things belonging to the library, and all the goods or estate belonging to the
Town, be demanded, aud taken possession of by the Selectmen. i
What called out this vote, and whether the library mentioned in it
had any connection with the shadowy one to which John Oxenbridge
bequeatlied his books, are questions not answered by any farther
knowledge that we have.^
' Mather Papers, vol. ii, 15. /Prince Library, Boston Public Library.)
2 There is some other evidence that a public library existed in Boston prior to 16S6.
In that year Rev. Robert Ratcliffe, sent to establish the first Episcopal Church in New
England, arrived from England and "■ waited on the council, and Mr. Mason and Ran-
dolph proposed that he should have one of the congregational meeting bouses to
preach in. This was denied, but he was granted the use of the library room in the
east end of the town house."
June 15, 1636, it was voted to pay " Mr. Smith the Joyuer,'' for making " 12 formes
for the servise of the church," and it was also voted to employ and pay " Mr. Smith
the Joyuer, 20s. quarterlie, for his cleaneing, placeing, and removeing the Pulpit, formes,
table &c.'.' The historian of King's Chapel, from whose work* the above extracts are
quoted, adds, "The accommodations provided for and referred to in the two last votes
were intended to furnish the library room in the town house in a decent manner for
the performance of divine service."
Holmes, in his Annals of America, vol. 1, p. 421, note, quotes from the manuscript diary
of Judge Sewall, referring to the efforts of Governor Andros to secure a place of worship
for the Episcopal Society, (16S6,) " It seems [he] speaks to the ministers in the library
about accommodations as to a meeting house."
Drake, the historian! of Boston, says that a committee of the Episcopal Society
applied to the council for the use of one of the three meeting houses for the minister
to preach in. " 'That is denyed; and he is granted the east end of y« Town-house,
where y« Deputies used to meet, until those who desire his ministry shall provide a
fitter place.' This ro)m contained a library."
The town house was burned in 1711 ; rebuilt the following year, and again destroyed
by fire in 1747, at which time " 'A vast number of aucieut books and early records,
together with a collection of valuable papers, were destroyed ; and to the ravages of
this calamity we may attribute the imperfect accounts that are to be obtained of the
first and second building.' "t
Probably the library was consumed in the great fire of 1747. The foregoing accounts
seem to prove indubitably that such a library existed at a very early date. — Editors.
* A History of Kings Chapel, in Boston, The First Episcopal Churcli in New England, by F. "W. P.
Greenwood, Junior Minister of King's Chapel. Boston, Carter, Hendee & Co., and Allen & Ticknor,
1833.
tThe History and Antiquities of Boston, by Samuel G. Drake, A.M. Boston, Lutber Stevens, lri36.
; History and Antiquities of Boston, p. 350, note.
CHAPTER II.
SCHOOL AND ASYLUM LIBRARIES.
BY THE EDITORS.
I.— COMMOi^ SCHOOL LIBRARIES.
intitonuctory remarks — historical sketch of common school libraries in'
New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Iowa, Indi-
ana, Maine, Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri, Cali^'ornia, Oregon, Illinois, Pennsyl-
vania, Kansas, Virginia, New Jersey, Kentucky, Minnesota, Colorado, in the
order OF establishment —School libraries in the province of Ontario.
Although the history of school libraries in the United States is
marked by many changes and mishaps, it would be untrue to say that
these libraries have entirely failed to accomplish the good expected of
them. From first to last, their shelves have held millions of good books,
affording amusement and instruction, and cultivating a taste for read-
ing in millions of readers, young and old. In a single State, New York,
fifteen years after the first library was formed, over 1,000,000 volumes
were reported in the school libraries, without account of the large number
probably not reported, and the still larger number worn out and lost
during that period. It should also be said that in a number of States
the school libraries furnished, for many years, the only supply of reading;
the imperfect facilities for procuring, and the comparative scarcity of
books, preventing their purchase. Thousands of youth, then as now,
left the district school to engage at once in the active duties of life, and
their only hope of retaining what they had acquired and adding to it,
lay in the » means of self-instruction afforded by the district school
library.
A careful study of the history of the school library system in the sev-
eral States where it has been tried develops the causes of the dangers
and failures that have attended it. These may be grouped in two classes :
first, defects and frequent changes in legislation ; second, incompetence
and indifference in the administration of the law. Premising that the
system of no one State or district exhibits all, but that, with a few
exceptions, each will be found to contain one or more of the evils, they
may be summed up as follows :
First. Defects of legislation: In permitting school districts to raise by
tax and expend money for libraries, without providing for State aid, or
supervision of the selections of books; in granting State aid without
supervision of selections ; in suspending at intervals the grants of State
b8
School and Asylum Libraries. 39
aid ; ia limiting the size and usefulness of the libraries, by permitting the
diversion of the funds to other purposes, after each had acquired a cer-
tain number of volumes, or for any other reason ; in not requiring that
a sum equal to the State grant to any district should be raised by local
taxation as a condition of such grant ; in failing to provide by stringent
regulations, in cases where the library funds were to be partly or wholly
derived from fines or other variable sources, for the full payment and
legitimate use of such funds; in not cultivating interest in the libraries
by holding trustees and other school officers to a more strict accounta-
bility for their management and preservation.
Second. Defects of administration : As shown by the selecting and pur-
chasing unsuitable and often improper and Immoral books by trustees
unacquainted with, or indifferent to, their merits or demerits ; by placing
the libraries in the charge of teachers whose interest in the school and
library alike terminated with the close of the school term ; by failing
to hold librarians responsible for the care and preservation of the books;
by perverting the library funds to other uses without authority of law;
by allowing the libraries to sink into neglect and contempt through
failure to provide regular supplies of fresh reading; by trustees fail-
ing to realize their duty and personal responsibility in respect to the
proper management and -preservation of the libraries, and their indif-
ference respecting the fate of the books; by a like indifference, in too
many cases, on the part of town and county superintendents ; by inju-
dicious selections of books by State superintendents and boards of edu
cation, when charged with the performance of that duty.
It is believed that an examination of the subjoined sketches of the
school library system in the different States where it has been adopted
will disclose all these causes as operating. The endeavor has been to
present each with as little comment as practicable, leaving the reader
to draw his own conclusions.
The brief sketch of the libraries connected with the public schools of
the province of Ontario has been introduced on account of certain feat-
ures, which seem to commend the system to those charged with the
administration of school libraries already in operation or which may be
hereafter established in the United States.
NEW YORK.
Kew York was the pioneer in founding school libraries. In 1827,
Governor De Witt Clinton, in his message to the legislature, recom-
mended their formation ; but it was not till 1835 that the friends of
free schools saw their hopes realized in the passage of a law which per-
mitted the voters in any school district to levy a tax of $20 to begin a
library, and a tax of $10 each succeeding year to provide for its increase.
Much apathy was shown, and few districts voted the necessary tax. In
1831, James Wadsworth, with others, had succeeded in getting the
State to republish and place in every school district in the State, Hall's
40 Public Libraries in the United States.
Lectures on School Keeping. The favor vvitli which this book had been
received and read by both teachers and parents, wjIs one of the practi-
cal arguments used to secure the passage of the law of 1835. Mr.
Wadsworth again came forward and agreed to pay one-fourth of the
first year's tax to each district in the towns of Geneseo and Avon.
Even this failed to get a response, and the friends of the libraries saw
that other means must be found or their plans would fail. Their efforts
were at last successful, and in 1838 the law was passed which was to
place within fifteen years over 1,600,000 books on the shelves of the
school libraries of New York. General John A. Dix, then secretary of
state, and ex ofiBcio superintendent of schools, from the first a zealous
and powerful friend of the movement, was charged with the execution
of the law giving to the school districts $55,000 a year to buy books
for their libraries and requiring them to raise by taxation an equal
amount for the same purpose. The law met favor everywhere savfe
among those who opposed the common schools themselves; so that
General Dix's successor was able in 1841 to report 422,459 volumes in
the school libraries; in 1842 this number had increased to 630,125, a
growth in one year of more than 200,000 volumes. In 1843 authority
•was granted school districts to use the library fund for the purchase of
school apparatus, and after that had been sufficiently obtained, for the
payment of teachers' wages, provided that each district containing more
than fifty children between five and sixteen years of age, should have a
library of not less than 125 volumes, and each district containing less
than fifty children, a library of not less than 100 volumes. Year by
year the libraries grew and multiplied until, in 1853, they contained an
aggregate of 1,604,210 volumes. Then began the period of decadence.
In his annual report for the year 1861, the State superintendent said :
Concurrent testimony from nearly every quarter of the State represents the libraries
in the rural districts as almost totally unused and rapidly deterioratinj^ iu value. The
whole number of volumes reported during the past year is 1,286,536, which is 317,674
less than was reported in 1853, although $55,000 has been appropriated each year since
that period for library purposes.
His successor, in his report for the following year, finds the libraries —
mainly represented by a motley collection of books, ranging iu character from
Headley's Sacred Mountains to the Pirate's Own Book, numbering iu the aggre-
gate a million and a half of volumes, scattered among the various families of dis-
tricts, constituting a part of the family library, or serving as toys for children in the
nursery ; . . . crowded into cupboards, thrown into cellars stowed away in
lofts, exposed to the action of water, the sun, and of fire, or more frequently
locked away into darkness unrelieved and silence unbroken. . . . The dark-
ness of this picture is partially relieved by the fact that the cities and larger villages
of thfe State . . . have been less negligent, . . . and that uud6r the law of
1858, as also by the sanction of the department under a previous statute, much of the
appropriation has been applied to the payment of teachers' wages. Still, iu the last
live years, $139,798.10 have been eSpeuded iu the rural districts for library pucposes,
while the number of volumes reported has diminished iu the same period from 1,288,070
to 1,206,075, a loss of 81,995 volumes as a return for the expenditure named. I think
this may safely be set down as among our permanent investments of the school fund
form which no revenue is derived.
School and Asylum Libraries. 41
In 1864 the legislature authorized all districts (11,000 in number,
according to Hon. S. S. Randall, formerly general deputy superintendent
of schools for the State) which received less than $3 a year for library
purposes to expend it for teachers' wages, and in all other districts for
the purchase of school apparatus, and this being supplied, to teachers'
wages. Mr. Randall observes:^
So far as the rural districts were concerned, and most of the city schools, this enact-
ment was virtually equivalent to an entire abandonment of the library system, mani-
festly and unquestionably a retrograde movement. It is earnestly to be hoped that
before the million of volumes still remainiug in the 12,000 districts of the State shall
have disappeared, this great and beneficent featureof our common school system will
be restored and placed upon a permanent and improved footing.
The diversion of the library fund to other purposes continues, and all
the official reports indicate that, in a majority of the districts, the people
have come to accept the diversion as a matter of course, and that in some
the very existence of a library at any time is rather a matter of tradi-
tion than of knowledge. The prediction of Superintendent Morgan, in
1840, that any diversion of the library fund to any other purpose, in any
case and under any circumstances, would lead to the destruction of the
libraries, seems to be fully verified.
The present State superintendent, writing in 1875, says:
The total amount of State appropriation since 1838 is $2,035,100. ... I doubt
whether more than one-half of the' State appropriation has, for many years, been used
for library purposes. ... It is safe to say that, at the present time, the amount
raised by local taxation for the mainteuance of district libraries is very small. . . .
The district library system has not worked well in this State and has utterly failed to
accomplish what was expected of it by those who inaugurated it. The libraries have
fallen into disuse, and in a large majority of the districts of the State have become
practically valueless. The number of volumes is annually decreasing. ... At
the date of the last report it was but 831,554.^ . . . Mr. Weaver's* plan for im-
proving and increasing the usefulness of libraries, was to prohibit, absolutely, the use
of library moneys for any other purpose, to compel districts to raise, by local taxation,
a sum equal to that apportioned from the State funds, and to permit them to raise by
taxation a sum four times greater than the State apportionmeut. He also believed
there should be a change in the method of selecting books — and in that belief I most
heartily concur. In very few instances are the school trustees competent to make
selections. I have no doubt that under Mr. Weaver's plan, the system would be vastly
improved. I have, however, been of the opinion that it might be better to consolidate
the district libraries in the several towns, and form joint town libraries, with a town
fund for their support.
MASSACHUSETTS.
School libraries in Massachusetts owed their origin to the earnestness
and eloquence of their advocate Horace Mann, through whose influence
a law was enacted, in 1837, allowing school districts to raise and expend
$30 for one/year and $10 each succeeding year to begin and support a
1 History of the Common School System of the State of New York, by S. S. Randall.
New York and Chicago, Ivisoa, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., 1871, pp. 363, 364.
* Valued, according to the superintendent's report, at $500,959.
Hon. Abram S. Weaver, late State superintendent of public instruction.
42 Public Libraries in the United States.
library; the school committee to select the books. Few districts availed
themselves of the authority thus granted, and four years after, iu 1841",
there were only 10,000 volumes in all the school libraries, while it was
estimated that one hundred towns iu the State were without libraries of
any kind save private. The friends of school libraries did not despair,
and in 1842, owing to their unwearied efforts, a resolution was passed
appropriating to each district that should raise an equal amount the
sum of $15 for library purposes. Neither this resolution, nor that of
1843 extending its provisions to cities and towns not hitherto divided
into school districts, gave more than $15 to any one library. In 1842
one-fourth of the districts formed libraries, at an expense to the State of
$11,355; they contained by estimate 35,000 to 40,000 volumes. The
applications for aid gradually diminished from 1843 until 1850, when
the law was repealed. The total amount paid from the school fund in
aid of 2,084 libraries was $31,260; the value of the first libraries was
therefore $62,520. According to the report of the board of education
for 1849 the value of all the libraries was $42,707 ; the number of vol-
umes, 91,539.
The school libraries have been superseded by free town libraries.
MICHIGAN.
The school law of 1837 empowered the voters of each district to raise
by tax a sum not exceeding $10 annually for the purchase and increase
of district libraries. Each district that levied the library tax became
entitled to —
its proportion of the clear proceeds of all fiaes collected witbiu the several couaties
for any breach of the peace laws, and also its proportion of the equivalent for exemp-
tion from military duty, which fines and equivalent shall be paid over by the several
officers collecting the same to the county treasurers, to be apportioned according to
the number of children in the townships between the ages of five and seventeen years.
An amendment, in 1840, directed that the fund arising from fines and
exemptions should be used for library purposes only. The act of 1843
provided for the establishment of township libraries and for an annual
income of $25 for each, to be raised by taxation ; it permitted the elect-
ors, after a library had acquired 200 volumes, to reduce the amount to
be raised by taxation to a sum not less than $10 annually; and it was
made the duty of the State superintendent to publish a list of books
suitable for school libraries. The law also empowered the electors of
any town to raise by special tax $50 additional for the purchase of
books for the library. The act of 1859 authorized the voters of any
town to determine what portion of the amount raised by taxation for
school purposes should be used to purchase books for the town library;
it also authorized the electors to divide the township library into dis-
trict libraries. The law of 1869 permits the electors of any town to
unite the several district libraries and form a township library. The
electors of a school district may vote a tax for library purposes.
School and Asylum Libraries. 43
The folio wiug, from the aaaual report of the State superiuteudeut for
1869, will iadicate some of the difficulties that beset the system :
The old law demanded $25 of the luill tax in every towu, ofteu absorbing the entire
tax. This, with the flues, or so much of them as could be coaxed through the hands of
magistrates aud county treasurers, was paid for town libraries. T'le books were dis-
tributed to the districts by the town clerk, to be returned by the directors every third
month for exchange. This would now require more than 60,000 miles' travel per
annum, at a positive expense to the directors, certainly, of $100,000, to say nothing of
more than 10,000 days' time. This was like putting "two locomotives ahead of each
other," as an old editorial friend once expressed it, "to draw a hand-car." The result
was, the books were generally hidden away in the clerks' offices, like monks in their
cloister, and valueless to the world. And what kind of books were they ? Some good
ones, doubtless ; but generally it were better to sow oats iu the dust that covered them
than to give them to the young to read. Every year, soon after the taxes Trere col-
lected, the State swarmed with peddlers, with all the unsalable books of eastern
houses — the sensational novels of all ages, tales of piracies, murders, and love intrigues —
the yellow covered literature of the world.
It was one of the first acts of Superintendent Gregory to secure a change in the
law, authorizing district instead of town libraries, so as to bring the books within
reach of the people ; and by the supervision of the board of education absolutely pro-
hibiting the purchase of bad books. The change was approved by the people, as shown
by three-fourths of the towns adopting it at the first election. But, alas! it was like
a new railway, fully equipped, and no provision for wood except as town meetings
might vote part of the highway taxes to buy it. The law failed solely because no
reliable means v/ere provided for the purchase of books.
. If we could have an honest administration of the fine moneys and 10
per cent, of the two-mill tax, I am sanguine we should soon be proud of our school
libraries.
The State superiuteiident's report for the year 1873 discusses the
question of school libraries, aud from it the following statements are
taken :
While it must be admitted that there are not a few who are decidedly opposed to
school libraries as a useless appliance in our school work, and many more are quite
indifferent to the subject, there are yet a host of earnest citizens, and among them our
most active educators, who believe the value of school libraries, properly managed,
can hardly be overestimated.
The opponents say, that though there was a time when school libraries may have
been desirable, at the present, when the country is full of books, aud they can be so
easily and cheaply procured by all, it is a waste of public money to maintain such
libraries. To this it may be replied, that although books are plenty, it is very far
from true that all or even a majority of the people can individually procure them to
any desirable extent. Multitudes are unable to buy them, and those who are able
generally will not, unless they have first acquired a " taste for reading." If one were
to go through the country and take an inventory of the books to be found in all the
houses, he would hardly be willing to assert that the people are supplied with books;
aud if he ask the people how much they find to the credit account of their finances at
the end of the year, and how strong (or how weak) is their desire for books, the answer
might sweep to the winds the belief he may have entertained that the people will sup-
ply themselves.
Very few districts are now voting sums of money sufficient to build up creditable
libraries. The whole system seems to have come into general disfavor, aud is, more
than any other feature of our school system, the one of which we are least proud.
Many persons attribute the ill success to the division of the township libraries to the
44 Public Libraries in the United States.
districts, and advocate as a remedy a retnrn to the township system. The townships
can return to that system at any time if they wish, but we have uo information that
any have done so. The township libraries have fared no better since the change in
the law than the district libraries. If any advantage has been gained it has probably
been by the latter. The radical defect and failure was in destroying all certain means
for the support of the libraries. The moneys from fines, &c., were never designed as a
support to the libraries, but were so appropriated by the constitution as merely inci-
dental, and to make the penalty for crime aid in preventing crime by an increased in-
telligence.
According to the same report there were 1,265 district libraries, cou-
taining 120,577 volumes, and 207 township libraries, containing 49,872
volumes, making 170,449 volumes. The amount paid during the year
for township libraries was $5,576,64; for district libraries $13,374.77,
making $18,951.41. There were added to all the libraries during the
year 14,836 volumes.
The funds are derived from three sources :
1. From fines for breaches of the peace.
2. Townships can vote a portion of the two-mill tax.
3. The districts can vote a tax for their support.
From the fitst source about $40,000 were realized in 187.3. From the second $2,122
were reported ; of the third we have no report, but the amount voted was small, doubt-
less. Less than $19,000 were reported as expended for books, showing one-half of the
fund, small as it was, illegally used for other purposes. Our law, as it now stands,
gives us an admirable library system, but there is a want of disposition on the part of
our people (save in exceptional instances) to vote the means for the support of the
libraries. Nothing is certain but the fine money, and that is wholly inadequate, (ex-
cept in the county of Wayne, including the city of Detroit.) Only seventeen town-
ships of the 955 voted anything the past year, and these in the aggregate less than
$1,500.
CONNECTICUT.
In 1838 there were but six school libraries, containing altogether less
than 1,000 volumes, in the State. In 1839 districts were authorized to
tax themselves for a school library. In 1840 the secretary of the board
of commissioners of common schools reported :
I do not find that anything has been done by districts to secure for them-
selves a library of useful books as they are now authorized to do by a tax not exceed-
ing thirty dollars
The school law of 1841 gave school districts the power " to establish
and maintain a school library." In .1842, the secretary reported :
Some assistance has also been rendered to districts, in purchasing and procuring
libraries and apparatus. In this way, to my personal knowledge, more than 3,000.
volumes have been added to district libraries.
A long period of inactivity followed, and the school libraries lan-
guished. In 1856 a new law was enacted, giving to each district that
would raise by taxation or subscription for library purposes an equal
amount, the sum of $10 the first and $5 each succeeding year by the
State. The first year after the passage of the law, $1,330 were appro-
priated by the State, and $2,000 raised by the districts for the " purchase
of libraries and apparatus." In the year ending March 31, 1875, the
School and Asylum Libraries. 45
State appropriated $2,865, and the districts raised $4,803.82 for the
same purposes. As the two items are not charged separately, it is im-
possible to know what part was expended for libraries.
By a subsequent modification of the law, large districts are allowed
to draw the sums named for each one hundred pupils in actual attend-
ance at school. High schools supported by towns also participate in
the benefits of the law.
There are 1,500 school districts in the State, and about 960 of them
have availed themselves of State aid.
^ The secretary of the State board of education writes :
The workings of the system are entirely satisfa ctory. No changes are required.
Local wants are provided for as local authorities prefer.'
RHODE ISLAND.
An act of February, 1840, gave the school committee of each town
power to appropriate out of the public school money to be distributed
to each district the sum of $10 annually, to be applied to the purchase
and maintenance of a school library for said district.
The law of 1845 made it the duty of the State commissioner of com-
mon schools to select the books for school libraries.
The earnest exertions of Hon. Henry Barnard, then superintendent,
resulted in the formation of school libraries in nearly every town in the
State, mainly by the subscriptions of generous individuals; and in 1852
there were some 20,000 volumes in all the libraries.
A period of inactivity followed, and in 1874 a new law was enacted,
which provides that the board of education " may cause to be paid
annually, to and for the use of each free public library," $50, for the
purchase of books, provided the library contains 500 volumes, and $25
for each addition of 500 volumes, though no library can receive more
'Many towns iu Connecticut, as in other parts of New England, enjoyed from an
early period the educational advantages of libraries. Salisbury was particularly fa-
vored. Before the Revolution it received from an Englishman engaged in business
there the gift of a library of 200 well selected volumes, imported from London. This
library flourished until the town was nearly a century old.
In 1803 Caleb Bingham, a native of Salisbury , editor and publisher of the American
Preceptor, Columbian Orator, and other school books, then a publisher aud bookseller
in Boston, wrote to his brother, saying : " I well remember, when I was a boy, how ar-
dently I longed for the opportunity of reading, but had no access to a library. It is
more than probable that there are at the present time, in my native town, many chil-
dren who possess the same desire, and who are iu a like unhappy predicament. . . .
I have selected from my shelves 150 volumes for the commeucement of a library for the
sole use of the children of the town of Salisbury, from nine to sixteen years of age.
. . . To the small beginning it is presumed the liberality of your fellow townsmen
will induce them to make such additions from time to time, as that it will at length
become respectable."
The expectations of the generous donor were not disappointed. The "Bingham
Library" lived and prospered for many years, supported by occasional grants of money
from the town, the first example, it is believed, of municipal aid to a library in the
United States.
46 Public Libraries in the United States.
than $500. The board of education is directed to oversee the choice of
books and secure their free use to the inhabitants of the town in which
the library is situated.
The law and a code of regulations were published in August, 1875.
These regulations seem so wise that they are here inserted.
1. The trustees or board of management of every library claiming aid nnder the
provisions of chapter 464 of the general statutes, shall show to the satisfaction of the
board of education that the free use of all the advantages of the library is granted to
all citizens of suitable age aud character of the town or city . . . including those
of the neighboring territory within a radius of three miles.
2. Every application for said aid shall be accompauied by a catalogue of the books
in the possession of the library, and also a written statement by the librarian of their
number and condition.
3. In the number of books reported as belonging to the library, only those shall be
counted which are in good condition for use. Furthermore, in such enumeration no
duplicate of congressional reports, State documents, or books of a similar character,
shall be reckoned ; but unbound magazines may be counted in their complete volumes.
4. With each application for aid following the first, there shall be tiled a schedule of
the books purchased with the preceding grant from the State.
5. Every library receiving aid from the State shall have a printed catalogue of all its
books.
6. Each application for aid shall be made to the commissioner of public schools, and
be submitted by him to the committee on libraries, who shall report thereon at the
next meeting of the board.
7. Every library receiving aid in accordance with these provisions, shall be open at all
times to the inspection of the board of education, or of any member thereof, or of their
agent.
Applications for State aid have been received from seven libraries,
the grants to which amount to $550 ; they contain, in the aggregate,
9,356 volumes.
The commissioner of public schools writes, September 25, 1875:
I think the indications are very favorable, and I am strongly in hopes that within a
few years we shall have a library in every village and town in our State.
IOWA.
By an act of the territorial legislature, passed in 1840, school districts
were authorized to impose a tax of $10 a year for the purchase and in-
crease of school libraries. In 1849, after the admission of Iowa into the
Union, a new law was passed, empowering school distri<its to expend a
portion of the money raised by taxation for school purposes for the for-
mation and increase of school libraries.
The growth of these libraries seems to have been sure though slow.
The whole number of volumes reported in 18G3 was 3,857; in 1875,
13,120.
In 1875 there were 3,670 school districts in the State.
INDIANA.
An act passed in 1841 authorized taxation, not exceeding $20 in any
one year, for the purchase and increase of a library in any school district
School and Asylum Libraries. 47
Iq the State. In 1852 a lavr was enacted requiring that a tax of one-
fourth of a mill on each dollar of property taxable for State purposes,
and 25 cents on each poll, should be levied during two years, and the
proceeds applied to the purchase of township libraries by the superin-
tendent of public instruction, under the direction of the State board of
education. The libraries were to be distributed by the superintendent
among the counties on the basis of population, but the injustice of this
method became manifest as soon as it was tried, and the books were
afterward assigned to the townships on the basis of school population.
Tbe sum realized in the two years was about $176,000. According
to the repoit of the superintendent of public instruction for the year 1855,
691 libraries, containing an aggregate of 135,378 volumes, had been
distributed.
Tbe revised school law of 1855 provided for tbe levy of a tax for one
year, and the whole amount received during the three years was
$266,597. Up to 1857, 226,213 volumes, costing $252,333, had been pur-
chased.
In his report for 1850, the superintendent wrote :
Sufficient time has now elapsed, since the first selection of hooks was distributed to
the townships, to test, to a limited extent, the capacity of the library feature as an
educational instrumentality, as an appropriate adjunct of our school system. It has,
even in the brief period of its operations, accomplished results equal to the most san -
guine expectations of its friends, and fully redeemed their pledges in its behalf. The
reports from many of the townships will show that the number of books taken out, in
twelve consecutive months, is from one to twenty times the entire number in the
library.
The libraries continued to grow until they were reported to contain
315,209 volumes in 1861, from which time they began to decline. The
superintendent's report for 1864 contains this significant sentence :
I have , . . again to urge upou the legislature to make provision for reason-
able, not large, annual additions to these libraries, and for better care of them, under
the full conviction that if such provision is not s)on made they will mostly, if not
entirely, waste away and disappear, and the immense amount of money invested in
them be lost to the State, and this powerful auxiliary educational agency lost to the
schools.
In 1866, $41,000 were raised by taxation for the purchase of books,
and about 29,000 volumes added to the libraries. The circulation of
books in that year was about 85,0U0 volumes; the small addition made
awakened interest, so that two years later the circulation was reported
at about 140,000 volumes, showing that the people craved fresh read-
ing. The additions since 1860 have been small, amounting, in 1874, to
only 2,510 volumes, while out of 253,545 volumes reported in the libra-
ries, only 85,306 were reported as having been "taken out during the
year."i
'The number of volumes reported in the Public Library of Indianapolis, April 9,
1874, was 14,560 ; the circulation of books for the year ending on that date was 101,281
volumes.
48 Public Libraries in the United States.
The average coudition and use of the libraries are fairly indicated by
the subjoined excerpts from the report of the superintendent of public
instruction for 1874, as reported to him by the superintendents of the
several counties named:
Bartholomefio County. — The number of volumes reported as belouging to twelve town-
ships is 2,572 ; the number taken out, 395. A few volumes of reports have been
added to each library during the year. Many of the books have been lost, the re-
mainder are in bad condition, and but little read. The expense overruns the benefit
derived. I would suggest that an appropriation be made to fill the empty shelves with
reading matter that will command respect by its worth; if not, our township libraries
will soon belong to the past.
Volumes in libraries, 2,572; taken out during year, 395; added during
year, 46.
Benton County. — The township libraries under the present arrangement are simply
of no benefit whatever ; not 50 volumes out of the 1,350 are reported as having been
taken out and read.
Volumes in libraries, 1,350; taken out during year, 45; added during-
year, 8.
Carroll County. — Our libraries are in rather poor condition, and poorly patron-
ized. Many of the books are stale, and people seem to take little interest in them.
Volumes in library, 3,428; taken out during year, 428; added during
year, 7.
Craw/ord County. — Each township has a good bookcase and the books are kept tol-
erably well. In some townships they are not kept as well as in others. They get
weak for want of exercise.
Volumes in libraries, 2,066; tAken out during year, 1,281; added
during year, 17.
Dearborn County. — Our libraries are greatly neglected, the people seeming to cane
but little for the books, they generally being supplied with fresher publications for
general reading.
Volumes in libraries, 3,518; taken out during year, 1,541.
Decatur County. — Contrary to what was expected the township library system in the
State, at least in this county, is comparatively a failure. Never have the advantages
been realized from it that its projectors expected. In this county the books are but
little read, and are slowly but surely becoming scattered and lost, and its complete re-
duction is only a matter of time.
Volumes in libraries, 3,637 ; taken out during year, 528.
DeEalb County. — Our libraries are in a fair condition, though in some townships the
books are not much read.
Volumes in libraries, 2,573; taken out during year, 50; added during
year, 1. There are nine townships in DeKalb County.
Delaware County. — The public libraries of the various townships of our county are in
a most deplorable condition. Many books are lost and but few read. I am afraid
many of our citizens do not know of the existence of such libraries. Our teachers, too,
many of them at least, are unacquainted with the character of these books, and hence
cannot call attention to them and make such recommendations to their pupils as will
enable them to read profitably.^ A great reformation is here needed.
Volumes iu libraries, 2,S2i; taken out during year, 600; added dur-
ing year, 11.
School and Asylum Libraries. 49
Fountain County. — Our township libraries are in general a failure-. They have been
poorly preirerved, often left to the mercy of visitors, and in this way more than half of
the books have been carried away and lost. They are now practically of no value, but
a decided expense. Unless we can get more new books, I hope the next legislature
will pass a law ordering the sale of our old books and that the proceeds be added to
the general school fund.
Volumes in libraries, 2,748 ; taken out during year, 546 ; added during
year, 60.
Franklin County. — The books in our libraries are well taken care of, but not read as
much as they ought to be. A small addition by State aid, or otherwise, to each of
them, would havfe a good effect in calling the attention of the people to their existence,
and attracting them to a perusal of the books.
Volumes in libraries, 4,062 ; taken out during year, 1,019 ; added dur-
ing year, 5.
Grant County. — Our libraries in some townships do tolerably well, while in others
they do poorly. When some one takes an interest in this work, as in other things, and
talks it up, invites persons to call in and examine the books in the library, the people
as a result appreciate the reading of such books, and are benefited ; while in some other
places no one speaks of the library, and it is considered a thing of expense for no profit,
for the books are not read. I am of opinion that there is advantage and great profit
in the aggregate, even as it is, though the books are not read as much as they should
be by our people.
Number of volumes reported, 1874, 2,556; taken out during year, 566;
added during year, 4.
Howard County. — By the statistical report you will observe that in our township
libraries are 1,820 volumes ; that not a book has been added ; that only 362 of these
books have been taken out and read.
Montgomery County. — The libraries are doing very well, being rarely ever molested.
If the case, box, or apartment wherein contained, is of good material and kept in the
dry, the probability is they will serve the next generation as well as t)iiey have this.
As a general thing they are composed of very poor selections, consequently they are but
little read. I am decidedly of the opinion that they are not worth what it costs to
keep them. If they were distributed among the different districts, and placed under
the charge of the teacher, I believe they would be productive of great good, and cost
the public less. As now handled they are of but little value.
Volumes in libraries, 3,728; taken out during year, 908; added dur-
ing year, 2.
Wayne County. — The libraries, in most cases, are well preserved, and centrally located.
The books, however, have been on hand so long that calls for them are not so frequent
as they would be had they a supply of fresh new books. It would be well, in my opinion,
to amend the law so as to permit the levy of a small tax by the township trustee, to
increase the books on hand from year to year.
The Morrison Library, in the city of Richmond, established by the generosity of a for-
mer citizen, has done and is still doing much to diffuse general intelligence.
Volumes in libraries, 13,459; taken out during year, 29,708; added
during year, 230.
MAINE.
By an act dated March 19, 1844, school districts were authorized to
expend not exceeding 5 per cent, of the district school appropriation
4 b
50 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
each year in the purchase of books for school libraries, and two dis-
tricts might unite their funds for this purpose. Few, if any, libraries
grew up under the above provision, and the State superintendent, writ-
ing in 1875, says :
We have no library system in this State recognized by the school laws.
The pioneers of Ohio were men who knew and appreciated the impor-
tance of common schools. When they began the building of the State
they also began an effort in behalf of public education. Amid all the
discouragements that beset them in the wilderness, their energy did not
flag nor their faith waver. The school law of 1825 gave place in 1837
to one more efficient,, Prior to this a State convention of friends of edu-
cation, presided over by Governor Eobert Lucas, met at Columbus
during the session of the general assembly, in January, 1836. One of
the resolutions adopted recommended that authority be granted for the
formation of school libraries.
The law enacted the following year provided for the appointment of
a State superintendent of schools. He immediately entered on his du-
ties, and, after traveling twelve hundred miles on horseback and visit,
ing three hundred schools, submitted his report and recommendations,
one of which was the establishment of school libraries. From this time
onward the advocates of the libraries were unwearied in their efforts,
and the legislature was constrained in 1847 to ena^t a law by which the
county commissioners of eleven counties, named in the act, were em-
powered to grant the whole crt* any part of the proceeds of surplus
revenue to teachers' institutes, one-half of which was to be devoted to
the institution of libraries for their use. This act was amended February,
1848, so as to require that all money used for libraries should be de-
voted to the purchase of common school libraries, and its provisions were
extended to all counties in the State having possession of tie fund
named in the first act. In 1853, after a severe struggle, the general
school law was passed, which contained a clause creating a fund by a tax
of one-tenth of a mill on the dollar, yearly, on the taxable property of
the State, '' for the purpose of furnishing school libraries and apparatus
to all the common schools in the State." It was estimated that this tax
would produce $80,000 per annum. The State superintendent was
charged with the duty of selecting and purchasing the books.
During the first three years after the enactment of this law 332,579
volumes were placed in the school libraries. A suspension of the opera-
tion of the law for two years produced its natural result, a diminution
of the number of books, and therefore of the usefulness of the libraries.
The decrease in the number of volumes reported was over 100,000. It
would not be fair to suppose that one-third of the books had disappeared
in two years ; much must be attributed to imperfect returns through
waning interest. As soon as operations under the law were resumed
School and Asylum Libraries. 51
and new books were added, interest was re-awakened, and for several
years they prospered. In 1860, a law authorizing the levy of a tax
for school libraries was adopted. In 1865, the number of volumes re-
ported was n:?arly 350,000.
From the report of the State superintendent for the year 1858 and
from other sources it appears that the selections of books for the school
libraries during the early years of the system were not in all respects
satisfactory, and some of the criticisms evoked, though severe, seem just
and reasonable.
It was felt that the libraries would command greater interest and
better care if, instead of being divided among the several districts,
they were consolidated and the town system adopted. Accordingly an
act, dated March, 1864, was passed, directing such consolidation, which
it was hoped would infuse new life into the system. The reports of the
State superintendent show, however, that this hope was not realized.
The libraries continued to languish. In his annual report for 1868, the
State superintendent said :
There can be little question that our township libraries have either fulfilled their
mission or are destined never to fill it. The books are scattered or lost in large num-
bers. Those that are gathered into the township central libraries, as required by the
amended law of 1864, are read by few or none but the families of the librarians ; and
in the townships where the requirements of the amended law have not been complied
with, the books, at least the great bulk of them, arehopelessly scattered or destroyed.
, . . Township school officers are puzzled to know what to do with the few books
remaining, and in many cases are calling for the privilege to sell them by public auc-
tion or to be otherwise relieved of their care.
The superintendent recommended that the books be transferred, un-
der proper restrictions, to voluntary associations, which —
already exist in nearly all our cities and in many of our towns and villages ; and if
the public school library books were turned over to these associations, or offered to
others that may yet be formed, a very commendable enterprise would be promoted,
and the books be properly cared for and used.
According to the report above quoted, there were 286,684 volumes in
all the school libraries. In 1869 there were but 258,371 volumes reported .
Since that year no statistics of school libraries have been published by
the State superintendent; the last mention of them appears in the an-
nual report for 1871, where allusions are made to them in the reports
from eight counties, without exception unfavorable.
The recommendations of the superintendent in his report for 1868
were in May, 1873, embodied in a law which provides that a majority of
the electors in any city or incorporated village not exceeding one thou-
sand inhabitants, may levy an annual tax not exceeding one-tenth of a
mill on the dollar on the taxable property, for the purpose of creating
and maintaining a public library, and on consent of the board of edu-
cation being had, the Ohio school library of the town may be trans-
ferred thereto.
An act passed March, 1867, empowers boards of education in cities
52 Public Libraries in the United States.
of the firsi and second classes to levy an annual tax of one-tenth of a
mill on the dollar on all property taxable for school purposes, for the
purchase of books for public school libraries. The law of February,
1868, authorizes the city council of any city of the second class to levy
a tax not exceeding one-half a mill on the dollar for a free public li-
brary and reading room, provided suitable accommodations are fur-
nished without expense to the city.
In several cities large public libraries have grown up, the creation of
which was due to the school library law of 1853. The article entitled
Public Libraries of Cincinnati, in another part of this report, will be
found to contain an interesting description of the most important of this
class, the Public Library of Cincinnati.
WISCONSIN.
The constitution of Wisconsin, adopted in 1848, provided for the for-
mation of school libraries in the same section which enacted that com-
mon schools should be established. The first school law authorized the
town superintendent to deduct 10 per cent, from the school fund and
with it buy books for the several districts. This law remained in force
until 1859, when it was repealed. In 1858 there were 1,125 district
libraries and 250 joint libraries in the State, containing an aggregate of
38,755 volumes. At that time there were 4,000 school districts in the
State ; there were 56 counties in the State, 20 of which did not report a
single library ; six others reported nine libraries, with a total of 131 vol-
umes— an average of less than 15 volumes each.
There seemed good reason, after summing up the results of ten years'
effort and finding them so meager, for the superintendent to recommend
the substitution of the township system.
In 1859 a law for town school libraries was enacted. By it a perma-
nent library fund was to be created by devoting 10 per cent, of the
school fund "subject to apportionment in 1860, and annually there-
after," and adding the proceeds of a tax of "one-tenth of one mill on the
dollar valuation of taxable property." This fund could only be used for
library purposes. The local school boards were no longer to purchase
books, that duty being devolved on " public authority." Unfortunately
the law was not specific, and a bill prepared by three distinguished
educators, who had been appointed by the legislature in 1859 to make
a revision of the school laws and report to the succeeding legislature,
presented to that body a bill which cared for all details. It failed to
become a law, and in 1862 the law of 1859 was repealed, the funds that
had accumulated, amounting to more than $88,000, being transferred to
the school and general funds whence they had been derived.
A return to the district system was inevitable, and iu 1863 a law was.
passed allowiog school districts to vote a tax of $50 a year, and, if the
district contained two hundred or more children of school age, $100 a
year for a library. In 1874 there were reported in the district libraries
Scliool and Asylum Libraries. 53
16,157 volumes, valued at $14,657.43, aud $809.77 had been paid for 776
volumes during the year. Six counties reported less than 10 volumes
each in their school libraries. Eeports were received from fifty-one
counties ; twelve made no report.
MISSOURI.
An act passed February, 1853, empowered the voters of any school
district to raise money by a tax for the purchase and support of a
school library. Few districts appear to have exercised the power
granted. The annual report of the State superintendent for 1868 con-
tained library returns from 14 counties only. The aggregate number
of volumes reported was 23,794, and 20,206 of these were in St. Louis
County. The last annual report does not contain returns from any
school libraries except at St. Louis and St. Joseph, the latter acquired
entirely by the donations of individuals and the voluntary eftbrts of the
pupils. A full account of the former will be found in the article entitled
Public Libraries of St. Louis, in another part of this Eeport.
CALIFORNIA.
Between 1854 and 1866 several school libraries were formed in Cali-
fornia, mainly by the efforts of individuals. In 1856 a little more than
$200 of school money was expended for books and apparatus ; in 1863
allthe school libraries were valued at $3,600 — one at Marysville con-
tained about 1,000 volumes; in 1865 nearly $6,000 were expended for
school libraries and apparatus.
The friends of education had long felt the need of placing books in
the school districts, and left no means untried to carry out the plan. At
length, in 1866, the recommendations of the superintendent of public
instruction, in his biennial report for 1864-65, were embodied in the
present excellent law for school libraries. The provisions of the law
and the results so far achieved are fully described in the following state-
ment from the State superintendent, made in 1875 :
A public school library is established by law in every school district of this State.
Except iu cities not divided into school districts, the library fund consists of 10 per
cent, of the State school fund annually apportioned to the district, unless 10 par cent
exceed $50, in which event it consists of $50, annually taken from the fund so appor-
tioned. In cities not divided into school districts, the library fund consists of the sum
of $50 for every 500 children between the ages of 5 and 15 years, annually taken
from the State school fund apportioned to the city. Previous to 1866, school libraries
had been established in connection with several districts; but the system of public
school libraries, supported by the State, dates from March, 1866. The State grants
rom 1857 to 1874 inclusive amounted to $169,009.75.
The only other source of revenue for supporting these libraries, provided for by law,
consists in fines, penalties, and fees of membership. " Fees of membership" are to be col-
lected of residents of the district who are not pupils of the public school, and yet de-
sire to become entitled to the privileges of the school library. But in point of fact no
" fees of membership," or fines and penalties have ever been collected ; and the libraries
have been established and supported exclusively by the State.
54 Public Libraries in the United States.
The libraries are under the direct control of the board of trustees or of education^
"who generally delegate this power to the teacher, who acts as librarian.
The State board of education prescribes a list of books from which all books for dis-
trict libraries must be selected.
The results of this system of public school libraries have been that reference books
have been placed at the disposal of the teacher ; the children have obtained access to
those best of teachers, good books ; and in hundreds, nay thousands, of districts, a store
of mental food has been placed at the disposal of the residents of such districts, which
otherwise would be beyond the means of all except the most opulent. Under this sys-
tem every district in the State established for any length of time has a good school
library ; and the legislature, at its last session, made it therefore optional with the
trustees to expend the library fund for books, or for apparatus, or for both. Up to
1874 the library fund could be expended only for books. Our system of public school
libraries has worked so satisfactorily that not even a wish for a change has been
An examination of the excellent list of books prepared by the board
of education in 1873 for the use of school officers shows that it is com-
posed with great care and a catholic regard for the tastes of all. Fol-
lowing it, no school d irector, however unfamiliar with books, can fail to
make selections that will gratify as well as improve the tastes of pupils
and parents alike.
OREGON.
While Oregon was yet a Territory, a law was enacted authorizing
electors of school districts to levy a tax for ordinary school purposes,
and an additional tax for the purchase and increase of school libraries.
The school law of 1854 charged school directors with the duty of ap-
pointing a suitable person for librarian when the district had procured
a library.
The State constitution, adopted in 1857, provides for the " purchase
of suitable libraries and apparatus" for the common schools.
The general school law, published in 1870 provides that the board of
directors may, " when authorized by a majority vote of the district,
. . . furnish their school houses with the necessary . . . libraries,
apparatus, &c." The sparseness of population and the difficulties attend-
ing the settlement of a new State probably constitute the main reasons
why the reports of the State superintendent do not show that school
libraries have been formed.
The first legislative action for the institution of school libraries ap-
pears to have been taken in 1855. Section 43 of the general school law
provides :
" For the purpose of . . . procuring furniture, fuel, libraries, and appa-
ratus, . . . the directors of each district shall be authorized to levy a tax
annually." " The directors may also use for the purchase of libraries and apparatus
any surplus funds after all necessary school expenses are paid."
It is thus discretionary with the school directors whether money for
the purchase of libraries shall be raised by tax or not. In 1874, the
School and Asylum Libraries. 55
date of the last official returu, there were reported in all the libraries
60,871 volumes. These, together with the unknown number lost and
worn out since 1857, the date of the first purchase, had cost $194,966.
Under date of April, 1875, the State superintendent of public instruc-
tion writes :
The statute makes no provision as to the manner of selecting the boiks, nor as to the
management and use of the libraries, each local board being left to the free exercise of
its own judgment in these respects. The omission to prescribe any rules or regulations
for the guidance of directors upon these important points must be regarded as a very
serious defect in our present law.
The State superintendent of public instructiou has no legal authority or jurisdiction
in the matter of school libraries. He may, however, in virtue of the general powers
attaching to his oflSce, give such information and advice in relation thereto as he may
deem expedient. Accordingly, Dr. Newton Bateman, my very able predecessor, near
the close of his term, prepared an extended list of books as an aid to local school
boards and others, in making selections for school libraries. The list was compiled
with great labor and care, and although it is purely suggestive, and of no official obli-
gation, it is believed that it will prove of great assistance to those for whose benefit it
was prepared, as well as to the cause of good reading and culture. The list referred
to will be found at the close of the tenth biennial report of this department.
Our present law in relation to the raising of funds for school libraries is a very liberal
one, and when supplemented by a few simple regulations touching the selection, care,
custody, and use of the books, the best results may be anticipated.
It is my purpose to recommend that the law be so changed that when a district
levies a tax for school library, the State shall grant an equal amount for the purpose.
Of academies, we have but few in the State, the public high schools having for the
most part taken their place.
PENNSYLVANIA.
School libraries may be formed under the law of 1864, by subscrip-
tion or otherwise, and it is the duty of the school directors to receive
and care for the same ; but they are prohibited from purchasing from
the school fund any books except those of a strictly professional char-
acter, for the use and instruction of teachers. No book, unless ap-
proved by them, can be placed on the shelves of the school library. They
are authorized to receive bequests and endowments for the benefit of
school libraries.
As might reasonably be expected, very few public school libraries
have been formed in Pennsylvania, and those existing are of minor im-
portance.
KANSAS.
An act approved February 28, 1870, empowers the voters of any
school district in the State to raise money by a tax, (in no case exceed-
ing two mills on the dollar of taxable property,) for the purchase by
the board of directors of a school district library ; and directs that the
purchases shall be restricted to " works of history, biography, science,
and travels."
The annual reports of the State superintendent do not indicate that
any action has been taken to institute such libraries.
.56 Public Libraries in the United States.
VIRGINIA.
Section 6, article 8, of the constitution, as amended in 1870, is as fol-
lows:
The board of educatioa shall provide for uuiformity of text books and the furnish-
ing of school houses with such apparatus and library as may be necessary, under such
regulations as may be provided by law.
Section 51 of the school law, approved July, 1870, directs that " such
apparatus and library as may be necessary shall be provided for on
some gradual system by the board of education." No school libraries
are yet reported.
NEW JERSEY.
Tlie act passed by New Jersey in 1871, to "encourage the formation
of libraries in the free public schools," provides that any school district
which shall raise |20 by subscription for a library shall receive a like
sum from the State for the same purpose, and that each year after shall
be entitled to the sum of $10, on the same conditions. The selection of
books and the administration of the library are placed in the control
of the trustees of the district.
In 1874 there were 1,369 school districts in the State. In the year
1872, 189 districts formed libraries under the act ; in 1873, 47 additional
libraries were formed, and 49 districts (raising by subscription the $10
required) received further aid from the State ; in 1874, 31 new districts
formed libraries, 28 made the first and 29 the second addition ; or, to
summarize, 267 districts have formed libraries ; 77 have made two, and
29 three additions.
The State superintendent of schools, writing in 1875, says :
The reports I receive represent that the books are generally read by the pupils and
by many of the parents. I am satisfied that the law has been productive of great good
in the State. I do not think the law for us could be improved by any change in its
provisions.
KENTUCKY.
The school law of 1873 provides that when, " by contribution, pur-
chase, or otherwise," 40 volumes have been collected for the purpose in
any school district, the trustee may organize a school library —
Provided, That none of the school revenues collected by general taxation for the
purpose of common school education shall ever hereafter be used to purchase books,
maps, or charts for the same.
It is made the duty of the State board of education to prepare a list
of books suitable for school libraries. So far as known no such list
has yet been prepared. No school libraries are reported.
MINNESOTA.
Minnesota, in March, 1873, passed a law authorizing voters in school
districts to raise money by taxation for library purposes, but no such
libraries are yet reported as having been established.
School and Asylum Libraries. 57
COLORADO.
The territorial legislature enacted a general school law February, 1876,
by a unanimous vote of both branches. Section 58 empowers the elec-
tors of school districts of the second class to levy a tax for several pur-
poses specified, one of which is, '• for procuring libraries for the schools/
In districts of the first class, L e., those in which the population exceeds
1,000 inhabitants, the board of education has the same power.
SCHOOL LIBRARIES IN THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO, CANADA.
It is thought proper to give here a brief account of the school libra-
ries of Ontario. The system was inaugurated at a time when similar
libraries in the State of New York were enjoying the season of their
highest prosperity, and it was in a large degree due to the example of
that State.
The act under which the libraries were organized was passed in 1850.
Its several provisions are succinctly stated by the chief superintendent
of education for Ontario, in his-annual report for the year 1874:
In regard to the free public libraries, it may be proper to repeat the explanation that
these libraries are managed by local municipal councils and school trustees, (chiefly by
the latter,) under regulations prepared according to law by the council of public in-
struction. The books are procured by the education department, from publishers both
iu Europe and America, at as low prices for cash as possible; and a carefully prepared
classified catalogue of- about 4,000 works (which have been approved by the council of
public instruction) is printed and sent to the trustees of each school section, and the
council of each municipalitj'. From this select and comprehensive catalogue the local
municipal and school authorities desirous of establishing and increasing a library, select
such works as they think proper, or request the department to do so for them, and re-
ceive from the department not only the books at prices about from 25 to 35 per cent,
cheaper than th e ordinary retail prices, but an apportionment in books of 100 per cent,
upon the amount which they provide for the purchase of such books. There is also
kept in the department a record of every public library, and of the books which have
been furnished for it, so that additions can be made to such libraries without liability
to send second copies of the same books.
The first purchases of books were made in 1854, when |51,376 were
expended for that purpose.
According to the report above quoted, collections valued at $152,419
had been furnished up to the end of that year. The libraries, exclusive
of subdivisions, numbered 1,334, an increase of 51 for the year; they
contained 266,046 volumes; the increase for the year was 7,167 vol-
umes; the sum of $2,668 was expended, of which the department paid
one-half. The character of the libraries is sufficiently shown by the fol-
lowing statement of the number of books belonging to the several
classes placed in them since they were formed : History, 45,664 volumes ;
zoology and physiology , 16,013 volumes; iotowy, 2,931 volumes; phenom-
ena, 6,455 yolumeH; physical science, 5,048 volumes ; /yeoZo^^, 2,328 vol-
umes; natural philosophy and manufactures, 13,722 volumes; chemistry,
2,403 volumes; practical agriculture, 10,187 volumes; literature, 25,237
58 Public Libraries in the United States.
volumes; ijoyaf/es, 23,931 volumes ; biography, 30,lSi ; tales a,nd sketches,
practical life, 75,4,13 volumes; ^c^to)t, 2,399 volumes; teachers' lihrarij^
4,134 volumes.
The report does not indicate the value of the libraries as expressed
by the extent of their use except in a few of the counties, but their
growth from the year 1854 to the present time shows clearly that they
are gradually increasing in usefulness as well as extent, and proves that
the law, excellent in itself, has been well administered.
II.— LIBRARIES OF SCHOOLS FOR SECONDARY INSTRUC-
TION.
RECEIVED.
Besides the libraries established in connection with common schools,
there are others belonging to schools for-secondary instruction. In sev-
eral of the States such libraries of academies began early in the cen-
tury. In New York they have been aided by State grants, under the
act of 1834 ; in New Hampshire aid was given at an early day to the
libraries of the academies. These collections have been multiplied as
different kinds of schools have been established, until now there is
hardly a school of any kind, seminary, normal school, commercial
school, or other higher school, public or private, without its library.
Statistics reported to this Bureau show that there are, in 826 such
schools, nearly 1,000,000 volumes. There are doubtless many such
libraries not reported. Statistics of libraries of this class will be found
in the general table in another part of this report.
Some of the high schools have received municipal aid for libraries.
In New York, as has been stated, many academies receive regular
State aid from the literature fund. The number of such academies last
reported was 234. They contained libraries amounting in the aggregate
to 163,669 volumes, the estimated value of which was $193,45L
Most of the collections belonging to these schools in the different
States are of a miscellaneous character, mainly consisting of gifts of in-
dividuals. The schools are for the most part without special library
funds; although in many instances means have been aff'orded to make
selections that would aid students in their course of study.
IIL — LIBRARIES OF ASYLUMS AND HOSPITALS.
Most of the institutions for the care and education of the deaf and
dumb and the blind, for the insane, for orphans, and other unfortunates
in the United States, possess libraries, many of which are important and
School and Asylum Libraries. 59
valuable. Belouging to asylums of the class first named there are re-
ported 52 special libraries intended for the instruction of the inmates.
The best known is that built up by the exertions of the late Dr. S. G-.
Howe, of Boston, in connection with the Perkins Institute for the Blind;
that of the Hartford Asylum, Hartford, Conn.; and that of the Deaf-
Mute College at Washington, D.C., under the charge of Professor Gal-
laudet. The last named institution is sustained by the General Govern-
ment. Others, begun later, have acquired a high rank in the class to
which they belong.
Asylums and hospitals for the insane are also to a considerable extent
provided with libraries. The best known is that of the McLean Asylum,
at Somerville', Mass.
Asylums for orpfians and others, maintained by State or city govern-
ments, or by private benevolence, generally possess libraries.
Beference is made to the general table in another part of this report
for statistics of libraries in the several classes above named.
CHAPTER III.
COLLEGE LIBRARIES.
BY THE EDITORS.
I.— GENERAL REMARKS.
Introduction — College and public libraries — Selection op books — Col-
lections SHOULD BE readily ACCESSIBLE — LIBRARIES FOR SPECIAL SCHOOLS OR
DEPARTMENTS.
The principles on which college and university libraries are conducted
should be quite different in some important particulars from those upon
which "public" libraries are administered.
The college collections of books should be regarded as instruments to
be kept in use, rather than as precious treasures to be stored up. There
will of course be in every State, and io most large towns, public libra-
ries, in which the attempt is made to bring together, and hand down
to those who come after us, all the publications of our day and of past
times! But a college library will be embarrassed by attempting to take
the place of the public library ; and the space at command, as well as
the corps of librarians it employs, may be given up to that which for
colleges will be of very little use.
The tendency among librarians is to increase the number of volumes
which are placed upon the-^library shelves, and this is largely because
libraries are usually rated by their numerical contents. Few college
librarians would have the courage to say, with the late Dr. Cogswell, of
the Astor Library in New York, " I would as soon tell you how many
tons the library weighs as how many books it contains." It should be
a question with every college librarian what gifts he will consent to
receive, or, at least, what gifts he will consent to embody in the main
library.
Again, the books which are received in a college library should be
arranged within easy reach of the persons who have access to it. The
librarian should not b.e a miser, hoarding away his riches where nobody
can easily find them, but a capitalist, constantly using his accumulated
wealth for the encouragement of further production.
A library may be rich in choice works, but if the rules of its man-
agement are such that these works can be approached only by a select
few and under restrictions as to use, or under other embarrassing regu-
lations, their value is but slight.
Not long ago the distinguished president of an American college.
College Libraries. 61
visiting the library of a foreign university, one of whose learned pro-
fessors had just published a work on Greek antiquities, was told by him
that three copies of Montfaucon's Antiquities were in the university
library, but he could not be allowed to take one of them to his study j
and as his working hours were in the evening, after the library was
closed, these three copies were practically of no use to him. He then
endeavored to purchase one of those copies, which was standing idle
within a stone's throw of his study, but there was no authority to part
with any of the possessions of the college, and he was consequently
obliged to import a fourth copy, at his own expense and for his private
use, from Paris, while the three copies the college owned stood dust-
covered on the shelves. But, as a college officer, the professor had the
satisfaction of knowing that the college law was enforced.
It also seems very desirable that a college library should be provided
with a room wherein cyclopedias and dictionaries and standard histori-
cal, scientific, and literary works are gathered, and that this room should
stand open through the evening and on Sundays. There are many even-
ing hours when students find their own rooms cold and cheerless; the
college library, or a portion of it, should be open from morning until late
at night, inviting them to investigation and reading. It is true that
most of our colleges have neither the proper buildings nor the force of
librarians requisite for this purpose. But the question is, what is de-
sirable, if the pecuniary means will permit. Certainly if it is well to
provide attractive and wholesome resorts for workingmen near their
homes, there is also occasion to provide them for those engaged in study.
It is a question now beginning to be asked whether the building up of
one great library in a college is as useful as the building up of several
special libraries in it ; or, rather, whether it would not be well to sup-
plement the great or central collection of books by special and tech-
nical libraries adapted to every department of instruction, literary as
well as scientific,
A college which should have all its philosophical apparatus — chem-
ical, physical, astronomical, and engineering — in one repository, would
seem ridiculous. Not that the literary and scientific apparatus are of
the same sort: yet it would be a great advantage to any college to see
the furniture of books provided liberally for every class and lecture
room, as a matter of course, as chemical and physical apparatus are pro-
vided for the scientific class rooms. Literary tastes would be quickened
and methods of literary research would be acquired under the guidance
of a professor who had around him, as in his own library, the sources of
information, much more readily than when obliged to send his scholars to
a distance to verify an assertion or prosecute an inquiry. In other
words, t^e ideal college library would contain, first, the books most in
demand by the professors and students, skillfully arranged, easily acces-
sible, and opened, in part at least, to the students from morning until
late in the evening; the promotion of scholarship being the chief thing
62 Public Libraries in the United States.
thought of. Second, a storeroom for such books as may rarely be
needed for the purposes just stated; but which, having come into the
possession of the library, may fitly be stored away for possible use in
cases of special inquiry. The first room would be the working room or
bibliographical laboratory ; the latter, the bibliographical storehouse.
Third, branch libraries in the principal lecture rooms, even though in
some cases it may be necessary to duplicate or triplicate such books as
are requisite for frequent use.
But, as has been already hinted, (and as will appear from the fol-
lowing sketches,) few colleges have possessed funds to build up li-
braries on a scientific plan. Their collections consist largely of the
voluntary gifts of many individuals, and hence are usually of a mis-
cellaneous character. Comparatively few of the patrons of our col-
leges in the past have appreciated the essential importance of ample
and well selected libraries. Recently, however, more liberal views have
prevailed in this respect. This, with fewer restrictions as to expendi-
ture, will enable college oflBcers to select with greater discrimination
and more definite purpose.
The library fund of Harvard College now amounts to about $169,000,
that of Dartmouth College to $37,000, that of Yale College to $65,500,
that of Trinity College to $35,000, that of Brown University to $25,000,
that of the College of the City of JS^ew York to $30,000, that of the Col-
lege of I^ew Jersey to $40,000, that of the University of Rochester to
$25,000, that of Wesleyan University to $27,000, that of Madison Uni-
versity to $20,000.
The gifts of valuable and special private collections to college libra-
ries have been numerous within the past few years. Noteworthy among
them are those of Charles Sumner to Harvard ; of President Woolsey
and Professor Salisbury to Yale; of G-oldwin Smith to Cornell; of Hon.
C. F. Ward to Lafayette; of Mr. Michael Reese, (Dr. Lieber's library,)
to the University of California; of Herr Schulze to the Northwestern
University, and of Stephen Colwell and Professor Rogers to the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania.
The sketches of college libraries here presented were, with two excep-
tions, prepared by the librarians of the respective colleges. Some of
these have been necessarily abridged. It is regretted that the limits
of this report preclude the possibility of publishing like sketches of the
libraries of all our colleges. Statistical information respecting all col-
lege libraries reported will, however, be found in the general table of
library statistics in this volume. Reference may also be made to the
chapter entitled College Library Administration, by Professor Robinson,
of the University of Rochester.
College Libraries. 63
II.— SKETCHES OF CERTAIN NOTEWORTHY COLLECTIONS.
University of California — Trinity College — Wesleyan University — Yale
College — Georgetown College — Northwestern University — Kentucky
University — Bowdoin College — Colby University — Amherst College —
Harvard College — Mt. Holyoke Seminary — Tufts College — Wellesley
College — Williams College — University of Michigan — St. Louis Univer-
sity— Dartmouth College — College of New Jersey — Columbia College —
Cornell University — Hamilton College — Madison University — Rochester
University — Vassar College — University of North Carolina — Ohio Wes-
leyan University — Marietta College — St. Xavier College — Dickinson
College — Lafayette College — University of Pennsylvania — Brown Uni-
versity— University of South Carolina — University of Vermont — Univer-
sity of Virginia — Washington and Lee University — Table.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIPORNIA, BERKELEY, CAL.
The nucleus of the library was formed from a grant of $5,000 by the
regents in 1869. Funds for the support and increase of the library are
dependent upon legislative grants. In 18Y4 the State legislature made
a special grant of $4,800 for the library, and with this sum large acces
sions are about to be made.
Many generous donations have been received, the most noteworthy of
which are the following : A collection of cyclopedias and other works
of reference from Mr. E. L. Gould ; the literary and art books, with some
scientific treatises, altogether over 1,000 volumes, from the library of
the late F. L. A. Pioche, of San Francisco ; the library of Dr. Francis
Lieber, about 3,000 volumes, particularly full in works pertaining to
political and social science, the gift of Mr. Michael Reese, of San Fran-
cisco; and the professional, library (about 500 volumes) of the late Dr.
Victor Fourgeaud, of San Francisco, presented by his widow.
The number of volumes now in the library is about 12,000, more than
double what it was in 1872. The library of the medical department of
the university numbers 1,600 volumes.
It is intended that the main library of the university shall be chiefly
a reference library. A branch circulating library has been begun, made
up in part from the duplicate books of the main library and in part
from donations. Two other branch libraries have also been begun, one
of agriculture, the other of the fine arts. It is hoped that in time each
department of instruction will be furnished with its own special library.
A very large collection has been made of newspapers illustrative of
the history of California.
The general library now occupies the main floor of one of the uni-
versity buildings. This is regarded as only a temporary arrangement,
until a suitable building can be built. The books are arranged by
subjects in alcoves, and in handsome cases made with reference to their
removal to another building.
64 Public Libraries in the United States.
TRINITY COLLEGE, HARTFORD, CONN.
The library of Trinity (then Washington) College was begun in 1824.
A catalogue was published in 1832 showing a very valuable collection
of books. It has been increased by gifts and by the income from sev-
eral funds which have been founded from time to time — the Bishop
Burgess, Elton, Sheffield, Peters, Alumni, and Athenaeum funds — and
which now amount in the aggregate to about $35,000. In 1862, by a
legacy of Ex-President Wheaton, his library was added to that of the
college; and about 1870, in the dissolution of the literary societies, the
Athenaeum and the Parthenon, their libraries of miscellaneous reading
were also incorporated in the college library. The whole number of
volumes now amounts to about 15,000, not including many duplicates
and unbound pamphlets. By the gift of the widow of the late president,
Dr. Jackson, his collection of works on mental and moral philosophy
will soon become a part of the library. The departments in which the
library is especially strong are Greek lexico graphy, chemistry, French
literature, ecclesiastical law, and liturgiology.
WESLEY AN UNIVERSITY, MIDDLETOWN, CONN.
The Wesleyau University was opened in September, 1831, and the
first step towards founding a library was taken two years later. Two
thousand volumes were obtained of Mr. Thomas Chapman, of Camden,
N.J. ; of these, 1,655 volumes were placed at a low price, and one-half of
this given by Mr. Chapman himself; the remainder of the 2,000 volumes
Mr. Chapman gave outright. Tnis collection was largely theological,
and contained some valuable old books, among others a very fine copy
of the Antwerp Polyglot. Some years later, 375 volumes from the
library of John Summerfield were presented to the library by his brother-
in-law, James Blackstack, of New York. No other large donations
were made for many years, nor had the library any permanent fund,
but it grew slowly from small gifts and small anaual grants by the
trustees.
In 1866 a library fund of $27,600 was raised by subscription. Since
1868 the income from this fund has been devoted to the increase of the
library. In 1868 Isaac Rich, of Boston, gave $40,000 for a library
building ; and in the same year the friends of the late Hon. Moses F.
Odell, of Brooklyn, raised a fund of $5,000 to be expended in the pur-
chase of books on American history, which should be placed in an alcove
bearing his name. The works purchased with this fund, together with
those on that subject previously in the library, number about 5,000 vol-
umes, and form a special collection of considerable interest and im^
portance. Another special collection relating to the early history. of the
Wesleyan denomination in England comprises about 700 books and
1,000 pamphlets.
College Libraries. 65
The library contains 26,000 volumes and increases at the rate of about
1,200 to 1,400 volumes a year.
The library has no printed catalogue. The one in use is a manuscript
card catalogue similar to that used in the Boston Public Library.
YALE COLLEGE, NEW HAVEN, CONN.'
According to the commonly received tradition, the first formal act of
the founders of the college was a gift of books for the library, iu 1700.
By successive donations, the chief of which were 800 volumes given and
collected by Jeremiah Dummer, of London, in 1714, 300 volumes received
from Governor Yale in 1717, and 1,000 volumes from Bishop Berkeley
iu 1733, the library had increased in 1766 to 4,000 volumes, and could
have been but little larger at the beginning of the Kevolution. During
the war the books were removed for safety to the interior of the State,
and the library suffered in consequence of the removal considerable
losses. Only 2,700 volumes appear in the catalogue of 1791, and not
until 1805 did the number rise above the point where it stood in 1766.
The first contribution toward a permanent fund for the increase of the
library was a bequest of £10 sterling from Rev. Jared Eliot, of Killing-
worth, in 1763 ; the second, of the same amount, from Rev. Thomas Rug-
gles, of Guilford, in 1777; the third and last of the century, of $1,122 from
Rev. Samuel Lockwood, D.D., of Andover, Conn., in 1791. In 1807 Hon .
Oliver Wolcott gave $2,000. A bequest of $3,000, made to the college
by Mr. Noah Linsly, of Wheeling, Va., was assigned to the library from
182L to 1851, and permanently united to the library fund in 1867. In
1823 Mr. Eli Whitney, of New Haven, and Mr. Daniel Wadsworth, of
Hartford, gave each $500. In 1833 Mr. John T. Norton, of Albany,
N.Y., gave $5,000, and in. 1836 a bequest of $10,000 was received
from Dr. Alfred E. Perkins, of Norwich, Conn., which still remains the
largest individual contribution to the library fund. A bequest made by
-Rev. John Elliott, of Guilford, in 1825, reached in 1843 the stipulated
amount, $1,000, and was added to the fund; subsequent accumulations
have raised it to $1,400. A legacy of $5,000 from Mr. Addin Lewis, of
New Haven, was received in 1849, and a gift of $500 from Prof. James
L. Kingsley iu 1850. In 1861 Mrs. William A. Larned gave $1,100 for
music, and in 1867 Dr. Jared Linsly, of New York, $5,000 (in ten annual
payments) for the department of modern European languages. Hon.
Alphonso Taft, of Cincinnati, gave $1,000 in 1869, and a like sum was
received from an anonymous donor in 1870. Mr. Charles H. Board, of
Edeuville, N. Y., who died in 1871, shortly after graduation, left $2,500
to the fund for the purchase of books on political and social science. In
the same year Mr. Henry W. Scott, of Southbury, Conn., a graduate of
the class of 1863, left a bequest which now amounts to $2,000, but which
is to accumulate until it reaches $5,000 before the income will be availa.
ble. The class of 1872 gave at graduation $1,700, and during the past
' For an account of the origin and early history of the Yale libraries, see pp. 27-30.
5 E
66 Public Libraries in the United States.
year Mr. Tbouias Hooker, of New Haven, has given $1,000. The sum
of these various gifts which make up the library fund is about $43,000,
of which only $41,000 are at present productive, yielding an annual in-
come of $2,500. Of the remaining gifts to the library the following are
the more important:
In 1834 the government of Great Britain presented the publications
of the Record Commission, 74 volumes, folio. Dr. William Hillhouse,
of New Haven, gave in 1847 a copy of the Description de I'figypte, 23
volumes, folio. President Woolsey, in * 1861, gave his valuable Greek
library of nearly 1,000 volumes, and has since made important gifts to
this and other departments of the library. In 1870 Prof. Edward E.
Salisbury gave his library of Oriental books and manuscripts, adding
the sum of $6,000 for the increase of the already costly collection,
which he now sustains by a further annual gift of $600. This collec-
tion, which now contains 3,600 volumes of printed books, including
many rare and expensive works, and 90 Oriental manuscripts, is the
choicest portion of the college library and the most valuable gift it has
ever received. In 1871 Mr. Charles Astor Bristed gave $500 for addi-
tions to the department of classical philology, and in the same year the
library of Robert von Mohl, the eminent writer on political science, was
purchased at a cost of $3,600, toward which Hon. William Walter
Phelps contributed $1,400. Mr. Phelps has also assigned to the library
the two years past and has promised for the next few years the income
($3,510) of a fund of $50,000 left in trust for the benefit of the college
by his father, the late Mr. John J. Phelps. In 1873 Mr. Henry Farnam,
of New Haven, gave $1,000, and Mr. George Peabody Wetmore, of
Newport, R. L, $500, for discretionary uses, and Mr. Frederick W.
Stevens, of New York, and Prof. O. C. Marsh, each, $500 for Chinese
and Japanese literature. During the past year two large and valuable
series have been presented to the library : a bound set of the Parlia-
mentary Papers, 1865 to 1873 inclusive, in 742 volumes, by Hon. James
E. English; and Migue's Patrology, both the Greek and the Latin series,
complete, in 387 volumes, by Mr. Henry Farnam.
To Prof. James D. Dana the library has been repeatedly indebted for
large and valuable gifts, especially of scientific journals. Mr. Richard
S. Fellowes, of New Haven, and Rev. Edgar L. Heermance, of White
Plains, N. y., have each given within the past few years several expen-
sive sets of books.
The growth of the library during the last century has been already
given. At subsequent dates the numbers have been as follows: In
1808, 4,700 volumes; in 1823, 6,500 volumes ; in 1835, 10,000 volumes;
in 1850, 21,000 volumes; in 1860, 38,000 volumes; in 1870, 55,000 vol-
umes; in 1875, 78,000 volumes, to which must be added at least 25,000
unbound pamphlets. The average annual growth for the last ten years
has been a little more than 3,000 volumes, and for the last five years
College Libraries. 67
The present annual income for the increase of the library derived
from the library fund, the Phelps fund, and Professor Salisbury's annual
gift, amounts to $6,600.
The other libraries of the university, hereafter to be described, which
number, collectively, half as many volumes as the college library, have
naturally had an important influence in shaping its character. Certain
departments are left almost wholly to these special libraries, and in all
cases care is taken to avoid needless duplication.
Of the manuscripts in the possession of the library the most impor-
tant are the Oriental manuscripts of the Salisbury collection, which are
chiefly Arabic, and the paf)ers of President Stiles, collected in about
fifty volumes, which are of much value for the period of American his-
tory between 1755 and 1795.
Catalogues ofthe library were printed in 1743, 1755, 1791, 1808,
and 1823. The present catalogue is on cards,* and contains an index
both of authors and of subjects.
In the library is also deposited the collection of coins belong-
ing to the college, which has been mostly formed since 1858, and to
a great extent by gifts. The principal donors have been Mr. Henry
Champion, Dr. Andrew T. Pratt, Mr. C. Wyllys Betts, Mrs. Augustus
R. Street^ Hon. Charles William Bradley, Mrs. Noah Porter, and Rev.
Oliver Crane, D.D. The collection now numbers 9,000 pieces, of which
3,000 are Greek and Roman. The duplicates, not included in this
enumeration, amount to two or three thousand. A catalogue was
printed in 1863, when the collection was less than one-third its present
size. Another has been recently prepared by the curator. Dr. Jonathan
Edwards, but is not yet printed.
FourslabSjpovered with Assyrian sculpturesand inscriptions, obtained
from Nimroud in 1855, through the kind services of Rev. W. F. Wil-
liams, of Mosul, are set up in the main hall ofthe library.
On- the removal ofthe college from Saybrook, in 1718, the library was
placed in the newly erected college building named in honor of Gov-
ernor Yale. It was afterwards successively transferred to the upper
floors of the Athenaeum, the Lyceum, and the chapel. The present
library building was begun in 1843, and completed in 1846, at a cost of
$34,000. Subscriptions amounting to $18,000 were received in aid of
the building, the largest being $6,000, from Professor Edward E. Salis-
bury, and $3,000 from President Woolsey.
Until 1805, the senior tutor oflBciated as librarian. The following per-
sons have held the office since that date: Prof. James L. Kingsley,
1805-1824 J Prof. Josiah W. Gibbs, 1824-1843 : Mr. Ed ward C. Herrick,
1843-1858; Prof. Daniel C. Gilman, 1856-1865 ; Mr. Addison Van Name
since 1865. Since 1869 Mr. Franklin B. Dexter has held the appoint-
ment of assistant librarian.
Linonian and Brothers Library.
Of the auxiliary libraries grouped about the college library, the oldest
and most closely connected with it are the libraries of the two public
f?8 Public Libraries in the United States.
societies, the Linoniau and the Brothers iu Unity. Starting very nearly
together, the former in 1769, and the latter shortly after, the rivalry be-
tween them never suffered either to fall far behind the other, and the
statistics of one are sufficiently exact for both. The Linonian library
contained, in 1800, 475 volnmss; in 1822, 1,200 volumes; in 1831, 3,500
volumes; in 1840, 10,000 volumes; in 1860, 12,000 volumes; in 1870,
13,000 volumes. The last catalogue of the Linonian Library was pub-
lished in 18G0; of the Brothers in Unity in 185L In 1871, by votes of
the two societies, the libraries were placed under the charge of the
college library committee, and in 1872 they were united, re-arranged, and
a new catalogue printed. A few hundred volumes, more appropriate
to the college library, were transferred thither ; several thousand dupli-
cates were set aside for sale and exchange, and the number of volumes
in the united libraries thereby reduced to 17,000. Subsequent additions
have raised it to ] 9,000, an increase in the last three years of 2,000 vol-
umes. In place of the voluntary subscriptions and donations by which
the old libraries were sustained, a tax is now laid on the undergraduates
for the- support of this library and of a reading room opened in one of
the college buildings in 1867. An annual income of about $2,000 is
available for the increase of the library.
These libraries have always preserved a character distinct from that
of the college library. While they were independent organizations, the
college library, from necessity as well as of choice, respected the prov.
ince which they had chosen, that of general literature, and now that
they are placed under the same control, this mutual relation is kept
still more carefully in view.
A third society, the Calliopean, organized in 1819, was discontinued in
1854, and its library, amounting to about 6,000 volumes, sold.
Library of the Law School.
The Yale Law School, which grew out of a private law sc hool opened
in New Haven during the first decade of the present century, and which
celebrated in 1874 the fiftieth anniversary of its connection with the col-
lege, had no separate library before 1845. In that year, on the death of
Judge Samuel J. Hitchcock, one of the instructors, his library was pur-
chased for the school nnd considerably enlarged, at a total cost of about
$5,000. One-half the expense was borne by the college, and the remainder
contributed chiefly by members of the N ew Haven bar. The subsequent
additions down to the year 1872 were hardly sufficient to make good the
losses which the library suffered from the want of proper supervision.
During the past three years a sum exceeding $16,000, contributed by
friends and alumni of the school, mostly residents of New Haven and New
York, has been expended on the library. A library fund of $10,000 was
also given by Hon. James E. English in 1873. The number of volumes,
which in 1872 was 1,800, is new 8,000. The series of American, Eng-
lish, and Irish reports is complete, and the library is well provided with
works in jurisprudence, and international law.
College Libraries. 69
Tu 1873 the library, which had beea previously kept ia the old lecture
room, was removed, together with the school, to the third story of the new
court-house, where it is provided with elegant apartments, free of charge,
the services which it renders the courts beihg regarded as a full equiva-
lent for the hospitality it receives.
The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The Connecticuc Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded in 1790, re-
sumed in 1866, after an interval of half a century, publication under its
own name, and has since entered into relations of exchange with a
goodly number of American and foreign societies; Lists of the ex-
changes received are printed in the Thxnsactions of the Academy, the
third volume of which is now in progress. They amount thus far to
about 700 volumes, the yearly average for the past three years being
125 volumes. The academy does not, however, maintain a sei)arate
library. Its books are incorporated in the library of Yale College, the
librarian of which has been, since 1866, also the librarian of the academy.
Library of the Sheffield Scientific School.
In 1866 Mr. Joseph E. Sheffield, in enlarging the building which he
had previously given to the school, provided an elegant library room,
and gave a library fund of $10,000, afterward increased to $ 12,000. At
the same time a few gentlemen of 'New Haven and New York contrib-
uted 12,000 for immediate purchases of books. In 1869 Mr. Sheffield
purchased, at a cost of $4,000, and presented to the school, the valuable
mathematical library collected by Dr. William Hillhouse, of New Haven.
A catalogue of this library, which is devoted principally to pure math-
ematics, was printed in the fifth annual report of the school, (1889-70.)
Subsequently Dr. Hillhouse gave $500 for the binding of the unbound
portion of the collection.
The library contains at present about 5,000 volumes. A large part of
the annual income is expended for current scientific journals.
Libraries of the Yale Theological Seminary.
The Theological Seminary has two libraries.
I. The Troivbridge Reference Library. — This was established mainly by
the liberality of Mr. Henry Trowbridge, of New Haven, who, on thecom-
pletion of East Divinity Hall in 1870, gave $1,000 for the fitting up of
the library room, and $3,000 to provide the most needful books of ref-
erence. He has since made annual gifts of $200 and $300 for the pur-
chase of the more important of the new theological publications. In
1870 a legacy of $500 was received from Mrs. Clarissa B. Butterfield, of
New Haven. Rev. E. Goodrich Smith, of Washington, D.G., who had
jjreviously made considerable gifts of books, at his death, in 1873, left
one thousand volumes to the seminary. The present number of volumes
70 Public Libraries in the United States.
is about two thousand, and in addition several hundred volumes \kwm
been deposited in the college library.
11. The Lowell Mason Library of Church iJfws/c.^ The library of the
late Dr. Lowell Mason, given to the seminary by his family in 1873, is
placed in the West Divinity Hall. It includes the library of the emi-
nent composer, Dr. 0. H. Riuck, of Darmstadt, which had been bought
by Dr. Mason, and which constitutes about one-third of the whole col-
lection. The whole number of titles is not far from eight thousand,
making, if properly bound, perhaps half as many volumes, divided
about equally between sacred and secular music. There are numerous
manuscripts, some of them unpublished. A careful catalogue of the
library has been prepared, in manuscript, by Mr. J. Sumner Smitli. Tbe
elegant bookcases which hold the library are the gift of Mr. Atwater
Treat, of New Haven.
Library of the Yale Medical School.
The Medical School, chartered in 1810 and organized in 1813, has been
less fortunate in respect to its library than other and younger depart-
ments of the college. The 2,000 volumes, which the library at present
numbers, are largely gifts, and include not many recent books, nor is
there any library fund. The library was formerly kept at the medical
college, but for the past ten years has been deposited in the college
library.
Yale School of the Fine Arts.
During the past year, by, private liberality, a room has been fitted up
in the Art School for library uses, at a cost of $1,000, and the begin-
ning of an art library has been made.
Feabody Museum of Natural History.
The Peabody Museum, now approaching completion, will contain a
working library for each of its departuients, and a few hundred volumes
have already been collected for this object. It is also the intention of
Professor Marsh to place in the museum, and make accessible to the
students, a portion, at least, of his private library, which, in the depart-
ments of palaeontology and comparative anatomy, is especially full and
valuable.
Library of the American Oriental Society.
The American Oriental Society, organized in 1842, has uniformly de-
voted its income to the publication of its Journal, (uow in the tenth vol-
ume,) trusting for the increase of its library to gifts and to exchanges
received for the Journal. Under such conditions, a symmetrical growth
is hardly to be expected, although the library is now considerable both
in numbers and value. The publications of other societies, with which
the Oriental Society is in correspondence, constitute, perhaps, the most
valuable portion of the library. The manuscripts number 131,ajostof
College Libraries. 71
them Arabic, aud none of them of special importaace. By far the
largest douor has been Hon. Charles William Bradley, of ^ew H iven,
for several years United States consul at Amoy and Ningpo. His gifts,
made at various times previous to his death in 18t>5, amount to 850 sepa-
rate titles, and include many rare aud valuable works. The present
number of volumes in the library is not far from 3,500. No catalogue
has been published, but lists of the accessious are printed- from time to
time in the proceedings of the society.
The cabi-net of the society contains, among other objects of interest, a
long Greek inscription of the second century before Christ, three San-
skrit inscriptions of the eleventh or twelfth century of our era, and a
Cufic inscription.
Until 1850, the library was kept in the house of the librarian, Mr.
Francis Gardner, of Boston; from 1850 to 1855 in the Boston Athe-
nteum, Mr. Charles Polsom being librarian. In 1855 Prof. W. D. Whit-
ney succeeded to the office, and the library was removed to New Haven
and placed in one of the rooms of the college library, where it still re-
mains. Professor Whitney was succeeded, in 1873, by Mr. Addison
Van Name, the present librarian of the society.
GEORGETOWN COLLEGE, GEORGETOWN, D. C.
The library occupies rooms in one of the college buildings. There is
great need of increased space in order to bring all the collections
together. The college proposes at an early day to erect a lire-proof
building.
The books are grouped according to subjects, so far as the dispropor-
tionate space required for the theological folios will permit.
The library possesses a number of valuable manuscripts, among
which are.: one attributed to the thirteenth century; one to the four-
teenth century ; one in the Irish character, attributed to the historian
Geoffrey Keating; one in the Siamese character; another, ta ceu from
the body of a Tripolitan sailor, written in Arabic, and consisting of
extracts from the Koran ; also, many others of rarity.
Of early printed books there are 37 volumes printed in the fifteenth
century and 268 volumes of the sixteenth century.
The department of Bibles and commentaries contains copies of the
Scriptures, or portions of them, \n many languages; Walton's great work,
and otherpolyglots ; Latin vulgates of all styles; commentaries, concord-
ances, and lexicons. Among the curious books of this department is
Scheuchzer's Physica Sacra, 6 volumes, in Dutch, Amsterdam, 1735, pro-
fusely illustrated.
The department of ecclesiastical history contains the works of many
authors, from Eusebius down. In theology there is an extensive collec-
tion of the works of both Catholic and non-Catholic writers. The hitter
have a compartment to themselves. In civil history theicollection is large
and valuable. The collection of Catholic sermons is very extensive, em-
72 Public Libraries in the United States.
bracing- works in English, French, Latin, Italian, and German. The other-
departments of religious works are : (1) religious biographj', including
the vast work of the Bollandists, begun in 1643, and still in course of
completion; (2) controversial works by Catholic authors; (3) works by
Catholic authors against deism and infidelity; (4) catechetical works;
(5) ascetical works, or books of piety, embracing collections of medita-
tions by many authors, special devotions, and prayer books ; (6) Catholic
periodicals; (7) a collection of works for the use of pastors; (8) works
on canon law and councils; (9) liturgical works, explanatory works
on ritual, Picart^s seven curious volumes on the religious ceremonies of
all nations, graduals, rituals, and antiphonals.
The collection of works on antiquities and the fine arts embraces many
rare and costly volumes.
The series of publications of learned societies is very complete. The
collection of scientific works is also interesting and valuable, and care is
taken to keep up with the demands of the day. In Euglish literature the
main library is indifferently furnished, but a valuable and extensive
collection, constantly added to, fills the shelves of the director of studies.
The classical library contains the best editions, many of them uniform.
French, Italian, and Spanish literature have each a separate department-
One of the most curious and intieresting collections in the library is
that of books or tracts in the Cherokee language, in the Penobscot,
Micmac, and Pottawatomie Indian dialects, and in Chinese, Japanese,
Javanese, Hindostanee, modern Sanskrit, Tamil, Dyak, Syriac, Armen-
ian, Turkish, Polish, Russian, Sclavonian, Basque, Breton, Irish, and
Welsh.
The library, which now numbers 28,000 volumes, is always accessible
to visitors. Books are never loaned outside of the college. Students
may visit the library to consult authorities, but they rarely have occa-
sion, to do so, as their own society libraries are well supplied with stand-
ard works, to which access can be had by them at any moment.
The society libraries of the college number 4,268 volumes.
WORTHWESTEKN UNIVERSITY, EVANSTON, ILL.
The University Library was begun by a purchase, in 1856, of 3,000
carefully selected volumes. Since that time small yearly purchases have
been made.
In 1869, Luther L. Greenleaf, of Evanston, purchased the private
library of Dr. Schulze, member of the Prussian ministry of public
instruction, from his heirs, and presented it to the university. This
collection of 20,000 volumes (including 7,000 valuable pamphlets) con-
tains almost all the extant Greek and Latin authors up to the period
of the decline of letters, many of them in rare and valuable editions,
numerous translations of them into German, and many critical and
College Libraries. 73
elucidatory works thereupon; also, valuable works of art and art liter-
ature of the German, French, and Italian schools.
On the decease of Prof. Henry S. Noyes, in 1872, his valuable collec-
tion of 1,500 miscellaneous books became the property of the university.
The university is also indebted to the Hon. Orrington Lunt for a
special fund for the library, amounting to about $100,000. The income
from this fund is being allowed to accumulate lor a library building.
The number of volumes now in the library is 30,000. The College of
Theology of the university has a special library of about 3,000 volumes.
KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY, LEXINGTON, KY.
Upon the consolidation of the Transylvania with the Kentucky Uni-
versity, about ten years ago, the library of the former became the
property of the latter. The library now contains 10,845 volumes,
of which 5,383 belong to the medical library, 2,201 to the law library,
and 3,201 are miscellaneous. Four societies connected with the college
have libraries, as follows: Cecropean, 605 volumes; Periclean, 719 vol.
uraes; Philothean, (theological,) 525 volumes; Union, 240 volumes;
making the whole number of books belonging to the university 12,934.
BOWDOIN COLLEGE, BRUNSWICK, ME.
The history of Bowdoin College Library begins with the opening of the
college in 1802. Never having had a fund set apart for its use, it
has depended mainly for its means of purchase on a small assessment
on the students in their term bills. In 1811 it received its most im-
portant enlargement in a bequest by Hon. James Bowdoin, of Bos-
ton, Mass., of 4,000 volumes from his private library, collected princi-
pally during his mission to Spain, under appointment from President
Jefferson, in 1805. The collection was rich (for that time) in French
and Spanish science and literature, embracing the best editions of
the classical authors and scientific works of both languages. Among
the works which illustrate the period of the French Revolution maybe
mentioned the Collection compile des Tableaux Historiques, &c., 3 vol-
umes, folio, and Le Moniteur, or Gazette Nationale, 1759-1807. It is also
extremely valuable for its literature of the period preceding and during
the American Revolution. Madam Bowdoin manifested her interest in
the college that bore the family nam^e by gifts of valuable works.
In 1820, a valuable accession of four or five hundred volumes was
received from Thomas Wallcut, of Boston, through Rev. William
Allen, who had just succeeded to the presidency of the college. This
collection contains some rare and valuable works, as Eliot's Indian
Bible, 1685; Tyndale's Bible, quarto, 1551 ; the Nicholas de Lyra Testa,
mentum Novum, folio, 1487; the Breeches Bible, 1611 ; and Almon's Re-
membrancer.
A few years later the library was enriched by a gift from Rev. Dr.
John A. Vaughan, an alumnus of the college, of 1,200 volumes, among
74: Public Libraries in the United States.
which are the Encj^clopedie Methodique ; Histoire de I'Academie Roy-
ale; Trausactions of the Swedish Academy; of the Royal Irish Acad-
emy; Nicholson's Journal of Natural Philosophy, 1<S()2-1810, 25 volumes,
octavo; Repertory of Arts, 16 volumes ; County Surveys of Eugland, 22
volumes.
From the English goverameut were received, several years since,
the publications of the Record Commission, 86 volumes, folio, and
27 octavo. The Observations of the Royal Observatories of Green-
wich, Edinburgh, and of the Cape of Good Hope are regularly sent
to the college, as also the Journal of the Society of Arts, London.
The Hon. Abbot Lawrence, while our minister at the court of St.
James, was instrumental in securing from the British and Foreign
Bible Society a donation of the versions then at their disposal of the
sacred scriptures which had been made under their auspices, 53 vol-
umes. The American Bible Society's versions of the scriptures have
been given by William H. Allen, LL.D., an alumnus, president of Girard
College, Philadelphia, 33 volumes.
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions also has
given the versions, dictionaries, and grammars made by their mission-
aries, 41 volumes, and a set of the Missionary Herald for twenty-six
years.
The public documents from the different departments of the United
States Government, as well as of the State of Maine, are reglarly sent
to the library.
During the year 1875, the liberality of a friend ^bestowed upon the
college the publications of the Hakluyt Society, England, 48 volumes,
octavo, and Purchas his Pilgrimes, 5 volumes, folio, 1625-'6.
Besides the benefactors of the library already named may be men-
tioned, among others, Maj. Gen. Henry Knox, of revolutionary fame,
who gave, at the opening of the college, Marsigli's Danubius Pannonico-
Mysicus, tom. 1-6, folio, 1726; Prof. Henry W. Longfellow, an alumnus,
besides his own works, the Pisa edition of the Italian poets, 14 volumes,
folio; Prof. Ezra Abbot, an alumnus, besides other valuable gifts, the
Acta Eruditorum, 70 volumes, quarto.
Besides the public library of the college, numbering 18,760 volumes,
are two society libraries : the Peucinian, 7,150 volumes, and the
Athengean, 5,950 volumes. The first library of the latter society was
burned, with the building in which it was placed. There is also in Adams
Hall a valuable library of 4,00D volumes, belonging to the Medical School
of Maine. The number of volumes in all the libraries of the college, in-
cluding students' libraries, is 34,500.
COLBY UNIVERSITY, WATERVILLE, ME.
It is not known precisely when or in what manner the library of
Colby University was founded. The earliest record concerning it is a
vote of thanks in 1S19, six years after its organization, (it was then a
theological seminary,) to those who had presented books.
College Libraries. 75
In the same yearit was agreed that the studeuts should be taxed $1
a year for the use of the library. In 1826 it was voted to expend
$600 for the purchase of books; in 3 831 $1,000 were voted for the
same purpose, and in 1833 a grant of $500 was made to the library.
In 1835-'36 Kev. John O. Choules, expended $700 in England in behalf
of the library, and also solicited donations from prominent Baptists
there. B.^ his eftbrts about 1,800 volumes were secured.
In 1848 the trustees voted to raise $10,000 by subscription for the
library and philosophical apparatus. Of this fund $2,000 now remain,
the income from which is devoted solely to the increase of the library.
No further addition of any considerable amount was made until 1870,
when Gardner Colby, of Boston, supplemented his gift of $50,000
to the general funds of the college by an agreement to pay $500 a year
for ten years for the purchase of books for the library.
In 1851 the library contained 4,960 volumes, and in 1854, 5,534 vol-
umes. It now contains 11,100 volumes and 5,200 pamphlets. Two stu-
dents' libraries contain about 1,500 volumes each.
The first catalogue was printed in 1835, and a second in 1845. The
system of card catalogues has also been adopted.
The library occupies the eastern wing of Memorial Hall. The plan ot
the library room has been much admired. Double alcoves, arranged in
the form of a Roman cross, aflbrd shelf room for 30,000 volumes.
AMHERST COLLEGE, AMHERST, MASS.
Origin. — The library of Amherst College had its origin in the gift,
chiefly by ministers, of a few theological and miscellaneous'works, which
only occupied a single case on the opening of the college in 1821.
Though some other books were added, from time to time, no special
effort was made to secure standard works in literature and science till
1829. Then, encouraged by a donation of $500 by John Tappan, of
Boston, a general subscription was started among the friends of the
college, which secured the sum of $4,000. With this sum about 2,000
v<)lumes were purchased in Europe by Professor Ilovey, and these were
added to the library, which then occupied a room iu the chapel building,
in 1832.
Growth and huildhig. — Additions were gradually made, through the lib-
erality of Hon. David Sears and John Tappan, of Boston, till in 1850 the
number reached 6,000 volumes. As a library building seemed then
to be imperatively demanded, a subscription was started to secure
fund's for the purpose and for the purchase of additional books to
meet the necessities of the college. With the leading donations of
$3,000 by Hon. Samuel Williston, of East Hampton ; $1,500 by George
Merriara, of Springfield, and $1,000 by Dr. George C. Shepard, of Bos-
ton, through the personal efforts of Profs. W. S. Tyler and George B.
Jewett and the co-operation of many of the alumni, the sum of $20,000
was secured. One-half of this sum was expended upon the building,
76 Public Libraries in the United States.
which was constructed of stoue and fluished in 1853. The remainiug
half was devoted to the purchase of books, aud the number of volumes
was increased to 12,000, in 1855.
Catalogues. — In this j-ear an alphabetical catalogae of authors was
published, in which the fixed location recently assigned to each book
was designated by the number of the shelf and the number of the book
on the shelf.
In 1864 an author card catalogue of books added to the library
since 1855 was begun, and has been continued to the present time.
This catalogue, embracing 14,300 volumes, was printed in 1871. No
catalogue of subjects has been printed,, but the books have been ar-
ranged in numerical order under the general subject, as history, philos-
ophy, science, theology. In 1874 a general catalogue of the whole
library, both of authors and subjects, was begun on a plan entirely
new. * It is a partial application of the card catalogue system to the
placing of books, combined with a general classification of subjects,
not on any philosophicar system but with the special aim of useful-
ness. The absolute location is relinquished^ and the books are placed
relatively, according to the subject. The subjects are arranged in classes,
each class in divisious, each division in sections, and all are numbered
and indexed. These numbers (from 0 to 999) are substituted for the
shelf numbers, and thus books on the same subject will always be found
together, however much the library' may increase. Thus the number
511 upon a^ book indicates that it belongs to the fifth class, i. e., natural
science; first division, i. e., pure mathematics; first section, i. e., arith-
metic; and all arithmetical works are marked with the same number
and stand side by side on the shelf. Anotlier number, placed under-
neath the class number, indicates the relative position of the book in
the section and also its size. Four catalogues besides that of accessions
are kept in manuscript, viz, a public book catalogue of authors, a pub-
lic card catalogue of subjects, au official card catalogue of authors, and
an official book catalogue of subjects, each serving as a check upon the
others. The latter takes the place of the " shelf catalogue."
Management and use. — Except during the years 1852-1863, the library
has always been under the personal charge of a member of the faculty,
responsible to a library committee appointed by the trustees of the col-
lege. ,Up to 1852 comparatively little time or attention was (ievoted to
its care. It was opened only once a week for drawing books, and no
facilities were furnished for reference or reading in the room. From
1854 to 1871, the library was opened three hours each week, and a read-
ing room, supplied with the leading monthly and quarterly periodicals,
was opened five hours each day. Since 1871, the library has also been
open five hours daily. The reading room has been supplied with many
additional periodicals, and a umnuscript index to them has been made
as a continuation of Poole's Index to Periodical Literature. During the
past ten years the librarian has been aided by several students of the
College Libraries. 77
college, who have been employed as assistants. In 1874, Melvil
Dewey, of the graduating class, was appointed assistant librarian.
His time is wholly devoted to the library, and he has especial charge of
the preparation of the new catalogue.
The use of the library is restricted almost exclusively to those who
are connected with the college, yet the number of volumes drawn during
the past year amounted to 15,395.
Librarians. — During the first six years, the ofiBce of librarian was held
by Joseph Estabrook, Professor of Latin and Greek, tutor Zenas Clapp,
and Rev. Samuel Worcester, professor of rhetoric and oratory and
English literature. Ebenezer S. Snell, professor of mathematics and
natural philosophy, then filled the place a quarter of a century, 1827-
1852, with the additional salary of $40 a year. His successor was Hon.
Lucius M. Boltwood, who arranged the books in the n ew building, and
prepared the first printed catalogue. Cpon his resignation, February,
1863, the library was placed in charge of Rev. Julius H. Seelye, profes-
sor of mental and moral philosophy. The present incumbent, W. L.
Montague, professor of French, Italian, and Spanish, was appointed in
1863. Edward L. Root, of the class of 1871, held the position of assist-
ant librarian one year after graduation.
Resources and income. — During the first twenty-five years the library
was dependent on subscriptions, or grants from the general treasury
of the college; but it now has permanent funds yielding an income
which is annually increasing. The principal source of this income
is the Sears fund, the donation of Hon. David Sears, of Boston, who
gave to the college in 1844-47 $5,000 in cash, and real estate valued
by him at $17,000. The income of a portion of this fund is secured to
the library until the year 1928. The income of the rest (except such
part as is carried to the increase of the principal as mentioned below)
has been appropriated to the purchase of booksfor the past twenty years,
yielding to the library the total amount of $16,311.52. By the conditions
of the donation, a part of the income is to be annually added to the
principal, making it a permanently accumulating fund to whose increase
there is no limit. The amount of this part of the fund in 1874 was
$27,758.20.
Another permanent fund is the gift of Asahel Adams, of Korth
Brookfield, which yields about $240 annually. The income for the past
year from both sources was :
Sears fund ., |l,31l 46
Adams fund 242 05
Total 1,553 51
In addition to the gifts previously mentioned, the most important are
those of Hon. Jonathan Phillips and Hon. David Sears, of Boston,
and Hon. George H. Gilbert, of Ware, each of $5,000. The first was a
bequest in 1861. After a few years the income was annually used
78 Public Libraries in the United States.
for the purchase of books, and recently the principal, amounting to
$10,3G5.G6, was also expended. The second was a gift in 1864 for a
new library building, and, with accumulated interest, it amounted to
$9,934.57 in August, 1874. By the conditions of Mr. Gilbert's dona-
tion in 1864, the interest is to be annually added to the principal, until
a new library building is erected, or the present building is enlarged,
and then the whole amount may be expended only in books. In 1874
the amount was $8,563.46.
The alumni of the college have also contributed at different times
about $9,0U0 to this object. Valuable theological and medical works
were received in 1858-'63, from Rev. O. A. Taylor, of Manchester, N.H.,
and Luther V. Bell, M.D., of Somerville, who bequeathed their private
libraries to the college, ^hus the total amount of gifts to the library
previous to 1875 exceeds $80,000.
Summary of gifts to Amherst College Library.
Jolin Tappan, of Boston, various dates $3, 000 00
By general snbscriptiou,1829-'3-2 , 4,000 00
Hon. Samuel Williston , of East Hampton, 1851 3, 000 00
George Merriam, of Springfield, 1851 1,500 00
Rev. George C. Shepard, of Boston, 1858 1,000 00
By general subscription, 1851-'54 11,500 00
Alumni subscriptions, 1851-61 8,925 44
Hon. Jonatlian Phillips, of Boston, 1861 5,000 00
Accumulated interest of the same, 1874 5, 365 66
Hon. George H. Gilbert, of Ware, 1864 5,000 00
Accumulated interest of the same to 1874 3,563 46
Hon. David Sears, of Boston, 1864 5,000 00
Accumulated interest of the same to 1874 4,994 57
Income of Sears fund to 1874 16,311 52
Income of Adams fund to 1874 1,230 29
Library of Rev. O. A. Taylor, of Manchester, N.H., 1858 450 00
Library of Luther V. Bell, M.D., of Somerville, 1863 300 00
Total 80,140 94
The average number of volumes annually added to the library during
the past tifteen'years was 940; and the number belonging to the library
June 12, 1875 was 30,406.
In 1867, on petition of the college societies, Alexandria and AtheniB,
permission was given to merge their libraries in the college library, as
a gift from the societies, on certain specified conditions ; but the books
cannot be transferred from the halls of the societies until a ne\f library-
building shall have been built. The number of books belonging to these
societies in 1871 was 8,127. These, added to the college library, make
the whole number of books belonging to the college 38,533.
HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY DURING THE PRESENT CENTURY.
The library of Harvard College, while nominally dating back to the
foundation of the institution, is really only a little more than a hundrec^
College Libraries. 79
years old, since of the collection of books which had been slowly acca-
mulating, only a handful remained after the tire in 1764. The story of
the re-establishment of the library, of its character and general progress
till toward the end of the last century, has been told elsewhere.^ It
remains to give some account of its growth since that time, and of its
])resent contents and resources.
The absence of careful records during the early growth of the library
forbids any exact statement of the rate of increase, nor is it possible
now to give the yearly additions with precision, since the pnrchase or
reception by gift of miscellaneous collections will frequently be enumer-
ated partly in one academic year, partly in the next. It is o\\\y within
the past quarter of a century, in fact, that there has been any method-
ical system of summaries, and for the period previous to that we are
left to occasional statements. Unlike the great libraries of recent date,
which have been equipped from the outset with all the appliances of
modern library systems, it has grown under unfavorable conditions,
meagerly supplied with funds and necessary apparatus and quarters,
so that what has been achieved in the way of inventory and record has
been at the cost of great labor and zeal on the part of the small corps
of librarians engaged in the care of the collection.
In 1790 the number of volumes was estimated at 12,000.^ In 1840,
when the library was moved *o Gore Hall, there were nearly 40,000,
exclusive of pamphlets and other unbound books. In 1856, when the
present librarian, Mr. Sibley, succeeded Mr. Harris, having himself been
assistant librarian for fifteen years previous, there were 70,000 books
and 30,000 pamphlets. In 1866, there were 114,000 books and 95,000
pamphlets. The latest summary , that of July, 1875, gives 154,000
books, with as many pamphlets, while the united libraries of the uni-
versity, including society libraries, number 227,650 books.
From this it will be noticed what a great increment the library has
received in the last two decades, having more than doubled itself in that
time, iucreasingatan average rate of 63 per cent, in each decade sipce 1856,
and at an average rate of only 7^ per cent, in each of the eight previous
decades. The increase in the number of pamphlets has been even more
marked. The proportion of pamphlets to books, in 1856, was as three
to seven ; in 1866 it was nearly as six to seven, and at the present time
the two are equal. Or, to state the ratio of the increase of pamphlets in
the decade from 1856 to 1866, there was an increase of 216 per cent.,
while in the nine years following the same rate of increase has been
maintained. When it is considered how large a part of the material
for history is in this fugitive form, and how vigilant the librarian mu«t
be who secures it, it is evitlent that the wealth of the library as the depos-
itory of precious material for students has been greatly enhanced.
The increase of the library now is from 6,000 to 8,000 volumes annually.
In 1840 it was 251 volumes, and Gore Hall, which was then built with
' See pages 21-26.
2 Qaincy's History of Harvard University, ii, 399.
80 Public Libraries in the United States.
the expectation that it would answer for the accoinmodaj:ion of all books
that might accumulate in the course of a century, has already become
insufficient for the holding, to say nothing of the proper care and use, of
the library.
This increase has been partly through purchase, partly in the way of
direct gifts. President Kirkland, in a statement of the income of
Harvard University and of the manner in which it is applied, dated
February 26, 1824, sets down the funds devoted to the library, namely,
the Hohis and the Shapleigh funds, as yielding but $360 a year. The
Shapleigh fund was a bequest, in 1800, from the librarian of the college,
of his whole estate, something less than $4,000 in value, the income
from which was to be " sacredly appropriated to the purchase of such
modern publications as the corporation, professors, and tutors shall
judge most proper to improve the students in polite literature; the
books to be deposited in the library of the university, and to consist of
poetry or pros^, but neither in Greek nor Latin." There was no further
special fund until 1843, when Horace Appletou Haven, of the class
graduating that year, died, and left $3,000, a fund for mathematical
and astronomical works. In 1844 the same amount was given by Hon.
William Frescott for the purchase of scarce old books on American history.
Subsequent funds were the Boyden, the Ward, the Salisbury, appropriated
to the purchase of books required in thfe Greek and Latin department ;
the Bowditch, and last, and most important of all, the Sumner and
Walker funds, which are only now coming into service, being the
bequests of Hon. Charles Sumner, and of Rev. Dr. James Walker, a for-
mer president of the college. Before these last two bequests, the entire
fund appropriated to the library scarcely exceeded $20,000, yielding an
annual sum entirely inadequate to supply even the most important
issues of the year, and hopelessly small when the needs of the library
in its several departments were considered. In 1857 a special inquiry
was made into the condition and needs of the library, and testimony
was sought from the various members of the faculty, who would know
both the resources of the library a nd the needs of their several depart-
ments. Professor Bowen reported : "Two or three years ago the cor-
poration allowed me to expend a little over $100 on recent books in
political economy, and this is the only considerable purchase which has
been made since I have been connected with the department." Prof.
J. R. Lowell summed up his needs by saying: "To enumerate all
that are wanting, would be to copy the booksellers' lists of the last
twenty years." Professor Lane declared: "The Latin department is
sixteen years behindhand." Mr. Ezra Abbott, the assistant librarian,
wrote a long letter, containing the catalogue titles of more than two
hundred and fifty works, in 700 volumes, as but a portion of the more
important deficiency of the library in the bibliographical department
alone.^
' Report of Committee of Association of the Alumni to take into consideration the
state of the Library. Boston, 1857.
College Libraries. 81
The report coutaining these and other statements made a great im-
pression upon the friends of the college, and among the noticeable re-
sults was the gift of $5,000 annually for five years, from the Hon. Wi 1-
iam Gray. But individual donations have been, from the beginning,
the great resource of the library. We have seen how the friends of the
college at home and abroad hastened to repair the losses of the library
caused by the fire of 1764. After the Revolution, and while the library
was housed in Harvard Hall, graduates of the college, authors who had
used the library, publishing societies, foreign governments, and friends
of learning generally, continued to make it the depository of books,
pamphlets, maps, and charts. Dr. Harris, the librarian who pre-
ceded Mr. Sibley, drew up an "alphabetical list of the names of donom
of books, prints, portraits, busts, coins, and medals from January, 1780,
to July, 1840, inclusive,'" which is printed in the appendix to Quincy's
History of Harvard University.^ The dates of the separate gifts are
not entered, but the number of donors is nearly one thousand, and of
these many gave not once or twice, but again and again. Besides the
familiar names of professors and men of culture living in Boston and
vicinity, one finds the names of President John Adams, who gave, among"
other works. Arts et Metrers, in 18 folio volumes ; of President John
Quiiicy Adams, who gave 1G6 volumes, chiefly in the French language,
iu 1797, and 13 volumes of Russian works in ISll ; of Joshua Bates, of
London, the great founder of the Boston Public Library, who gave Val-
py's edition of the Latin Classics, in IGO volumes, elegantly bound ; of
the British government, that gave a set of the public records ; of Cam-
bridge University in England; and of Goethe, who gave 39 volumes.
Included in the list is also a number of Copley's paintings, given in
some cases by the descendants of those for whom they were executed,
as well as medals, coins, charts, maps, and a few manuscripts. This
accumulation of books and pamphlets from so large a variety of sources
indicates the si)ecial character of the collection, since in many cases the
gifts were of ephemeral or unique works, which could scarcely be se-
cured in any other way.
But special mention can only be made of the prominent accessions
which have come to the library through these volunteer supplies. In
1818 Mr. Israel Thorndike, a Boston merchant, presented to the college
the library, maps, and charts of Prof. C. D. Ebeling, of Hamburgh, who
had recently died. This collection embraced more than 3,000 volumes
relating to America, and 10,090 maps and charts, by far the most com-
plete American collection then existing. The person who prompted
Mr. Thorndike to this generous act was the eminent librarian Joseph
Green Cogswell, who at that time was in Europe, a tutor to Mr. Thorn -
dike's son, and in one of Dr. Cogswell's letters, written the year pre-
vious, he speaks of his visit with Augustus Thorndike to Ebeling and
' Vol. ii, pp. 5G9-585.
6e
82 Piiblic Libraries in the United States.
liis American library.^ It may easily be that Dr. Cogswell had his
mind then on auch matters, for after his return from Europe he held for
a while the position of librarian at Harvard. Four years later, Samuel
A. Eliot, another Boston merchant, who was afterwards treasurer of the
college, made a similar gift of a collection of books on American history
and geography, made by Mr. Warden, who had been American consul
in Paris, consisting of nearly 1,200 volumes, besides maps, charts,
and prints. More than $5,000 were paid by Mr. Eliot for this library.
Thomas Palmer, a son of Harvard, who chose London for a residence,
and whose name is honorably distinguished among the early benefactors
of the library ,2 bequeathed a valuable collection of 1,200 well chosen
volumes, in 1820.
A special library of great value was that collected and given by Henry
Ware Wales, who turned his attention to Sanskrit literature and en-
dowed also a chair for instruction in Sanskrit. Kis valuable gift has been
constantly and regularly supplemented in the same direction, since bis
death, by George Washington Wales, his brother. Clarke Gayton
Pickman, also of the class of 1811, who died in 1860, bequeathed his
choice collection of books in general literature, and James Brown, of the
house of Little, Brown & Co., gave the sum of $5,000 to be expended
in books of science and natural history. John Farrar was a professor
in the college of natural philosophy and astronomy as the chair was then
entitled, and when he died, in 1853, leaving his property to his wife, he
expressed a wish, which she carried out subsequently by will in bequeath-
ing the sum of $5,000 as a fund for the purchase of books in the depart-
ment over which he presided. Dr. George Hay ward, also of Boston, left
alike sum, and one of the largest single gifts was that of Charles Minot,
of the class of 1828, who left the sum of $60,000 in 7 per cent, bonds,
reserving a life interest for the benefit of an adopted son who has since
died. These are some of the special gifts which have come to the
library, some being under restrictions as to the uses to which the money
should be put, others being devoted to general increase of the library.
In the case of Mr. Minot's gift, the only condition was that the income
should be expended on the purchase of books and binding of the same.
The great increase in the library, however, as we have shown, took
place after the removal to Gore Hall in 1841, and especially during the
last twenty years, under Mr. Sibley's indefatigable exertions. The com-
pletion of the new building, in which the college then took great pride,
and the removal of the library to it, stimulated the friends of the college
to an immediate eflbrt, and a subscription of more than $20,000 was
raised by merchants and scholars of Boston and vicinity for the purpose
of meeting the almost disreputable arrearages in modern books into which
the library bad fallen, and in 1852 Professor Child raised a subscription
of $1,100 to supply the deficiencies in the department of English p§etry.
Dr. Harris found about 33,000 volumes in the library when he took
'Life of Joseph Green Cogswell, as eketcLed iu Lib letters. Cambridge, 1874, p; 61.
2 See aute, p. 24.
College Libraries. 83
charge of it in 1831, and during his administration about 36,000 were
added. Now began also that systematic and untiring effort on the part
of Mr. Sibley to draw to the library gifts from all sources. His annual
reports record, with a repetition which would be monotonous were it
not so suggestive, the names of donors fro n a uong publishers and men
and women of culture who have given with open hand year after year.
Perhaps as significant an instance as any of the way in which the
library invites gifts by its own generosity is afforded by the example of
the relation subsisting between it and Hon. Charles Sumner. Mr. Sum-
ner was graduated in 1830, and not long after began the gift of pamphlets
and books which continued throughout his life. In 1864, Mr. Sibley
reports him as having given about 20 volumes, 25 maps, and 1,061 pam-
phlets during the .year, and in 186S he notes that Mr. Sumner has, with-
in five years, given more than 7,000 pamphlets and 1,000 volumes.
During his lifetime he gave more than 250 maps, 1,300 volumes, and
from 15,000 to 20,000 pamphlets. The bequest of his library further
enriched the collection by nearly 4,000 volumes. When it is remem-
bered that Mr. Sumner, from his exceptional position, was in receipt of
a vast number of publications bearing immediately upon current events,
but in a form rendering them very ephemeral, it may easily be inferred
how valuable the whole collection would be. The reason for bestowing
these on the Harvard Library was stated by Mr. Snmner to be that, by
the classification and indexing to which they were at once submitted,
he could lay his hands on any one he wanted more easily there thau in
his own house, and his will contains a grateful acknowledgment of the
service which the library had afforded him. Dr. James Walker, a for-
mer president of the college, left his library of 2,400 volumes and 300
l>amphlets in addition to the bequest of money already mentioned.
There has also been a class of gifts peculiarly valuable to the college,
and very suggestive, like the Sumner gift, of the personal relations sus-
tained by the givers to the college. In ISiJG Hon. Charles Francis Adams
presented a collection in 48 volumes, made by himself, of works large
and small, printed in Great Britain in relation to the rebellion. Dr. J.
E. Worcester, the lexicographer, gave all the dictionaries and glossaries
of the English language used by himself in preparing his own work, not
already possessed by the library. President Sparks left, in 168 volumes,
the manuscripts, original and copies, used by him in preparing his pub-
lished works, and earlier, W. H. Prescott had given the entire collection
of manuscripts and printed books which had served him in the writing of
Eerdinand and Isabella. The manuscripts were coutainetl in five thick
volumes, and the books, 282 in number, were many of them costly folios.
Dr. J. Gt. Palfrey also gave a collection of 323 volumes and 5,147 pam-
phlets, made by himself during half a century, while employed upon his
historical studies.
Many of the manuscripts contained in the library, like those of Pro-
fessor Ebeling and Arthur Lee, contain valuable materials for history,
84 Public Libraries in the United States.
while of early manuscripts the library possesses a few datin*,' back to the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and one, a fragment of an Evangelist-
a;ry, containing twelve pages, written in uncial letters, and referred there-
fore to the ninth century.
There have been sixty librarians since the founding of the college, of
whom ten are named in the present century. Of these the present libra-
rian has been longest connected with the library, having become assist-
ant in 1841 ; but his immediate predecessor, Dr. Thaddeus William Har-
ris, known best by his pioneer work in economic entomology, held the
office of principal librarian for the longest tern) of years, having served
from 1831 till his death in 1856. Before him notable names were those
of Professor Andrews Norton, Joseph Green Cogswell, and Charles Fol.
som. Mention should also be made of the recent assistant librarian. Dr.
Ezra Abbot, since it was under his superintendence that the present
system of cataloguing, elsewhere described,^ was planned and carried
out.
As has before been stated the library, upon its new establishment in
1764, was deposited in Harvard Hall ; removed thence during the war,
for safe keeping, in country towns, and restored when the war was over
and college life could be resumed uninterruptedly. Here it remained
until, in 1837, the collection of books had outgrown the quarters as-
signed, and it became absolutely necessary to provide a new place, both
for the books already owned and for the future growth of the library.
The college had come into possession of a noble bequest from Christo-
pher Gore, formerly governor of Massachusetts, and resolved to use
the money for the erection of a library building, which was com-
pleted in 1841. Elere the library of the college is now kept. The build-
ing, modeled upon the plan of King's College Chapel, Cambridge,
England, })resents a dignified interior, and makes to the eye a pleasing
aud appropriate home for the valuable collections. But the growth of
the library has already rendered it too small, and the experience
of nearly forty years has disclosed the disadvantages it presents as
a library building. It is overcrowded, and books coming in are con-
stantly dera nging the existing dispositions. It has become necessary
to deposit books in other buildings, and to pile them on the floor in
double tiers, and in general to lessen the value of the collection by mak-
ing it less accessible. Moreover, the plan of the building is ill adapted
tothepurposesof a library. Tliere are no private rooiusforthe librarian,
assistants, or special students. It is a great whispering gallery in which
every footfall and spokeu word can be heard. There is a dampness
arising from the condensation of moisture on the inside of the single
granite wall, and great complaint has been made of the draughts of
air, and general insalubrity of the interior. The steady pressure of
new books, added to all the patent inconveniences of the building, has
made it a necessity to devise some relief, and it is announced that the
* See Part II of this report, Rules for a Dictionary Catalogue.
College Lihraries. 85
carporation has now decided to begia soon an extension to Gore
Hall. The plan intends the carrying out of the east transept of
the present building about 80 feet, and making that the main portion
of the library proper, with an adjunct, containing rooms for the bibli-
ographical collection, for the librarian and his assistants, as well as a
large room for the catalogue department and the delivery of books.
This being done, the present delivery room will be divided into study
rooms for special investigation, while the cases will be removed from the
floor of the present main hall, and the space gained be used for a reading
and consulting room ; the lower alcoves, relieved of the temporary sub-
division by cases, being devoted to books of reference. When these
changes and additions are made, the library will be more completely
adapted to the needs of the university, and by its greater accommoda-
tion, offer new inducements to private collectors to place there for per-
petuity the books which they have gathered.
The college library proper is in Gore Hall, but other departments of
the university have their own special collections, not deposited in Gore
Hall, and there are akso libraries connected with college societies. Of
these separate libraries, brief mention may now be made.
Library of the Dane Laic School.
The Law Library, as a separate collection of books, dates from the
foundation of the school, though, previous to that time, special attention
had been given to this departmeut of learning in the general library of
the university. Mr. Sumner, who was at one time librarian of the Dane
Library, calls Mr. Hollis, the distinguished benefactor of the college who
has already been named, the father of the law library, because of the
interest which that public spirited man took in forwarding books of special
value to the law student and. which afterwards found their way into this
special library. " The library," he says, " is indebted to him for many
choice works of civil law, such as the Corpus Juris Civilis, the Codex
Theodosianus, Brissonius, Voet, Zoesius, Domat, and Meerman's The-
saurus. When we consider the jealousy with which the civil law has
ever been regarded in England, and the indifferent acquaintance with
its merits possessed by the highest lawyers there, we cannot but recog-
nize, in the presentation of the above books, an additional proof of the
enlarged liberality and intelligence of the donor." ^
Shortly after the formal establishment of the school in 1817, Hon.
Christopher Gore gave the greater part of his valuable law library for
the use of the law students. "Many of these present (we quote again
from Mr. Sumner's preface to the Catalogue of 1834) the most interest-
ing associations, not only from having belonged to Mr. Gore, and from
containing his autograph signature, but also from havingpassed through
the hands of Robert Auchmuty, Jeremy Gridley, James Otis, and Samuel
'A Catalogue of the Law Library of Harvard University iu Cambridge, Mass. Cam-
bridge, 1834, p. V.
S6 Public Libraries in the United States.
Sewall. In some of these books may be found all these distingaislied
names. The Law Library is also indebted to Governor Gore- for two
manuscript volumes containing opinions involving some interesting dis-
cussions of prize law, filed by the commissioners, of whom he was one,
acting under the seventh article of the treaty of 1794 between the
United States and Great Britain, commonly called Jay's treaty, for the
settlement of the claims of American citizens on account of captures by
British cruisers."^
When Judge Story was made Dane Professor of Law in 1829, and
the school was re organized, the corporation bought his extensive
library and added it to the growing collection, and not long after, in
1833, came a bequest from Hon. Samuel Livermore, of New Orleans, of
his entire library of works on the Roman, Spanish, and French law, a
collection of more than 300 rare and costly volumes, appraised at the
time at a valuation of $6,000. The money for the purchase of books
came partly from matriculation fees, partly from grants ; and for a
while the custom prevailed of keeping, besides the regular library,
a collection of text books for the use of students, called the circulating
library. In 1863 the whole number of volumes in the library was
13,038, of which 3,123 belonged to the circulating library, and 400 were
superseded text books. The increase of the library at that time was
125 volumes in the previous year, and the number added each year did
not vary far from this; but in 1870 the circulating library was aban-
doned, and special attention given to the increase of the regular
Law Library, so that there ha^e been some 4,000 volumes added during
the i)ast five years, and the sum last year at the disposal of the library
was $3,5U0, the number of books added being not far from 1,000. The
increase of the library has thus kept pace with the increased vigor of
the school, which is now more than self supporting. The number of
volumes in the library is now reckoned to be about 15,000, and the ap-
parent discrepancy in the above figures is due to the fact of the aboli-
tion of the circulating library, which swelled the total of books on the
shelves without adding to the actual number of books in the Law Library
proper. The library is kept in the building devoted to the school, and
is free for consultation to all persons. The students of the school do
much of their reading in the library.
Divinity School Library.
The library at the Divinity School dates from the foundation of the
school in 1825, when the directors granted the sum of $2,000 for
the purchase of suitable books ; but the number of books in the library
in 1840 was only about 700, principally in modern theology, with some
of the Fathers in the original. In 1856 the number had increased to
between 4,500 and 4,000, when the most important acftession was made
of the library of Professor Liicke, of Gottingen, presented by Gol.
Ubid., p. vii.
College Libraries. 87
Benjamin Loring, of Boston, at the suggestion of Prof. Edward Young,
at that time a student in Germany. This added some 4,000 volumes to
the library. In 18G2 the number of volumes in the library was 13,542,
of which 9,394 were bound and 4,147 unbound. Daring the next year
151 volumes were added, making the whole number 13,093; and these,
additions represent the usli<i1 yearly addition at that time, nearly all
being purchased by money annually granted for the purpose by the
corporation. Dr. Convers Francis, a professor in the school, died iu
1803, and in his will directed that such volumes among his books as
might be suitable for the school should be selected for it, and about
2,000 were thus added. The only other large gift is one of about 800
volumes, by bequest of the late James Walker, formerly president of the
university. The present yearly grant is about $301), bat that sum was
temporarily reduced after the Boston tire to $201), which was the amount
annually expended for a time before 1869. During the past year
the additions to the library were 313 volumes, of which 113 were by
purchase and 200 by gilt. The present number of volumes is about
17,000, deposited iu the library rooms in Divinity Hall ; the libraries
given by Colonel Loring and Dr. Francis being kept separately in roouis
named, respectively, the Loring Library and the Francis Library. A
strong desire has been expressed to secure a separate building, better
adai)ted to the needs of the library than the present apartments. It is
strictly a theological library, the collection of books at the university
library making it unnecessary to include works in general literature.
Library of the Medical College.
The Medical College of Harvard University is established in Boston,
and the building devoted to its uses contains in one of its rooms the
library. No regular fund is provided for the support and increase of
the collection, and the lack of suitable accommodations has prevented
the library from holding a prominent place in the college. It has been
largely built up by gifts from the professors, and at one time the money
resulting from matriculation fees was expended upon it, but for some
years there has been no increase. The collection now numbers about
450 paper-bound books and pamphlets, and 3,100 bound books.
Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology.
The Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology dates from very
near the foundation of the institution in 1858, when the palfeDutologi-
cal collection of Professor Koninck, of Belgium, was bought. The
valuable library accompanying the collection was a part of the pur-
chase, and at the time was one of the most complete of its kind. Af
terwards, as the museum began to publish its bulletin and catalogues,
these publications brought by exchange from about one hundred and
ten societies similar serial works, and the library has gr^own steadily by
these accessions. In 1873 the entire collection of books amounted to
88 Public Libraries in the United States.
about 7,000 volumes, when it was enriched by the f^ift of about 3,500
volumes from the library of Professor A^assiz, the head of the museum,
who had just died, and desired the gift to be made, and shortly after
by the deposit nominally, but to all intents and purposes the gift, of
2,500 volumes by Professor Agassiz's son and successor, Mr. Alexander
Agassiz. There is no fund for the increase of the library, but such
books as are imperatively required are bought from the general funds.
The additions amount to between 300 and 400 volumes a year, besides
nearly twice as many pamphlets. The range of the library is the whole
department of natural history, exclusive of botany, since that depart-
ment is specially provided for by the library connected with the Botanic
Garden, and, as far as possible, it is the aim to avoid duplicating books
purchased by the general library of the university.
Libraries at the Scientijie School.
The Lawrence Scientific School at first contained the beginning of
what is now the Museum of Comparative Zoology, but when the large
endowment of the latter institution was made in 1858 the two were sub-
stantially separated. The libraries of the Scientific School now consist
of a small chemical library of about 500 volumes in Boylston Hall and
a good working library for the engineering department placed in Law-
rence Scientific School building. This latter contains about 2,000 vol-
umes, including, among other works, a complete series of Annales des
Ponts et Ghaussees. An annual appropriation of $250 supplies it with
current publications in its department, but there is no regular fund for
the maintenance of the library.
Library at the Botanical Garden.
The Library at the Botanical Garden is in strictness a component
part of the herbariupi, which was presented to the university by Prof.
Asa Gray when the building, given by Nathaniel Thayer, was built
in 18G4 to receive these collections. The library was the private
library of Professor Gray and had been accumulating for many years.
Since that time it has grown, by the reception of gifts, including a val-
uable one from John A. Lowell, and by purchase, there being a
fund devoted to the common needs of the herbarium and library. The
number of books at present is about 2,500, together with a large col-
lection of unbound works, which, it is estimated, will make, when bound,
1,500 more. The library contains full sets of many valuable periodicals
and costly works; like the Flora Danica, Flora Brasiliensis, Sibthorp's
FloriE Grtecse, and Bateman's Orchidaceoe of Mexico and Guatemala.
It is not arranged in one large room, but distributed among the several
study rooms in the building, so as to render it easily accessible to in-
structors and special students.
College Libraries. 89
Phillips Library at the Observatory.
The library of the Observatory was begun by the late Professor Bond,
but was scarcely a formal one until the department was moved to the
present building, in 1847. The bequest of $100,000 by Edward Brom-
field Phillips came into possession of the college in 1849. The income
from this fund was to be devoted to payment of salaries and purchase of
books and instruments. No portion is regularly set apart for the increase
of the library, but books are bought from time to time as they are needed
and as funds permit. The library receives the publications of observa-
tories in this country and Europe, as well as the publications of many
learned societies. It numbers at present about 3,000 volumes.
Library of the Bussey Institution.
The Bussey Institution of Harvard University being a school of agri-
culture and horticulture, established in Jamaica Plain, near Boston, by
the bequest of Benjamin Bussey, its library is a special one, devoted to
the purpose of the school. There is no fund for the purpose of increas-
ing the collection, but the bulletin published by the institution brings
in by exchange many similar publications, and there have been many
donations by former students and by persons interested in agriculture.
It is intended to make it a special collection of books relating to agri-
culture and horticulture, and it is already especially rich in German
and French chemical and agricultural works. The whole number of
books and pamphlets at present is about 1,500, and the yearly increase
from all sources is about 200 volumes.
Society libraries.
In addition to the public libraries of the university, there are certain
libraries of a more priv^ate character belonging to various societies
maintained by the students. These libraries are controlled by the
societies, and grow by accession through gifts and purchase ; but no
funds, so far as we know, exist for the support or increase of the libraries.
The oldest of these libraries, probably, is that of the Institute of 1770,
now numbering about 3,500 volumes. The library of the Porcellian
Club was started in 1803, the first books presented being Young's Trav-
els, Cowper's Task, Blair's Lectures, Young's Night Thoughts, and Pin-
dar's works. The growth of this library has been in the 'direction of
choice literature, and special attention has been given to the selection
of the best editions and to the dress of the books, which now form a
well selected and beautiful collection of 7,000 volumes. The library of
the Hasty Pudding Club, begun in 1807, and formed mainly from gifts
of the members, now numbers about 4,000 volumes. The Christian
Brethreil and the St. Paul's Society have libraries of religious books,
numbering 100 and 500, respectively, and the Natural History Society
has about 500 volumes.
90 Public Libraries in the United States.
MOUNT HOLYOKE SEMINARY, SOUTH HADLEY, MASS.
Tlie seminary lias no permanent library fund, and its library is the
gradual aucumulatioa of donations. Among the donors especially com-
memorated are the late Dr. Kirk and Deacon Saflford, of Boston.
In 18G7, Mrs. H. F. Durant, the wife of one of the trustees, proposed
to give $10,000 for the purchase of books, provided that a suitable fire-
proof building should be built within three years. A grant fronj the
State about that time having put it in the power of the trustees to build,
the new edifice was ready for occupation November 1, 1870.
The present number of books is about 9,500, not including the valu-
able library bequeathed to the seminary by the late Dr. Kirk. Great
care has been bestowed upon the selection of the books by Mr. Durant,
assisted by eminent librarians, and few collections of the same size are
more valuable. Especial reference has been had in the selection to the
courses of study pursued in the seminary, and teachers and pupils have
free access to the library at any hour of the day.
The system of cataloguing is similar to that of the Boston Public
Library, having, besides the accession catalogue, a card catalogue, alpha-
betically arranged according to names of authors. A classified index
is in progress.
The library building was designed by the late Hammett Billings, of
Boston, and cost about $18,000. The interior is finished in chestnut;
the bookcases and other furniture are of black walnut. The alcoves
are arranged so as to form cozy nooks for the readers. The shelves will
accommodate only about 12,000 or 14,000 volumes, but the introduction
of galleries would greatly increase the capacity of the building.
Tufts college, college hill, mass.
The library was begun at the time the college was opened, Septem-
ber, 1854^ by the president, Hosea Ballon, D.l)., who made an appeal
in its behalf to the Universalist denomination and to publishers, with
such success that at the end of a year the number of volumes was about
1,500, all of which were given.
There is as yet only one permanent library fund, (of $1,200,) estab-
lished in 1874 by J. D. W. Joy, the income of which is to be devoted
principally to the department of philology.
The first gift recorded is that of 19 volumes from Rev. G. Collins, of
Philadelphia ; and among the donations of the first year is that of Mrs.
Campbell, who gave 280 volumes from the library of her deceased
brother, Eev. J. S. Popkin, formerly professor of Greek at Harvard
University.
To J. L. Sibley, librarian of Harvard University, the college is
indebted for the largest number of volumes from any one source, his
donations having been made nearly every year, and many of them being
rare and valuable works. In 1873 there were received from him 029
volumes.
College Libraries. 93
In 1865, the collef?e purchased the library of its first president, about
1,500 volumes. In 1870, Miss M. E. Bacou gave $200 for the purchase
of books for the department of modern languages. In 1873, N. C. Mun-
son gave $500 for books for the engineering department.
The number of volumes in the library is 16,000 ; the number of pam-
phlets upward of 5,000, not including those that are bound nor several
thousand unbound periodicals.
A system of car^l catalogues is in use, similar to that of the Harvard
University Library.
There are no society libraries connected with the college, except that
of the Uuiversalist Historical Society.
WELLESLEY COLLEGE, WELLESLEY, MASS,
Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass., is an institution for the collegiate
education of young women, and received its first students in September,
1875. The library beloi^ging to the colleges w^as open for use at Christ-
mas of the same year, and consists almost entirely of the private col-
lection given by the founders of the college, Mr. and Mrs. H. F. Durant,
a few books having been added by personal friends. The library apart-
ment is a fire-proof room, forming the ground story of one of the pro-
jections of the college building, divided into alcoves, each well lighted,
and having a gallery, which is carried along the two longer sides of the
room. The cases for the books are all protected by glass doors, and
the shelf room will accommodate about 120,000 volumes.
The college being devoted to the higher education, it is the wish of
the founder to make this library as thorough in all its appointments as
a college library would aim to be, excluding only special professional
works, like law treatises, which would not, except in extraordinary
cases, be requisite in the education of girls. The number of books
already on the shel ves is about 10,000, arranged in the alcoves according
to the simple division of subjects — 'English poetry and dramatic works,
French classics, Italian classics, German classics, Greek and Roman
authors, ancient history, modern history, works of reference. The first
characteristic of the library which strikes the eye is the external dress
of the boolvs, which are, to a very large extent, bound in calf and
morocco. The greatest care has been taken to select editions of books
which are the best, and then to put them into durable and tasteful
bindings.
The second point to be noticed is the freshness of the library. The
editions of the classics, ancient and modem, are the best, and the illus-
trative literature, historical and critical, is the most permanent and
recent. There is an agreeable absence of literary and critical lumber.
The library being, in the first instance, a well selected private library,
and being enlarged with special reference to the objects of the college,
there is no accumulation of rubbish, such as necessarily be!on ,'s in a
general library; but it is throughout a serviceable, working library.
94 Public Libraries in the United States.
For instauce, the student of Plato will find Stallbaum's edition, Victor
Cousin's translation, Bekker's edition, and the special editions of
Deuschle and Cron ; she will also have Gary's and Taylor's translations
and the best critical and lexical helps. To illustrate further Greek litera-
ture, art, and history, she has access to Miiller's Dorians, the volume
already published of Corssen's Sprache der Etrusker, Winckelmann's
Ancient Art, Overbeck's Griechische Plastik, Bockh's Athenians, Mure,
I^ekker, Clinton's Fasti, Grote, Niebuhr, Bursiau's Geography of Greece,
and other works, together with the best lexicons, Liddell & Scott, Pas-
sow, Yonge, Pape, Fradersdorff', Pauley's Real-Encyclopedie. In Ger-
man literature she ha,s Liicas, Sanders, Helpert, Hiigel, and Adler to
aid in the study of the admirable editions of the great writers; while
in French she has the help of Littre's great work, Bescherelle, Fleming
and Tibbins, and the dictionary of the French Academy, in the study of
liacine, Moliere, Marmontel, Rousseau, de Sevigno, L;imartine, Sainte-
Beuve, Villemain, Victor Hugo, and other leaders in Frentjh literatare.
The alcoves devoted to history contain the latest and most thorough,
works in ancient mediaeval and modern history, being especially rich
in English history. The library, indeed, is properly illustrative of what
was formerly termed the humanities, and when one examines the de-
partment of English literature, he is struck with the choiceuess of the
selection, and the care taken to obtain early editions of celebrated
works. The student using the books can hardly fail to carry away,
besides a love of literature itself, a fondness for the refinements of
literary dress, and to have her imagination cultivated by handling
books which have a history in themselves. Thus, there is a copy of Du
Bartas's Divine Weeke, dated in 1G41; Purchas's Pilgrimage, 1617;
the second folio of Spenser's Faerie Queene, being the first of his other
poems, dated IGll. There are also a number of l>ook8 having agreeably
and interesting literary associations, many from the libraries of Mitford
and Choate, Perceval and Lord Miicaulay, a presentation copy of
Southey's translation of F. de Moraes' Palmerin of England to H. N.
Coleridge, with Coleridge's autograph; a copy of the more cele/brated
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Remorse, presented by him to a Mr. Dibden,
aaid having extreme interest from the great number of corrections made
by the author ; a copy of Milman's Fazio, with corrections by the author;
a copy of Longfellow's Dante, with a corrected proof-sheet bound in ;
a copy of the sumptuous edition from the Auchinlech manuscript of
the Romances of Sir Guy of Warwick; Peter Pindar's Letters, with an
autograph note. The library is, besides, supplied with the leading
reviews and periodical literature of America, England, France, and
Germany.
There is also a separate small collection of books devoted to helps in
the study of the Bible, a memorial of the daughter of the giver, and
named by him in her memory The Gertrude Library. It comprises
about 500 volumes at present, and the giver inteniis doubling the jiuin-
ber.
College Libraries. 95
WILLIAMS COLLEGE, WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS.
This library had its origin at the oi)ening of the college in 1793. It
consisted, at first, of a few volumes, mostly religious, the gifts of friends
of the college. The first printed catalogue of 1794 contains 353 vol-
umes. Having no special fund, the library increased bat slowly, and
was largely dependent upon the gifts of friends.
It has now two funds, one of $5,000, given, in 1854, by Mrs. Araoa
Lawrence, and the other ($5,000) in ISGl, by Jonathan Phillips, of
Boston.
The n u niber of volumes in the library is about 17,500. There are also
two libraries belonging to the Philologian and Philotechnian Literary
Societies, which are of great educational importance. They date back
to the earlier days of the college, and were then united in one. Th%v' are
in the main well selected, and, by a happy arrangement, supplement the
college library by being especially full in those departments in which
it is more or less deficient. The number of volumes in each of these
libraries is somewhat 0%'er 5,000.
Besides the college library, and those of the literary societies already
mentioned, there are, or rather were, the Franklin Library, the Library
of the Lyceum of liatural History, and the Mills Theological Library.
The first of these contained only such books as were studied in the col-
lege course. It was begun in 1820, for the purpose of aiding needy
students. It worked very successfully for many years, supi)lying the
young men, for four or five dollars, with the use of all the text books of
t4ie college course. But through the enlarging range of studies, and the
constant improvement in, and frequent change of, the textbooks used in
the college in later years, this library has been superseded and given up.
The library of The Lyceum of Katural History was a collection of
works made by the members of that association, a society for the study
of natural history formed early in the history of the college. It was first
called the Linnsean Society, but assumed its present name in 1835. Its
library, though not embracing over 250 volumes, was yet very valuable.
In 1-869 it was united with the natural history department of tiie col-
lege library.
The. Mills Theological Library, which, though burned in 1841, had
been revived and contained some 1,600 volumes, was also, in 1874, united
with the college library.
The whole number of books belonging to the college is about 27,500.
The average annual increase of the college library is 400 volumes. The
average yearly expenditure is $900, derived mostly from the funds above
mentioned.
Since 1808, the library has been open four hours each day for consul-
tation and reading, with free access to the shelves, and the presence of
the librarian to render any needed assistance.
Owing to the fact of limited means, library purchases have been made
with great care, and, while the departments are very far from being as
96 Public Libraries in the United States.
full as is desired, the snpplj^, so far as it goes, is made np of the best
works in each department, embracing also the leading English and
American reviews and periodicals. Few libraries of its size present as
good facilities for the practical uses of a college.
In 1845, through the liberality of the late Col. Amos Lawrence, of
Boston, the library building, known as Lawrence Hall, was built. It
is octagonal in form, 48 feet iu diameter, each side 20 feet, and is 36
feet iu height. It has two stories — the lower one finished in rustic
style — and is surmounted by a dome supported by eight Ionic columns.
The capacity of the library is 35,000 volumes.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, ANN AEBOR, MICH.
The university library has been accumulating for about thirty years,
and for its size is very valuable.
The only considerable donation it has received is the library of the
late Dr. Kau, professor in the University of Heidelberg, consisting of
about 4,000 volumes and 6,000 pamphlets, purchased and presented to
the university by Hon. Philo Parsons, of Detroit, Mich.
The library contains about 23,000 volumes, and 8,000 pamphlets. The
library'of the law department numbers 3,000 volumes; that of the medical
department, 1,500 ; that of the Young Men's Christian Association of the
university, 900. There is no printed catalogue, but a manuscript journal
catalogue iu folio; and a system of card catalogues, one set arranged
alphabetically by authors, the other by subjects.
ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY, ST. LOUIS, MO.
The university library was begun in 1829.
No special fund is set aside for library purposes, but grants for the
purchase of books are made annually by the faculty. Nearly all the
books have been purchased with funds thus obtained.
Donations have occasionally been made to the library. Eev. P. J.
De Smet received donations in Belgium of works on theology, canon
law, ecclesiastical history, and a copy of the Acta Sanctorum, by the
Bollandists, from persons who did not permit their names to be recorded
as benefactors. In 1832, the university received from the Commission
of Public Records of Great Britain, 100 folio and seve ral octavo volumes
of the public records, including the Domes-Day Book, with its index.
The library contains 17,000 volumes. The average annual addition is
300 volumes. The society libraries, established by voluntary contribu-
tions from the students in 1855, and supported by fees from the mem-
bers, contain 8,00 J volumes; making, altogether, 25,01)0 books belong-
ing to the university.
A manuscript catalogue, arranged by subjects, was made in 1856-'57.
Another was begun in 1871,, but is not yet finished.
e Libraries. 97
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, HANOVER, N. H.
The library of Dartmouth College, like the college itself, which latter
was founded in 1769, is of humble origin. It had its beginniug in small
donations from men of moderate means Who had the cause of education
at heart. As it increased, larger contributions were received from
friends in this country and in England, and the ministers of the neigh-
boring country did for it what the Connecticut ministers did for the
library of Yale, and brought in books, some giving their entire libraries.
In 1773 the Rev. Diodate Johnson, of Millington, Conn., left to the
college, besides other bequests, his whole library. There is no record
extant of the amount or value of these gifts. But smaller gifts were
more common. Dr. Wheelock, in one of his letters, expresses his thanks
to a patron in England who had sent him " six psalm books;" and in
the early records of the trustees there is a vote of thanks to a gentleman
who had given to the college a copy of Athanasius, bound in leather,
in two volumes; and this is but a sample of many.
It would be impossible to mention the many donors to the library,
and their names would now be unfamiliar to all. But there is one who
not only raised for himself a perpetual memorial in the academies which
he founded at Exeter and Andover, but to whose wise counsels and
large generosity the early success of Dartmouth College was largely
due, the Hon. John Phillips, of Exeter, a trustee of the college from
1773 to 1793. Besides large gifts in money and lands for the gen-
eral purposes of the college, he gave, in 1772, £175, lawful money, for
the purchase of philosophical apparatus, but which was, with his per-
mission, devoted to the enlargement of the library.
In 1800 the library numbered about 3,000 volumes. In 1818 it was
voted to sell the old books, impaired by use, and purchase new ones with
the proceeds. In 1820 the sum of $400 was voted from the general fund
for books. From time to time purchases have been made to supply the
wants of the various departments of instruction. Private liberality has
also established several funds for procuring books; some of them devoted
to a special purpose.
In July, 1852, George 0. Shattuck, of Boston, Mass., gave 81,000, to
which he added, in August of the same year, another $1,000. Of this
sum $800 were used for the Latin department, while the remainder
was devoted to the purchase of books treating of mathematics as
applied to mechanics and astronomy. In 1852, Rev. Roswell Shurt-
lefif gave $1,000, which was devoted to the department of moral
and intellectual philosophy. In 1846, Edmund, Isaac, and Joel
Parker gave $1,000 as a library fund, which was increased by the
last mentioned, Hon. Joel Parker, till in 1875 it amounted to $'r,ODO.
At his death, in that year, Judge Parker also bequeathed, in addition
to other gifts to the college, the sum of $12,500 for the use of the
library; so that the Parker fund now amounts to $19,500. In 1867
Miss Mary C. Bryant, of Boston, Mass., gave $5,000 to establish a fund
7e
98 Fublic Libraries in the United States.
as a memorial of her grandfather, the Rev. John Smith, one of the
early professors in the college, to be called the John Smith fund. This
and the Parker fund are of general application and may be used for
the purchase of any books of permment value. lu 18 15 the late Eon.
Samuel Appleton established the Appleton fund, and increased it by
a bequest in 1854. Tliis fund is devoted to the maintenance of the de-
partment of physics, and varying sums are expended yearly from its
income in purchasing books for that department. A fund of $1,000 was
also established by the late Hon. James W. Grimes, of Iowa.
With these funds, amounting at present to $.36,501), a portion of which,
however, is not available, and with grants from the college treasury, the
library is yearly increased in numbers and value. The average yearly
Increase for the past five years has been 700 volumes and 100 pamphlets.
Society libraries.
Side by side with the college library grew up another, which in the
extent of its use has been of even greater value — the Societies' Library.
In 1783 a society was formed called the Social Friends, secret in its
character at first, but literary in its purpose. Weekly meetings were
held for debate and rhetorical exercise, and to aid in the work of the
society a library was collected. The society flourished for three years,
during which time the library steadily grew, by the contributions of its
members. In 178C a secession took place, some of the members with-
drawing and forming a new society, the United Fraternity. Hence-
forth they continued as rival societies, until the formation of the dis-
tinctly so called secret societies. Each had its library, which was
increased by the donations of successive classes; in later years at the
rate of from 200 to 500 volumes annually. The management of the
libraries was almost exclusively in the hands of the students, and after
the obtaining of the society charters in 182G and 1827 entirely so till
1874. During the time of the famous struggle between the college and
the university, from 1815 to 1819, an attempt was made on the part of
the students of the university, with the assistance of some of their fac-
ulty, to seize the books of the societies. The students of the college,
emulating the example of their trustees, held fast to their rightful pos-
sessions, and locked their assailants into a room until the books had
been conveyed to a place of safety. During the progress of the litiga-
tion the books were kept in private houses in the village, and at the
triumph of the college were carried back to their old quarters.
After the establishment of secret societies, the Social Friends and
the United Fraternity declined as literary organizations, but the libra-
ries continued to be centres of interest and profit. The use of the col-
lege library was hampered by *so many restrictions that it was of very
little value to the students, while their own libraries were always open
for use ; and these, by a judicious union of the current literature of the
day with works of more permanent value, afforded a better opportu-
College Libraries. ^9
nity for selection than the college library. The two were never in col-
lision, but the one was an indispensable supplement to the other. They
continued entirely distinct until 1874, when, owing to the expense of
maintenance, the students thought best to place their library under the
direction of the faculty. Articles of agreement were entered into be-
tween the faculty and the students, by which the latter retained cer-
tain powers and privileges. The consolidated libraries were placed in
one room, and a librarian appointed, at a Used salary, to take charge
of the united library, which, with the reading room, was now open
continuously to the students. Complete harmony of interest and unity
of administration have worked greatly to the advantage of all parties.
With the Societies' Library there was brought into the union the
library (about 1,200 volumes) of the Philotechnic Society, an organiza-
tion formed in the Chandler scientific department, in 1854, with a design
similar to that of the Social Friends.
There was also united with the general library, the library of the
Northern Academy of Arts and Sciences, an association formed June
24, 1841, and composed of gentlemen of culture in various parts of the
State. This collection consisted principally of pamphlets, bound and
unbound, and numbered 2,500 volumes.
The united libraries now number about 47,000 volumes, exclusive of
pamphlets, the college library proper consisting of about 20,000, and the
remainder being the books of the societies.
There is also, in connection with the astronomical department of the
college, begun in 1S53, a library of about 750 volumes, besides pam-
phlets. The medical department, established in 1796, has 1,500 vol-
umes ; the Thayer department of civil engineering has a library of 2,000
volumes, begun in 1862, and chieliy the gift of the late General Sylva-
nus Thayer ; and the agricultural department a collection of 1,300 vol-
umes.
At present the astronomical, the engineering, and the agricultural
libraries are kept in separate buildings; but it is hoped that before
many years the means will be obtained for a buildiug that will offer,
under one roof, safe and commodious quarters for all the separate libra-
ries of the college, which together now amount to about 53,000 volumes.
COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, PRINCETON, N. J.
The library of the College of New Jersey is probably of nearly equal
age with the college itself, and that dates from 1746. In a notice of it,
written probably by President Davies in 1760, it is said to have been
"formed almost entirely of the donations of several public spirited gen-
tlemen on both sides of the Atlantic." Among these might have been
mentioned Jonathan Belcher, whose name the college would have borne
had he permitted it ; and who, dying as governor of New Jersey in 1757,
left to the library 474 volumes. Classics and folios abounded in the
mansions of those days, and the intellectual character of the collection,
100 Public Libraries in the United States.
relatively to its whole mass, may have stood higher then thau since.
The first printed catalogue, printed at Woodbridge, N.J., in 1760, con-
sists of 36 pages, small quarto, and gives the titles of nearly 1,300 vol-
umes, 231 being folios.
March 6, 1802, the interior of :N"assau Hall, where the books were then
lodged, was burned, and it was for some years supposed that the entire
library was destroyed. A few books are now known to have escaped,
viz, certain folios of Oalasio, and an edition of Oalvin in eleven folios,
Amsterdam, 1671, still in the library, with their titles in the catalogue
of 1760.
Public generosity was appealed to for the means to replace the build-
ing; and records still in existence show that $32,000 in money were sub-
scribed in the colonies. To restore the library, also, many noble vol-
umes, still be.aring the names of their donors, came from literary celeb-
rities in this country and in Great Britain. Among these were John
Lowell, Dugald Stewart, and Aiidrew Dalzel. To insure the safety of
these new treasures, the library was placed in the -building in which
are the geological museum and Philadelphian Hall, and, remaining there
for half a century, escaped the flames which, in March, 1855, again
destroyed Nassau Hall. Its increasing bulk finally crowded it out of
the museum building, and it was removed to its original lojlging, where
it stood from 1865 to 1873.
For nearly seventy years of this century the sole revenue of the
library was derived from a tax of $1 a term on the students. Its in-
crease was therefore extremely slow. In 1812 the librarian reported
4,000 volumes in the collection. In the same year the library of Presi-
dent Smith, containing also the books of President Witherspoon, was
bought for the college. In 1823 the number of volumes was estimated
at 7,0jJ0, and that number is given in the catalogue of 1831. In 1836,
James Madison, an alumnus of 1771, left the library a legacy of $1,000.
This was the only considerable gift of money mido to the library pre-
vious to 1868. Several noteworthy donations of books were, however,
received. James Lenox, of New York, has presented many valuable
bookf5, among them the first three polyglots of the Holy Scriptures.
Mr. Ubadiah Rich, while resident in London in 1834, procured the
bestowment by the Record Commission of the British government of its
publications, 86 volumes, folio, and 24 volumes, octavo. The legislative
documents of the United States, continued in an almost unbroken series
from the beginning of the Twentieth Congress to the end of the Forty-
second, make about 1,000 volumes. Matthew Newkirk, of Philadelphia,
gave the great Description de I'^^gypte. The family of W. D. Beattie
presented 200 volumes of classical and other valuable works; and the
libraries of Professors Hope and Glger, uurabering several huudred
volumes each, were given to the college in 1850 and 1865.
In 1868, the late John C. Green, of New York, presented to the col-
lege 1100,000 under the name of the Elizabeth fund, in honor of his
College Libraries. 103
mother. Prora the income of this fund the library was to receive $3,000
a year. Among other large additions thus made is the library of Tren-
delenburg, of Berlin, consisting of nearly 10,000 volumes and pamphlets,
purchased by the facuHy for $5,000. It contains a collection of 185 vol-
umes of old editions of Aristotle and his commentators, with a large num-
ber of modern essays on his philosophy 5 and also several hundred vol-
umes of comparatively rare classics.
By recent gifts from John S. Pierson, of New York, the library pos-
sesses 1,000 volumes on the late civil war. The entire library now num-
bers 29,500 volumes.
The two society libraries contain together 12,000 volumes.
Tiie library is open five days in the week for the exchange of books,
and at almost all hours of the day for purposes of study.
The necessity of a separate and safer building for the library having
been for some time apparent, Mr. John C, Green, of New York, in 1872-73,
erected an elegant stone building, at a cost of $120,000, and presented
it to the college for library purposes. It is an octagonal building, with
wings to the east and west, 140 feet in its entire length, with a central
elevation of about 50 feet. The centre of the hall is occupied by a plat-
form 12 feet in diameter, upon which is a circular desk for the librarian.
Between this and the alcoves, which are ranged against the walls, is a
passage way, 9 feet in width. The caT[)acity of the two floors of alcoves
is 108,000 volumes.
At the time of the erection of the building, a fund was provided for
the support of the librarian.
Library of the Cleiosophic Society ,
This society dates from the year 1765, the nineteenth from the foun-
dation of the college. It began with seven members, of whom the most
distinguished in after life were Oliver Ellsworth, second Chief-Justice
of the United States, and Luther Martin, attorney-general of Maryland.
The library now contains about 4,000 volumes. Perhaps the depart-
ment which is best supplied is that of essays, including literary, mis-
cellaneous, and periodical criticism ; but the historical collection leaves
little to be desired. The reading room of the society is well supplied
with magazines, reviews, and newspapers.
Library of the American Whig Society.
This society was organized in 1769, and three years afterwards
included among its members, James Madison, fourth President of the
United States. In connection with Clio, its rival, it has furnished
many public men to the country. These two societies own buildings
precisely alike, situated on the eastern verge of the college campus.
Each building is two stories high ; the library and reading room being
on the ground floor, and the halls for literary exercises above. The
gift of $4,000 by Commodore Stockton has enabled the Whig Society to
104 Public Libraries in the United States.
collect a larger and better library than its elder sister, and it numbers
at present 8,000 volumes. The catalogue shows that at every period of
its history the society has bought good books. The collections in the
departments of poetry and art are especially good. There is also a val-
uable collection of law books, and the best histories of every country.
Fourteen reviews and literary periodicals are regularly taken.
COLUMBIA COLLEGE, NEW YOE:^, N. Y.
The Library of Columbia College, New York, contains a small but
unusually choice and valuable collection of books. It is nearly coeval
with the college, which was founded in 1754, Among the earliest
benefactors were Joseph Murray, of Loudon, and the Rev. Duncorabe
Bristowe, whose libraries were given to the college. These collec-
tions, however, were scattered during the war, when the college buildings
were occupied by the British army, and but few of the valuable books
of which they consisted could be recovered. After the return of peace,
when King's College was re opened under the name of Columbia College,
the library was replenished, partly by donations, but chiefly by careful
andjudicions purchases; and it has been kept up for nearly a hundred
years upon the same principles, viz, of buying few books, and those
only of the highest character, and of admitting only such books as are
strictly adapted to a college library, leaving large and miscellaneous
collections to the public libraries of New York.
The lists of benefactors include the names of the principal citizens of
New York during this whole period. Those of Samuel Johnson, Myles
Cooper, (the tirst two presidents,) Archibald Kennedy, John Watts, occur
in several of the older volumes. In later times, equally well known and
respectable names are found. The largest gifts have been the law libra-
ries of William Samuel Johnson, the third president of the college, given
by his son, Mr. Johnson, of Stamford, Conn., and of John Jay, the first
Chief-Justice of the United States, the gift of his grandson, John Jay.
The collections of the New York Literary and Philosophical Society
have also been added to the college library. Among the most im-
portant additions by purchase, may be mentioned the library of the
late Nathaniel F. Moore, professor of languages and afterwards presi-
dent, consisting for the most part of elegant and valuable editions
of the Greek and Koman classics, and the library of the late Lorenzo
Da Ponte, containing a choice and extensive collection of the older Italian
literature. A small but very good selection of standard German wri-
ters was added a few years ago, under the direction of Dr. Tellkampf,
some time professor ot German.
The library has no resources except the grants made from time to
time by the trustees for its enlargement and expenses. For many
years these were liberal bat irregalar. Tliey are now settled at $4,000
a year, divided equally between the college and the School of Mines.
College Libraries. 105
A small sum, varying from year to year, is also allowed to the la\r
school.
The books are not kept in one hall, but have been, for convenience,
distributed among the departments of the university. The principal
library, which alone is under the charge of the librarian, is in a hall 28
feet wide and 71 feet long. It contains 18,745 volumes, including 200
volumes of bound pamphlets. Its estimated value is $43,700. The
additions for tlie last seven years have averaged 500 volumes a year,
and the average outlay, including purchases and binding, has been
$2,000. The library of the School of Mines has grown in ten years from
800 to 7,000 volumes. It is now valued at $17,000. The law library
contains about 4,500 volumes, estimated at $8,000. The botanical
library contains 1,145 volumes, valued at $3,650. The whole number of
books may be stated at 31,390, and the value at $72,350. As, however,
the statements of the law and botanical libraries were sent in in Decem-
ber, 1874, it is probable that these collections have slightly increased
since that time.
The only literary society now in operation is the Philolexian. Its
library probably does not exceed 1,200 volumes. The Peithologiau
Library numbers 1,000 volumes.
In August, 1875, an alphabetical catalogue of the books in the princi-
pal library of the college was printed. To this is appended a second
alphabet, containing a catalogue of the bound pamphlets. The whole
forms an octavo volume of 412 pages. A catalogue of the library of the
School of Mines, both alphabetical and analytical, has been published
the past year.
An elaborate and careful account of the library was prepared by
William A. Jones, the late librarian, and was printed in 1861 under
the direction of the trustees. The edition of this important pamphlet
is now exhausted, but copies are to be found in several public libraries.
CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N. Y.
The University Library at Cornell was established simultaneously
with the opening of the university, in the month of October, 1868. It
then consisted of 14,000 volumes, partly composed of the private library
of Charles Anthon, formerly professor in Columbia College; partly of
the private library of Franz Bopp, formerly professor in the University
of Berlin, both of which had been purchased by the trustees of the uni-
versity in the summer of 1868 ; partly of modern scientific books,
selected and bought for the university in Europe, during the same
period, by President White ; partly of a collection of German literature
presented to the library by President White ; and partly of a small col-
lection of works on agriculture, bought in New York in 1868, by Ezra
Cornell. The Anthon collection consisted of between 5,000 and 6,000
volumes, two-thirds of which related to the classical languages and their
literatures; the Bopp collection numbered nearly 2,000 volumes, and
106 Public Libraries in the United States.
was chiefly made up of works treating of linguistic subjects, iucluding
especially a noticeable series of Sanskrit texts.
In the following year (1869) Professor Ooldwin Smith presented to
the library his valuable private collection of books, which comprised
more than 3,000 volumes, chiefly historical works and editions of the
ancient and English classics. In 1870, President White gave to the
library about 1,000 volumes of works on architecture, collected by himself,
many of which are of the most expensive character. They include sets
of all the principal periodicals relating to architecture printed in Europe,
and the various works published by JBritton, VioUet le-Dac, Gailhabaud,
Gruner, Weale, Seroux d'Agincourt, Galley Knight, Fergusson, Wiebe-
king, Cicognara, Pugin, Parker, and others.
In 1871, the late William Kelley, of Rhinebeck, J^.Y., then a trustee
of the university, placed at the disposal of the librariau the sum of
$2,250 for the purchase of mathematical works. With this sum, daring
that year, 1,500 volumes and 700 tracts and dissertations were bought,
chiefly through European agents, including complete sets of the
leading mathematical periodicals in English, French, German, Italian,
and Danish, and the most important modern works in the domain of
pure mathematics. In January, 1872, the private library of Jared
Sparks, formerly president of Harvard College, and editor of the works
of Washington and Franklin, was added, by purchase, to the university
library. It numbered more than 5,000 volumes, about two-thirds of
which were in the department of American history — the collection of
books and pamphlets illustrating the revolutionary period being extraor-
dinarily full and valuable. To these colleotious mast be added many
thousands of volumes purchased at varioas times since 18l)S, the balk of
which have been bought in Europe. The collections have not been
kept separate, but all have been consolidated and classified as one gen-
eral library — a bookmark in each volume indicating the collection with
which it was purchased or given.
The library also possesses a few unique collections. Among these
the most notable is the May collection of works relating to the subjects
of slavery and anti-slavery. This was founded in the year 1870, by the
late Eev. Samuel J. May, of Syracuse, who gave the books he had
himself gathered during the progress of the abolition movement. To
these have been united the anti-slavery portion 6f the libraries of the
late Gerrit Smith, of Peterboro', N.Y., of the late Mr. Richard D.
Webb, of Dublin, Ireland, of Mrs, Elizabeth Pease Nichols, of Edin-
burgh, Scotland, of Mr. Henry B, Stanton, of Tenafly, N.J., as well as a
host of minor donations from many persons, bjth in the North and the
South, who took part in the political struggle which originated in the
slavery question. The collection at present comprises nearly 800 bound
volumes and 5,000 pamphlets, and includes perfect files of- many of the
leading anti-slavery journals, such as the Liberator and the Anti-
Slavery Standard. Ezvd Cornell, after the death of the late Samuel F.
College Libraries. 107
B. Morse, bought and presented to the library the works owned by that
distinguished gentleman relating to telegraphy and electro-magnetism,
consisting of about 250 volumes and pamphlets. The library has also
acquired, largely thfough the liberality of President White, a collection
of books illustrative of the history of the typographical art, embracing
volumes from the presses of Fust, Schoiffer, Caxton, Wynkyu de Worde,
Zell, Mentelius, Aldus Mauutius, Richard Pynson, and other early
printers, as well as specimens of the books printed by the Etiennes, the
Elzevirs, Plantin, Baskerville, and Bodoui in later times. Principally
to the same source it is indebted for a small collection of illuminated
manuscripts in Sanskrit, Tamil, Persian, Ethiopic, Latin, French, and
German, some of which are of considerable interest. In modern manu-
scripts it possesses a valuable collection of letters, documents, and draw-
ings by Washington, of documents in the handwriting of Franklin and
Lafayette, together with many letters addressed to Washington, as well
as a considerable number of manuscript maps illustrating revolutionary
battles.
In serials the library, considering its age and size, is particularly
rich. It owns sets of most of the noted periodicals devoted to natural
and physical science published during the last forty years, and a very
perfect collection of English and American reviews and literary maga-
zines and of foreign philological journals. It continues to add to these
sets J its annual subscription to foreign periodicals alone amounting to
an average sum of $1,000. The works on bibliography and literary
history are also numerous and carefully selected.
Among the extensive or costly works on the shelves of the library
may be mentioned a government copy of Description de I'figypte, Paris,
1809-28 ; the .engravings of Koman antiquities, edifices, and works of
art, by Piranesi, Rome, 1750-'85 — the copy, in 21 volumes, presented
by Pope Clement the Fourteenth to the English Duke of Cumberland ;
the Thesaurus Antiquitatum of Gronovius and Grtevius, Venice, 1732-
'37, in 33 folio volumes; the Transactions and Proceedings of the
French Institute, the Royal Society, and the Berlin Academy of Sci-
ences, together with those of the Geological Society, the Zoological So-
ciety, and the Linnseau Society of London ; a colored copy of Besler's
Hortus Eystettensis, Nuremberg, 1613, which cost $800; Bateman's
Orchidacese of Mexico and Guatemala ; Curtis's Botanical Magazine,
a complete set, procured at an expense of $650 ; the Flora Brasiliensis
of Martius as far as published; Humboldt's scientific works in folio;
the Mouiteur Uuiversel, from 1789 to 1808, in 102 folio volumes ; the
London Times, a set beginning with 1848 ; Canina's Edifizj di Roma
Antica, Architettura Antica, and Architettura dei tempj Cristiani, in
13 volumes ; Gruner's Decorative Art ; the publications of the Dilet-
tanti Society of London ; Hakluyt's Voyages, London, 1599 ; Cruveil-
hier's Anatomic, Paris, 1851; the Bibliotheca Classica Latina of Le
Maire, in 143 volumes, and the Scriptores Latiai of Valpy, in 169 vol-
108 Public Libraries in the United States.
umes; the Biblioteca de. Aatores Espaiioles, edited by Riradeneyra ;
the Olassici Italian!, in 250 volumes', and the publications of the Ray
Society, the Sydenham Society, the PalaBoutographical Society, the
Percy Society, the Camden Society, the Hakluyt Society, the Eidy Eng-
lish Text Society, the English Historical Society, and the Chaucer Soci-
ety. The set of the patent specifications presented to the library
by the British government, numbering over 2,89J vokimss, is still
deposited in London awaiting the funds to bind it. The library hais a
complete set of American Patent-Office publications.
The library has no fixed fund for its maintenance, but depends upon
annual grants by the trustees of the university for the purchase
of books, which have ranged from $1,000 to $3,000, besides special
grants at various times for particular purposes. The average an-
nual increase of the library since its establishment has been nearly
3,000 volumes. The total number of volumes at present is 39,000, be-
sides 15,000 pamphlets. The collection is arranged very nearly in accord-
ance with the system of classification adopted by Brunet in his Man-
nel du Libraire, and possesses a simple alphabetical slip catalogue, to-
gether with special catalogues of a few of thedepartments. Of the Sparks
and Bopp collections there are printed catalogues, prepared before the
purchase of those libraries ; of the Anthon collection, there is a similar
catalogue in manuscript. There are employed a principal librarian and
two assistants; the principal librarian, who is also a professor, and one
of the assistants devoting but a part of their time to the library. The
library is a circulating one, so far as the members of thp. faculty are
concerned, and a library of reference so far as the students of the insti-
tution are concerned. The average number of volumes constantly with-
drawn from the library is 650; the average number consulted daily in
the reading room of the library is 200. The library is open throughout
the year (except Sundays) from 8 o'clock in the morning till 5 o'clock in
the afternoon, or till sunset, when that is before 5. It occupies the
lower main floor of the McGraw or central university building, a room
100 feet by 45, and is arranged in alcoves, which inclose a space used as
a reading room. The room is adorned with several busts, in marble and
plaster, and with a number of portraits in oil, the latter including orig-
inal half-length portraits of Professors Louis Agassiz, Goldwin Smith,
James Russell Lowell, and George William Curtis.
HAMILTON COLLEGE, CLINTON, N. Y.
Hamilton College received its charter in May, 18 12, and at the same
time a small library belonging- to Hamilton Oneida Academy was, with
other property, passed over to the college. In November, 1812, the
trustees of the college granted $100 for the increase of the library,
and appointed a committee authorized to make purchases, appoint a
librarian, and provide regulations for the use of the library. In 1826
the number of volumes was about 1,000, and this, was gradually increased
College Libraries. 109
by purchases and donations by individuals and the general and State
governments; but the addition of valuable and useful books was very
slow, the college, for want of fu nds, not being able to make many pur*
chases.
In November, 18fl0, the libraries of the Union and Phoenix Societies,
each containing about 3,000 volumes, were placed in charge of the col-
lege for safe keeping; and since that time they have been kept and used
as a part of the college library, though the rights of the societies are
fully recognized and maintained. In 1865 the valuable library of Dr.
Edward Robinson, containing about 1,400 volumes and about 100 valu-
able maps, was purchased and given to the college by a few friends in
New York. In the same year, the library received its most important
addition in the valuable law library of William Curtis Noyes, of New
York, bequeathed by him to H imilton College, in order "that it may
always be kept together for the use of law stndents in that institution.'^
This collection numbers nearly 7,000 volumes, of which about 5,000
are law books, and the residue miscellaneous. They were collected
during a practice of twenty-five years, at an expense of from $50,000 to
$75,000. It contains all the American reports, with scarcely an excep-
tion, down to 1865, including those of Mr. Jefferson from 1730 to 1740,
and from 1768 to 1772, complete reports of every State in the Union,
British, English, Scotch, and Irish reports, and of the colonies from New-
foundland to India. Among its rare volumes are all the Domes-Day
Books; a complete copy of the English Statutes at Large in 78 vol-
umes; and everything in the Engbsh common law, both civil and crimi-
nal, and iu equity, with the earlier treatises. It contains a considerable
collection of codes, among which are the Chinese aiul Gentoo; the Frede.
rician code and Hindoo law; the Ordinances of Menu, translated from
the Sanskrit by Sir William Jones; and Macnaghteu's Principles of
Hindoo and Mohammedan Law. Tuere is also a copy of Beugnot's As-
sises de Jerusalem, 2 volumes, folio, Paris, 1841. This work, which is
very learnedly annotated, contains an account of the works on juris-
prudence written in the thirteenth century, and the laws of the king-
dom of Jerusalem and Cyprus in the time of the Crusades. Among the^
legal curiosities is a perfect copy of Statham's Abridgment, the first,
book of English law ever printed, in black letter. 1470; and a copy of
Le Grand Coutumier du Pays, Duchd de Normandie, 1530. Both of
these are in a fine state of preservation. There is also a copy of Dug-
dale's Origines Judiciales, edition of 1671, the most accurate now extant,
as most of the first edition, 1666, was destroyed in the great tire in Lon-
don the same year; Spelman's Glossary, 1687; and Jardine's Use of
Torture in the Criminal Law of Etjgland, 1637. There is also a copy of
Calvin's Lexiccm, Geneva edition of 1584. The collection of French law
is considerable; and there is a complete set, over 70 voluu)es, of the
printed statutes of the Colony and State of New York, including the
session laws from the earliest period, commencing with a copy of Bradr
110 Public Libraries in the United States.
ford's, printed in Loudon in 1719, which formerly belonged to Lord
Delaware, and seems to have come from the plantation ofQce in the col-
ony. There is hardly any law book which a lawyer in large practice
may have occasion to consult that may not be found in this collection.
Feeling the obligation to provide for the safe keeping of so impor-
tant a gift, the trustees took immediate measures to realize a sum suffi-
cient for building a library hall. The Hon. Perry H. Smith, of Chi-
cago, in honor of whom the hall is named, offered to contribute one-
half che sum supposed to be necessary for the building, $25,000, on
condition that the other half should be made up by the alumni and
other friends of the college in the West. The corner stone \^as laid
in July, 1866, but owing to various hindrances the hall was not
completed and ready for occupancy until the summer of 1872. The
whole cost of building and furniture was about $50,000. The building
is 75 by 50 feet; the alcoves in the library are arranged in three tiers,
one above another, and furnish space for 60,000 volumes. A room on the
second floor is used as a memorial hall and art gallery. The number of
volumes now in the library is about 22,000.
LIBRARY OF MADISON UNIVERSITY, HAMILTON, N. Y.
The beginnings of this library, like those of "the university itself, were
small, and, for want of resources, the growth was slow. A nucleus was
formed in 1820, by the gift of 238 volumes, and 145 pamphlets, from
thirty-one donors.
In 3824, the list of books had increased to 675 volumes, with many
valuable pamphlets and official documents.
In 1828, Dr. Spencer H. Cone, of IS^ew York, made a valuable contri-
bution, and Dr. Howard Malcom, of Boston, another in 1832.
In 1834-'35, one of the professors. Rev. Barnas Sears, visited Ger-
many. Advantage was taken of this visit to make a number of
large orders for books, though there were no funds, and these orders
were met by contributions from private pockets. The purchases took
a wide range, filling the then small library room with the best books
extant in history, philosophy, geography, travels, biography, science,
literature, and art ; in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and German philology ;
in Scripture illustration and interpretation ; and in systematic and prac-
tical theology.
In 184l-'42, another professor, Rev. Thomas J. Conant, visited
England and German}^ through whom further orders were made for
Euglish, German, and French books, and for a rich collection of classic-
al, patristic, and mediaeval works. In the meantime, the library had
become rich in encyclop.nediology, lexicography, and philology, although
as yet no fund existed for replenisliing it.
During all these years, the library was lodged in West College, the
first college edifice on " the hill;" but in 1830, it was removed into Al-
umni Hall for more commodious quarters, into a room fitted up by
College Libraries. Ill
James B. Colgate, of !N"ew York. At this time, as at several times prev-
ious, a silting of tlie books took place, and all such books of early date
as were obsolete or of small value were thrown out, and a new classifica-
tion of the residue was made.
It may be observed that during thirty-six years there have been four
librarians, who, in the absence of funds, have served gratuitously, and
made their personal efforts in the collection of money and books a good
substitute for an income fund, and miinly through their labors the
library has been enlarged. These have been Prof. A. C. Kendrick, Prof.
P. B. Spear, Prof. B. Dodge, and ttie present librarian, Prof N. L. An-
drews.
During the last ten years, there has been a fund of $5,000, and an
income, from all sources, of about $350 a year. Just now additional
funds are being raised by subscription, and already, with 'the former
fund, the library has $20,000, on which it will hereafter draw interest.
The library has 10,000 volumes, and is emphatically a working library,
having been mainly made up for the benefit of the faculty and students.
It props every coarse of study in the university, and is so arranged
as to be nsed or consulted with great convenience.
The classification of books, according to the departments of knowledge
to which they belong, is conspicuously noted by headings at the top of
the cases, and is as follows: Greek language and literature; Latin
language and literature ; Philology and Oriental literature; Biblical
literature and exegesis; Systematic, polemic, and practical theology;
Ecclesiastical histor^^ ; Civil history ; Biography; Periodical literature -
Natural sciences; Voyages and travels; Foreign literature; English lit-
erature ; Philosophy.
A valuable aid in the use of the library has recently been introduced,
by the preparation, at considerable expense, of a voluminous manu-
script index to periodical literature. This comprises 17,000 references,
alphabetically arranged, to important articles in the leading reviews.
The library receives regularly the principal American and foreign re-
views, and the index is carefully kept up by noting, alphabetically, all
the articles contained in the current numbers.
It is believed that the careful selection of books for working purposes,
the absence of useless duplicates and miscellaneous donations, and the
attention paid to periodical literature, render the library of the uni-
versity unsurpassed, for its size, in real utility and value.
Three students' society libraries contain, in the aggregate, about 3,000
volumes.
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER, ROCHESTER, N. Y.
The University of Rochester was founded in 1850. The library bad
its origin about the same time. Only one library has ever been directly
connected with the university, though its relation to the Rochester
Theological Seminary is such that the officers and students of each in-
stitution have access to the libraries of both.
112 Public Libraries in the United States.
About ten years ago Gen. John V. Rathbone, of Albany, gave to the
university the sum of $25,(100 for the endowment of the library. This
is known as the Rathbone library fund, and the income from it, abous
$1,750 a year, is devoted to the purchase of books and certain current
library expenses. The library has hitherto been kept in a room con-
structed for the purpose in the university building. A new fire-proof
building is now nearly completed on the university grounds, the ground
floor of which is to be devoted to the library, the second story being
fitted up for the university cabinet. It is a gift to the university by
the Hon. Hiram Sibley, of Rochester. Its cost, when completed, will
not be less than $100,000.
The library has never received any very large additions of books by
gift.
The annual additions to the library are between five hundred and
six hundred volumes. The leading American and English periodicals
are taken, and also some of the German and French, which are kept
bound up to date. The present number of volumes is 12,000.
VASSAR COLLEGE, POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y.
This college, founded by Matthew Vassar, was opened in 1865, and the
library has been gradually collected since that date.
Mr. Vassar bequeathed to the college a fund of $50,000, the income of
which may be used only for the purchase of additions to the library and
the cabinets.
The library is composed, in large part, of books of reference. As each
professor is responsible for the selection of books relating to his depart-
ment of instruction, the library, as a whole, is made up of choice, special
collections. For the size of the library it contains a large number of
rare and costly works.
The whole number of volumes in the collection is 9,881. About 700
volumes are added yearly.
The rooms assigned to the library are spacious and elegant, and are
planned to furnish shelf room for about 40,000 volumes.
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, CHAPEL HILL, N. 0.
The charter of the university speaks of the library as if it were to be
an essential part of the institution ; and with the gathering of the first
classes the library was begun. Gen. W. R. Davie, afterwards governor,
gave to it 14 volumes in 1795, the year in which it was opened, and sub-
sequently added 25 more. Among the early donors Richard Bennehan,
of Orange County, gave 28 volumes, and Joseph Blount Hill an
encyclop£edia in 18 volumes. In 1816 Rev. James Hall, of Iredell,
gave 49 volumes, a third of them printed before 1700, and about 100
volumes were received from the library of Joseph Gautier, of Elizabeth-
town.
College Libraries. 113
Measures were early taken to provide an income for the library ; and
up to 1824 tbis was derived from a sessional fee paid by the students.
Since tbat year it lias been dependent upon grants made by the
trustees.
In 1824 Dr. Caldwell purchased for the library, in Europe, 979 books,
and also brought over 60 volumes as donations from persons in England.
A few years later the English Record Commission presented their pub-
lications, 83 folios and 24 octavos. In 1859 the university purchased
1,897 volumes from the library of Professor Mitchell. This is believed
to have been the only purchase of books by the trustees since 1824.
Within the past forty-five years a few gifts have been made by "individ-
uals, less than 60 volumes before March, 1869, and about 300 since. The
Smithsonian Institution has given its publications, 25 volumes; the
State has given 218 volumes of laws and legislative records; and the
United States has given 1,500 volumes of congressional and executive
documents. The number of v^olumes now in the library is not far from
7,000. There are two students' libraries in the university, the Dialectic
and the Philanthropic, numbering 3,813 voliimes.
In 1850 a handsome library building was built. It is in the form of
a Greek temple. The hall is 84 by 32 feet and 20 feet high.
MARIETTA COLLEGE, MARIETTA, OHIO.
Soon after the college was established in 1835, the sum of $1,000 was
received from the estate of Mr. Samuel Stone, of Townsend, Mass., " to
be expended for books." Something was added to this by friends of
the college at Marietta, and the whole amount expended in Europe for
philological works.
In 1850 an effort was made to increase the library, and $8,000 were
subscribed, chiefly at Marietta, The largest subscribers were : Douglas
Putnam, $2,500; Noah L. Wilson, $1,250; William Sturges, of Chicago,
$1,250; Winthrop B. Smith, of Cincinnati, $500; Col. John Mills, $500.
Most of this money was expended by President Smith in Europe.
Some years ago S. P. Hildreth, M.D., of Marietta, gave five or
six hundred volumes, mostly scientific or historical works, to the li-
brary; and Dr. George O. Hildreth has, since his father's death, added
a number of volumes to this collection. Hon. William A. Whittlesey
and Hon. William P. Cutter, both of Marietta, have presented to the
library many valuable works relating to the civil and political his-
tory of the country. John Kendrick, LL.D., for thirty-three years pro-
fessor of Greek in the college, and fiow professor emeritus, has given
$1,000, the income of whicli is to be expended in the purchase of books
connected with the classical department.
The whole amount of funds held for libciiry purposes is about $5,500.
The number of volumes in the college library is 15,130 ; in the society
libraries, 11,570.
8e
114 PuUic Libraries in the United States.
Most of tlie books purchased for the college library have been se-
lected with reference to the work of instruction, so that the library is
very largely i)rofessional in its character.
A catalogue was printed in 1857, and a card catalogue has been pre-
pared of all the books added to the library since that time.
OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVEESITY.
The library, which contains something ov^er 10,400 volumes and is
valued at about $15,000, has been entirely donated. The largest gifts
are as follows: In 1853 William Stnrges, of Zanesville, Ohio, gave
$7,500 as a foundation. In 1858 Rev. Joseph M. Trimble, D. D., of
Columbus, Ohio, selected an alcove to be filled at his expense, and has
since placed upon its shelves books valued at $2,500. In 1866 William
Ingham, of Cleveland, Ohio, selected an alcove, and has since placed
in it books estimated at $2,500. Eev. Charles Elliott, D.D., left as a be-
quest a portion of his library, estimated at $1,000. The remainder of
the library has come from sjnaller gifts which cannot be enumerated.
The number of volumes in the students' libraries is 3,500.
ST. XAVIER COLLEGE, CINCINNATI, OHIO.
The library of St. Xavier College comprises three divisions — the
library proper, devoted to the use of the faculty of the college, and the
Students' Library and Sodality Library for the use of the students.
The whole number of volumes in the main library is about 14,000.
This library may be consulted, with certain restrictions, by any person
properly introduced.
A large proportion of the library is theological in character, but there
is also a good collection of works in general literature, both English
and foreign. Among the theological works are the writings of St.
Thomas, 28 volumes, folio ; the Migne collection, 28 volumes, folio ; the
works of Suarez. Ferraris, Billuart, Franzelini, Concina, Muratorius,
Gotti, Durandus, printed in 1533, and many others equally valuable.
Among the old and rare books are many published within half a century
after the invention of the art of printing. The oldest book in the col-
lection is a Moral Theology, printed by Hilbruii, in Venice, 1477. Next
in antiquity is the Instruction on the Institute of the Solitaries and on
the Remedies against Vice, written by John the Hermit, called Cassian,
and printed at Basle in 1485. There are also a Scholastic History, Basle,
1486; Sermons on the different Sundays of the Year and Feasts of the
Saints, Strasbourg, 1488; Lazarolus de Litio, Basle, 1490; the City of
God, St. Augustine, 1494; Mirror of Patience, CJdalric Finder, Nurem-
berg, 1509 ; Examples from Writings of the Holy Fathers, 1512 ; a Latin
Bible printed at Lyons in 1523; Commentaries of St. Cyrillusof Alex-
andria, 1520; works of Josephus in German, Strasburg, 1531 ; Durandus
on the Writings of Peter Lombardus, Lyons, 1533 ; Latin Psalter, Paris
College Libraries. 115
1542; The Philosophy of Plato aud Aristotle Compared, by James Car-
pentarius, Paris, 1573. Among interesting books of later date is a copy
of the first edition of the Bible printed in America, published by Carey,
Stewart & Co., Philadelphia, 1790.
There is no printed catalogue of the library, but one in manuscript
arranged according to subjects.
DICKINSON COLLEGE, CARLISLE, PA.
The library was begun shortly after the organization of the college,
in 1783. It has been the slow growth of small purchases, as very lim-
ited funds would from time to time allow, and of individual donations of
books 5 no single one being large.
The college library now numbers 7,765 volumes. There are two
societies connected with the college, the members of which tax them-
selves yearly for the increase of their respective libraries. The library
of the BellesLettres Society contains 9,771 volumes; that of the Union
Philosophical Society, 9,967 volumes, making the whole number of books
belonging to the college, 27,503.
In the college library are some rare and valuable works; among them
a complete collection of the Christian Fathers.
There is no printed catalogue. In the ones used the books are classi-
fied under departments, as historical, law, fiction, and are then described
alphabetically.
LAFAYETTE COLLEGE, EASTON, PA.
The library was founded in 1832, by contributions of books from friends
of the college, and it grew slowly by gifts aud small purchases. In 1865,
on the accession of the present president, Dr. W. C. Cattell, the whole
number of volumes was 2,645. A fee of $1 a term, for the increase of
the library, or in later years of $2 a term, for the library and reading
room, has since been paid by each student, aud the matriculation aud
graduating fees have also been given in part to the library. The
income from these sources has been expended almost wholly on books
immediately connected with the college studies, so as to buy everything
needed for original investigation in the special direction in which the
professor wishes to push his work. It does not, therefore, add rapidly
to the number of volumes on the catalogue. It now amounts to some-
what more than $2,000 a year.
Grants for the purchase of books are also made from a fund estab-
lished in 1872, by Mr. Benjamin Douglass, to promote the study of
the Latin and Greek of Christian authors.
O^er important gifts have been made. The largest benefactors are
Eev. David Bishop, who gave his library to the college at its fouuda.
tion; Hon. T. G. Clemson, who in 1850-57 gave many valuable scieu.
tific works in French, among them series of the Annales des Mines, of the
Bulletins of the Geological Society of France, the works of Berzelius,
116 Public Libraries in the United States.
Thenard, and others; Mr. Edward Miller, who in 1870 presented 115
volumes on civil engineering; Dr. John Curwen, who from 1870-'74-has
presented many valuable works ; M. Ferdinand Lesseps, 1871, a com-
plete set of the documents connected with his work on the Suez canal;
the class of 1871, a fund for the purchase of the issues of the Early English
Text Society, the Chaucer Society, and the like ; Mr. B. Douglass, 1872,
a fund for Christian Latin and Greek, from which about one thousand
dollars have been expended for books ; Messrs. E. L. & A. Stuart, 1874,
the Antenicene Library; the heirs of Hon. C. F. Ward, his well known
general library and law library, with collections of autographs, engrav-
ings, and rarities, numbering about 11,000 volumes.
The departments in which the library is strongest are Anglo-Saxon,
eaily and dialectic English, and early French ; (besides a pretty com-
plete collection of Anglo-Saxon works, it has rare serial publications,
such as those of the English Historical Society, the JElfric Society,
the Philological Society, English, the Percy Society, Early English
Text, Chaucer, and the like ; Haupt's Zeitschrift fiir deutsches Alter-
thum;) Christian Greek and Latin; American history; chemistry and
mining, and botany. It has complete sets of German and French serials,
such as Dingler's Polytechnisches Journal, 1820 onward; Wagner's
Jahresbericht der Chemischen Technologic, 1856 onward; Annales de
Chimie et de Physique, 1789 onward ; Leonhard's Jahrbuch, and iNeues
Jahrbuch der Mineralogie, 1833 onward.
The librarian reported last year the addition of 989 volumes, of which
797 were bought for $2,007. The whole number of volumes is now
about 16,000. Of these about 6,000, the dictionaries, cyclopedias,
historical and scientific serials, and other works of reference or of fre-
quent demand, are displayed in cases in the reading room of the college
which is a large hall with a gallery occupying a double story of the
east wing of the South College. These books, with the best papers and
periodicals of this country, England, France, and Germany, are open
to all the members of college daily (Sundays excepted) for consultation
during study hours, and for general reading out of study hours. Ade-
quate provision has not yet been made for the proper display and use
of the ret-'t of the books, which temporarily occupy a room in Pardee
Hall, waiting for a library to be built.
There are two literary societies, the Washington and the Franklin,
the former with 2,100 volumes, the latter with 1,632. There are also
the Brainerd Society, which has a small collection of religious works, and
the Natural History Society, which has a small but valuable working
library. The whole number of volumes in all the libraries of the college
is about 20,000.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
The library of the university dates back to the Origin of the institu-
tion as an academy in 1749, and its incorporation as a college in 1755.
College Libraries. 117
Its earlier collections were the gifts of its frieuds, especially Rev.
Richard Peters, who presented mauy works in old English literature
and divinity. Some others bear the autograph of the founder of the
university, Benjamin Franklin.
The next additions seem to have been made during the visit of the
first provost of the university. Dr. Smith, to Great Britain, to secure
funds for an endowment, in 1751, and comprised a large number of
works of English scholars then living, and a copy of the Baskerville
edition of Barclay's Apology, presented by the author's son.
The next gift of books came after the Revolution, and from France.
Lafayette, While in America, was greatly interested in the univeisity,
and on his return solicited a gift of books from the King, who sent over
a very considerable number of works on French history, on natural
history and travels, and the P aris edition of the Byzantine historians.
During a long period the library grew very slowly, and chiefly by the
gifts of authors and friends. Since its removal to the new building in
West Philadelphia, it has received five munificent gifts:
1. The complete and unique collection of works in social science
and political economy, made by the late Stephen Caldwell, author of
The Ways and Means of Payment, and editor of List's National Econ-
omy. This collection contains about 8,000 books and pamphlets, and
covers every important work on or related to the subject in the Eng-
lish, French, and Italian languages, besides many in Spanish and Ger-
man, which had appeared dow u to the time of his death.
2. The classical, bibliographical, and Sb akspere library of Professor
Allen, especially full, select, and valuable in the department of Greek
literature. This was purchased b^^ the alumni and the trustees.
3. The law library of the late Judge Bouvier, presented by his fam-
ily, especially rich in works on Roman and French law.
4. The Rogers library of engineering, presented by Prof. Fairman
Rogers, as a memorial of his father, the late Evan Rogers. Of this
collection, about 1,000 volumes, many of them very costly and mag-
nificent works, have already been procured, and the donor is now com-
pleting' it by careful selections.
5. The Tobias Wagner fund, presented by a member of his family
for the creation of a fund to be devoted to the purchase of works on
history and literature. The income from this fund is $500 a year,
and one of the purchases made is the magnificent series of photographs
of antiquities in the British Museum.
The trustees have granted $5,000 to purchase a fitting literary
apparatus for the department of history and English literature, most of
which has been expended under the direction of Dr. Stille, the present
provost of the university.
These gifts and purchases have increased the number of volumes in
the library to nearly 20,000.
There are two students' libraries, that of the Philomathean Society,
1 1 8 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
and that of the Zelosophic Society; the former uiiinbering 1,323 vol-
umes, and the latter about one thousand volumes. The library of the
medical department numbers 3,000 volumes; that of the law depart-
ment 250 volumes.
BROWN UNIVERSITY, PROVIDENCE, R. I.
liliode Island College, now Brown University, was incorporated in
1764, and was originally established in the town of Warren. In 1770
it was removed to Providence, and, with the exception of a few books
l^rocured in England through the agency of the Kev. Morgan Edwards,
was at this time destitute of a library. To supply, as far as possible,
this deficiency, the Providence Library Company (believed to have been
established in 1753, and now merged in the Providence Athenaeum)
tendered to the officers and students the free use of their books, a
privilege which was continued several years. Two years later, (1772,)
President Manning wrote concerning the library : "At present we have
but about 250 volumes, and these not well chosen, being such as our
friends could best spare." In the latter part of this year the college
received from the executors of the Eev. Dr. John Gill, of London, all
his published works, together with 52 folio volumes of the Fathers ; and
in the following year the Rev. Benjamin Wallin, of London, presented
to the library his published works in 10 volumes; Bunyan's works, 6
volumes, and others. Donations were also received from Rev. Dr.
Stennett, and others.
On the 6th of December, 1776, immediately after the occupation of
Newport by the British troops, the college was disbanded, and the col-
lege building (now University Hall) was, from that time untij June,
1782, occupied as a barrack and hospital. During this period the books
were removed for safe keeping to West Wreutham, Mass.
At the re-organization of the college, in the autumn of 1782, the library,
according to President Manning, consisted of " about 500 volumes, most
of which are both very ancient and very useless, as well as very ragged
and unsightly."
In 1783 the liberality of Mr. John Brown, treasurer of the corpora-
tion, added 1,400 volumes to the library. The books were selected by
President Manning and the chancellor, Gov. Stephen Hopkins, and
were purchased in London. A list of these 1,400 volumes, with the
prices, is on file among the college archives. To the bibliographer and
the antiquarian it is a document of special interest. The sum of
£200 was at the same time subscribed by other members of the cor-
poration, for apparatus.
Mr. Moses Brown, a brother of John Brown, also at this time imported
and presented to the library a number of books illustrative of the prin-
ciples of the Friends, to which denomination he was attached. Some
of these are now rare and of great value.
During the same year (1784) John Tanner, of Newport, presented
College Libraries. 119
to the library 135 volumes of tuUcellaiieoiis books, many of which are
now iuiportaufc, illastratiug the early ecclesiastical history of New Eiig-
laud ; and iu the succeeding y^ar Granville Sharp, presented sev-
eral of his own iiublicatious, together with a set of the works of his
grandfather, Dr. John Sharp, archbishop of York. He subsequently
made other donations to the library. These gifts so augmented its
treasures that it contained, as appears from the correspondence of
President Manning, " upward of 2,000 volumes."
During the latter part of this year, also, a donation of 149 vol-
umes, mostly folios and quartos, comprising the works of several of the
Fathers of the Church, and standard works in science, history, literature,
and the classics, was received from the Bristol Education Society in
England, through the agency of the Rev. Dr. Caleb Evans.
In the year 1792 Hon. Nicholas Brown, from whom the university
derives its name, began his princely benefactions to the college by the
gift of $500 for the purchase of a law library.
The Rev. Isaac Backus, of Middleborough, Mass., who died in 1806,
bequeathed to the college a part of his library-. The extent or value of
this bequest it is now impossible to determine, as no record was made
of it at the time. Among the books thus presented, however, is one
which deserves particular mention, a copy of Roger Williams's Bloody
Tenent yet more Bloody, being the copy originally presented by Wdl-
iams to his friend and fellow laborer. Dr. John Clarke. On a blank leaf
are the following words in Roger Williams's handwriting : " For his
honored and beloved Mr. John Clarke, an eminent Witnes of Christ
Jesus ag'st y*' bloodie doctrine of persecution, etc."
In 1815 Mr. Nicholas Brown gave $500 for the purchase of books,
and Mrs. Hope Ives presented a copy of Dobson's edition of the Encyclo-
p aedia Britannica.
The ne:^t and most important of all the donations to the library was
the legacy in 1818 of the Rev. William Richards, of Lynn, England,
who, because of the liberal character of Brown University, bequeathed
to it his library, consisting of about 1,300 volumes. This collection is
iu many respects valuable. It contains a considerable number of Welsh
books; a large collection of works, illustrating the history and an-
tiquities of England and Wales; besides two or three hundred bound
volumes of pami)hlets, some of them very ancient, rare, and curious.
In 1819 the Rev. Thomas Carlile, of Salem, Mass., an alumnus, pre-
sented to the library 103 volumes, mostly quartos, comprising the best
editions of the works of the celebrated mathematicians Euler, Lacroix,
Lagrange, Lai)lace, besides many theological works.
For the next important accession to the library, designated "the sub-
scription of 1825," the college is indebted to the efforts of Mr. Horatio
Gates Bowen, librarian from 1824 to 1841. At his request several
friends subscribed $840, which sum was expended in the purchase of
books.
120 Public Libraries in the United States.
Between the years 1827 and 1843 several donations of ituportauce
were received from frieotls of the university in this country and in
Europe. Within the same period the libraries of the Philophysian and
Franklin Societies, containing together three or four hundred volumes,
were incorporated with the college library.
Hon. Theron Metcalf, of Boston, has, since 1842, presented to the
library 68 volumes of ordination sermons, (without doubt the largest
collection of the kind that has ever been made;) 117 volumes of funeral
sermons arranged in classes; 23 volames of centennial discourses, (fur-
nishing rich material for hisfcoriaus and- antiquarians ;) 12 volumes of
Fourth of July orations, including all delivered before the municipal
authorities of Boston from 1800 to 1860; 5 volumes of discourses on
Washington; and many others. The entire Metcalf collection num-
bers 375 volumes, containing about 10,000 separate pamphlets, many
of them exceedinglj^ rare and valuable. Judge Metcalf has also made
other donations, including his own publications.
In 1843 the sum of $5,00D was raised for the purchase of English
books. In the same year the foundations of a French, German, and
Italian library were laid through the liberality of Mr. John Carter
Brown, and 2,921 bound volumes were purchased, including a complete
set of the Mouiteur Universe!, II Vaticano, II Campidoglio, Museo Bor-
bonico, Mus6e Fran9ais, Musee Royal.
In 1844 Mr. Brown presented to the library a set of the Year Books,
from Edward I to Henry VIII, in 10 volumes, folio.
The class of 1821, a quarter of a century after their graduation, raised
a sum of money for the library, with which about 500 volumes were
purchased, mostly from the library of Hon. John Pickering. Among
these is a folio of Plutarch's Lives, in Latin, published at Rome, 1471.
In 1847, through the agency of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Osgood and others,
$2,000 were raised among several churches, and expended in the pur-
chase of works relating to patristic literature and the history of the
Reformation.
The Hon. James Tallmadge, of the class of 1798, bequeathed, at his
death in 1853, $1,000 for the improvement of the library.
In 1831, efforts were made to raise, by subscription, a fund for the
library. The whole number of subscribers was 99, the smallest sub-
scription being $10. Nicholas Brown headed the list with $10,000, and
the entire amount raised was $19,437.50. This sum was placed at inter-
est until it amounted to $25,000, and was then invested in a permanent
fund. The first dividend became due in July, 1839, and since that time
the proceeds have been regularly used, according to the design of the
donors, " to purchase books for the library, and apparatus for the philo-
sophical and chemical departments."
The number of volumes now in the library is about 45,000. It has
also a large collection of pamphlets, bound and unbound.
College Libraries. 121
The members of the corporation and the faculty, all resident gradu-
ates, all donors to the library fund, all donors to the fund for building
Rhode Island Hall, and all donors to the library to the amount of $40,
residing in Providence, are entitled to the use of the library without
charge. Undergraduates are entitled to the use of the library without
distinction of class, and are charged therefor the sum of $3 a year.
la 1843 a library catalogue was prepared by Professor Charles C.
Jewett, and printed. It is alphabetical, by authors, and has a copious
analytical index of subjects.
The library at present occupies Man ning. Hall, built by the Hon,
Nicholas Brown at his own cost, and said to be one of the finest speci-
mens of Doric architecture in the country. This, however, does not
aflbrd sufficient accommodation for the increased number of books, and
a new building is in progress. The late John Carter Brown bequeathed
to the university $50,000 for a fire-proof building for the library, and an
eligible lot for the purpose. H^e had, during his life, subscribed $15,000
for the same purpose, the interest on which now amounts to $7,000.
Plans for the building have been adopted, and the foundation walls
have been laid. The building is to be in the form of a cross, the nave
or intersection of the arms of the cross being about 35 feet square, the
arms of the cross or transepts projecting 28 feet from the nave, and ter-
minating in octagonal ends, except at the southern end, where is placed
the entrance porch, facing the college green. This arrangement provides
for a fine reading room in the centre, while the bookcases are to be in
the transepts, extending in height three stories. The exterior walls are
to be of brick, wit h olive stone decorations. The style of architecture
adopted is the Italian Gothic.
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA, COLUMBIA, S. C.
The South Carolina College, now the University of South Carolina,
was chartered in 1801, and a library was at once begun. The first
grant for it was made by the general assembly in 1802, and when the
college opened in 1805, about $3,000, it is estimated, had been paid for
books. In 1813 the board of trustees voted to apply the surplus of the
tuition fund to the increase of the library. During the period from
1813 to 1815 this amounted to $23,757. In 1823 the general assembly
made a grant of $5,000 for the benefit of the library, and in 1825 voted
an additional $5,000 for the sa:ne purpose. In 1836 $15,000 were ap-
propriated for a library building and $5,0D0 for the purchase of books ;
and in 1838 an annual grant of $2,000 was voted for the library. Dur-
ing the period from 1830 to 1853 the grants ibr the library by the
general assembly amounted to $13,000, and there was realized from the
surplus tuition fund the sum of $19,374, making an aggregate of
$62,374 in seventeen years. The library has received altogether from
State and private sources over $90,000.
Gov. John Drayton, whose message to the general assembly in 1801
122 Public Libraries in tJie United States.
is considered tlie germ of the college, was among the first, if not the
first, to give books to the library. In 1807, he presented his own pab-
lications and a number of other works. In 1841, the general assembly
presented a copy of the American Archives. In 1812, copies of the acts
and resolutions of the assembly from 1790 were presented by order of- the
general assembly, and have since been received annually. In 1844,
Gen. James H. Adams and Col. John Lawrence Manning made valua-
ble gifts of books, and the general assembly presented Audubon's Birds.
The number of volumes now in the library is about 27,000, besides
1,000 pamphlets. A literary society, the Clariosophic, connected with
the college, has a library of 1,250 volumes.
The college library contains a large number of rare and valuable
books, and is especially rich in works on Egypt. The first copy of Ros-
sellini's Monumeiiti dell' Egitto e della i!^"ubia, 10 volumes, octavo, brought-
to the United States was imported for this library. There are also
many very old volumes, a number of them printed during the sixteenth
century, and some dating as far back as 1480.
The library was built in 1841, and cost more than 823,000.
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT, BURLINGTON, VT.
The library has two funds, the Strong fund, $500, the income of
"Which is devoted to the purchase of periodicals : and the Wheeler fund,
which amounts to $1,250, and was given for the purchase of works in
English literature.
For many rare and valuable books the library is indebted to the lib-
erality of Prof. Martyn Paine, M.D., of New York. Some of these were
procured by Professor Torrey in Europe. A number have also been
given by alumni and other friends of the college.
Through the agency of Hon. George P. Marsh, United States minis-
tar to Italy, the library has lately received a valuable collection of man-
uscripts of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. These
consist of one quarto volume of 28 folios, transcribed in 145S, contain-
ing the original Latin text of the statutes of the commune of Carpeneto
in Piedmont, and portions of seventeen other documents on parchment,
two of which are in uncial cbaracter ; some of the specimens of cursive
character are admirable for neatness and regularity. Several of the
manuscripts are handsomely rubricated; such red ink as appears on
some of them would gladden the eyes of the most fastidious lover of
books ; even after the lapse of centuries it is more brilliant than any
ink that can be purchased of a modern stationer. The oldest manuscript
whose date is definitely ascertained belongs to the year 121G. Another
is dated 12G7. These documents were presented to the university by
Prof. Guiseppe Ferraro, of Ferrara, who also gave a printed volume,
edited and annotated by him, of the Latin text of the statutes contained
in the first named volume. Mr, Marsh, in his note to the librarian,
College Libraries. 123
says : " Some of these writings possess historical interest, and in a coun-
try where all manuscripts are so rare as iu the United States they are
valuable as illustrative of the official language and the chirography of
the centuries in question/'
The number of volumes in the library, including a society library of
about 2,500 volumes, is 16,021.
The library building cost $6,000, raised by subscription, mainly in
Burlington.
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.
This library contains 40,000 volumes, of which there is no printed
catalogue.
Tiie original catalogue of the library was prepared by the founder
of the university, Thomas Jefferson. His classification of books was
based on Lord Bacon's division of knowledge, and the plan was con-
tinued as long as he lived. This catalogue is preserved in the library,
and from it is copied the following explanation of Mr. Jefferson's views
in preparing it :
1. Great staudarcl works of established reputation, too voluuiinous aud too expen-
sive for private libraries, should have a place iu every public library for the free resort
of individuals.
2. Not merely the best books in their respective branches of science should be se-
lected, but such as weie deemed good in their day, and which consequently furnish a
history of the advance of science.
3. The opera omnia of writers on various subjects are sometimes placed in that chap-
ter of the catalogue to wliich their principal work belongs, aud sometimes referred to
the polygraphical chapter.
4. In some cases, besides the opera omnia, a detached tract has also been placed in
its proper chapter, on account of editorial or other merit.
5. Books in very rare languages are considered here as specimens of language only,
and are placed in the chapter of philology, without regard to their subject.
6. Of the classical authors several editions are often set down, on account of some
peculiar merit in each.
7. Translations are occasio nally noted, on account of peculiar merit, or of difficulties
of their originals.
8. ludiflferent books are sometimes inserted because none good are known on the
same subject.
9. Nothing of mere amusement should lumber a public library.
10. The octavo form is generally preferred for the convenience with which it is han-
dled, and the compactness and symmetry of arrangement on the shelves of the library.
11. Some chapters are defective for want of a more familiar knowledgeof theirsubject
in the compiler, others from schisms in the science they relate to. In medicine, e. g.,
the changes which have necessarily prevailed from the age of Hipjiocrates to the pres-
ent day, have produced distinct schools actiug on different hypotheses, aud headed by
respected names, such as Stahl, Boerhave, Sydenham, Hoffman, Cullen, and our own
Dr. Rush, whose depletive and mercurial systems huve formed a school, or perhaps
revived that which arose on Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood. Iu
religion, divided as it is into multifarious creeds, differing in their basis, and more or
less in their superstructure, such moral works have been chiefly selected as may be
approved by all, omitting what is controversial and merely sectarian. Metaphysics
have been incorporated with ethics, and little extension given to them, for while some
124 Public Libraries in the United States.
attention may be usefully bestowed on the operations of thought, prolongorl investiga-
tions of a faculty unamenable to the test of our senses, is an expense of time too un-
profitable to be worthy of indulgence. Geology, too, has been merged in mineralogy,
-which may properly embrace what is useful in this science; that is to say, a knowledge
of the general stratification, collocation and sequence of different species of roclis and
other mineral substances, while it takes no cognizance of theories for the self generation
of the universe, or the particular revolutions of our own globe, by the agency of water,
fire, or other agents, subordinate to the fiats of the Creator.
From the opening of the university in 1825, to June, 1875, over 10,000
volumes were received b^' gift. The largest donors were President Mad-
ison, who left a legacy of 2,500 volumes and $l,50l) in money, and Chris-
tian Bohn, of Richmond, Va., who in 1838 left a legacy of 4,00 J volumes
and 1,500 engravings. A. A. Low, of New York, gave, 1868-70, $ 1,000,
and Thomas Gordon, of New York, 1870,*$500.
WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY, LEXINGTON, VA.
The library of the university was gradually increased, chiefly by pur-
chases, from the time of its first organization as Washington College,
until the beginning of the late war, and the number of volumes was
then about 5,000. During 1864, the books were, to a great extent,
destroyed or carried, off. Much has since been done to restore the
library, chiefly in the form of donations, though occasional purchases
have been made.
Each student, on entering the university, pays a matriculation fee of
$5, which entitles him to the constant use of the library. The fund thus
derived is devoted to the purchase of books.
The principal donations received are as follows: 1872, W. W. Cor-
coran, of Washington, D.C., 4,000 volumes, comprising the entire library
of the late N. P. Howard, of Richujond, Va., and considered one of the
best collections of classical works south of the Potomac; 1874, Dr. W.
N. Mercer, of New Orleans, La., 1,000 volumes miscellaneous works;
several publishing houses, of Loudon, England, 300 volumes; Moncure
Robeson, of Philadelphia, Pa., 250 volumes, chiefly suientitic works;
Hon. J. Randolph Tucker, of Virginia, 130 volumes of law books ; Hon.
Vincent L. Bradford, of Pennsylvania, 25 volumes of law baoks. Smaller
gifts have from time to time been made by various friends of the uni-
versity.
The Graham-Lee Society, established 1809, has a library of 2,500 vol-
umes, and the Washington Literary Society, established 1812, has a
library of 2,500 volumes.
A manuscript catalogue is now in use, but this will shortly be printed.
The growth of the library already demands enlarged accommodations,
which will be provided in due time.
The number of volumes now in the library is about 11,000.
College Libraries.
125
III.— STATISTICS OF SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL COLLEGE
LIBRARIES.
For statistics of all college libraries reported, reference is made to
the general table at the end of the volume.
[The totals in the fourth column embrace the libraries of all departments ; the blanks in the fifth col-
umn indicate that the question was not answered ; the word "none," in the same column, that no
society libraries exist.]
a
o
3
•S i
li
1
1869
13, 600
1851
10, 000
1824
15, 000
1833
26, 000
1700
95, 200
1791
28, 000
1831
21, 600
1857
18, 000
1870
9,000
1856
33, OJO
1833
10, 482
1837
10, 000
1843
10, 000
1860
8, 823
1858
10. 845
1860
15, 000
1802
22,760
1859
6, 800
1813
11, 100
1«08
7,000
1821
30, 406
1638
212,050
1854
16,000
1875
10, 000
1793
17, 500
1843
11,000
1841
27, 500
1869
10,000
1848
6, ].i9
1840
11,000
1860
22, 000
1829
17,000
1770
25, 550
1770
6,814
1755
29, 500
1812
22, 000
1824
13, 000
1820
10, 000
1868
39, 000
1847
21, 000
California Oakland
Santa Clara.. i...
Connecticut Hartford
Middletown
New Haven
Dist. of Columbia.. Georgetown
Georgia Athens
HliBOis Chicago
Chicago
Evanston
Indiana Crawfordsville. .,
Greencastle
Notre Dame
Iowa Iowa City
Kentucky Lexington
Louisiana Baton Kouge
Maine Brunswick ,
Lewiston
Waterville
Maryland Emmittsburgh. ..
Massachusetts Amherst
Cambridge ,
Medford
Wellesley ,
Williamstown . . ,
Worcester ,
Michigan Ann Arbor
Minnesota Minneapolis
Mississippi Oxford
Missouri Columbia
St. Louis ,
St. Louis ,
Kew Hampshire . . . Hanover
New Jersey New Brunswick
Princeton
New Tork Clinton
Geneva
Hamilton ,
Ithaca ,
New York
University of California
Santa Clara College
Trinity College
"Wesleyan University
Tale Col I ege
Georgetown College
University of the State of Georgia
Chicago University
St. Ignatius College
Northwestern University
Wabash College
Indiana Asbury University
University of Notre Dame du Lac
Iowa State University
Kentucky University
Louisiana State University
Bowdoiu College
Bates College
Colby University
Mt. St. Mary's College
Amherst College
Harvard College
Tufts College
"Wellesley College
Williams College
College of the Holy Cross
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota
University of Mississippi
University of Missouri
College of the Christian Brothers
St. Louis University
Dartmouth College
Rutgers College
College of New Jersey
Hamilton College
Hobart College
Madison University
Cornell University
College of St. Francis Xavier
126
.Public Libraries in the United States.
New York— Cont'd. New York...
New York...
New York...
Ponghkeepsie
Rochester —
Schenectady .
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania.
Rhode Island . .
South Carolina.
Vermont.
Virginia .
Syracuse
.Chapel Hill
Trinity
.Cincinnati
Delaware
Gambler
Marietta
.Carlisle ,
Easton
Gettysburgh
Haverford College.
Near Latrobe
Philadelphia
.Providence
.Charleston
Columbia
.Burlington
Middlebury
.Ashland
Charlottesville . . . .
Lexington
Salem
"Williamsburgh . .
.Beloit
Madison
College of the City of New York
Columbia College
Manhattan College
Vassar College
University of Rochester
Union College
Syracuse University
University of North Carolina
Trinity College
St. Xavier College
Ohio Wesleyan University
Kenyon College
Marietta College
Dickinson College
Lafayette College
Pennsylvania College
Haverford College
St. Vincent's College
University of Pennsylvania
Brown University
College of Charleston
University of South Carolina
University of Vermont
Middlebary College
Randolph-Macon College
University of Virginia
Washington and Lee University.
Roanoke College
College of William and Mary. ..
Beloit College
University of Wisconsin
1850
1757
1863
1865
1850
1795
1871
1795
1849
18-10
1856
1865
1835
1783
1832
1832
1833
1846
1755
1768
1825
1805
1800
1800
1834
1825
1796
1853
1700
1848
1849
20, 000
31, 390-
al3, 000
9,881
12, 000
19, 800
10, 000
8,394
2,400
14, 000
10, 400
10, 659
15, 130
7,765
16, 400
7,200
7,000
13,000
23, 250
45, 000
8,000
27, 000
13, 521
12, 000
610, 000
40, 000
11, 000
14, 000
5,000
a E
2,200
None.
None.
None.
6,000
None.
13, 813
8,500
3,000
3, 500
10, 046
11,570
19, 738
4,700
12, 350
4,450
2,323
None.
1,250
2,500
3,500
5,000
3,000
(0
1,000
1,893
a Includes Manhattan .\cademy Library.
b Includes society libraries.
c Society libraries destroyed during the war; at present small, but increasing.
CHAPTER IV.
THEOLOGICAL LIBRARIES IN THE UNITED STATES.
I.- BY A LIBRARIAN.
II.— BY PROF. JOHN S. SUMNER, S.J.
I.— PUBLIC THEOLOGICA.L LIBRARIES IN THE UNITED
STATES.
Theological librauiks usually connected with divinity schools — Of recent
ORIGIN — Sources of collections — Advantages — Growth within the cen-
tury— Similar collections in Europe — Need of encouraging and main-
taining theological libraries — Signs of an awakened interest.
In treating of public theological libraries in the United States, it is
to be remarked that these are generally the libraries of theological
seminaries. There are a few exceptions to this statement. Thus, the
General Theological Library in Boston is an independent institution.
It was established in the year I860, with the design of forming a col-
lection of all works pertaining to theology and religious knowledge.
It now contains more than 12,000 volumes, and is sustained with an
encouraging degree of liberality by parties belonging to various churches
and denominations. A library of a similar character which was begun
in Cincinnati has been merged in the Public Library of that city. The
Library of the American Congregational Association, in Boston, might
be named as another exception; although, its scope being chiefly denom-
inational and historical, there may be a question whether its place is
properly found in the class of theological libraries. It is, however, a
library of great importance in relation to the religious history of New
England, and embraces a very valuable collection of works written by
the founders of the New England churches, or recording and illustrating
the Puritan history. It now contains about 22,000 volumes and more
than 80,000 pamphlets. Probably there are a few other denominational
libraries of a similar type. But with these exceptions we know of no
theological libraries in this country which are not connected with some
institution for the education of the ministry.'
' It may be said that we should include amoug theological libraries certain small
libraries belonging to some of our churches, intended especially for the use of the
pastor of the church. But these have hardly as yet obtained a place among public
libraries such as we are now considering. One of the older and most important of
these is the Prince Library, so called from the Rev. Thomas Prince, by whom it was
bequeathed in 1758 to the Old South Church in Boston, of which he was the pastor. It
is now deposited in the Public Library of that city. It comprises nearly 2,000 vol-
umes, partly theological, and largely relating to the civil and religious history of New
127
128 Public Libraries in the United States.
It is to be remembered that a portion, perhaps one-third or more,
of our schools for theological training are not separate institutions,
but simply the theological departments of colleges or universities.
This is true of the Yale Theological Seminary and of the Cambridge
Divinity School. There will naturally be a difference of character be-
tween the library of such a seminary and that of one which has an in-
dependent foandation, especially if the latter is isolated, either by
its location or by other causes, from public libraries of a general char-
acter. Thus, in the institutions ju«t mentioned, the libraries of Yale
College and of Harvard College afford for the use of the theological
students a sufficient supply of works in general literature, and even a
large number of theological books. Hence the libraries of these schools
will be likely to continue, for many years at least, much smaller than
others of equal age. And while the theological department of the col-
lege will be likely to confine its collections chiefly to strictly theological
literature, it will be necessary for the isolated theological seminary to
provide a large supply of books in almost all departments of litera-
ture— books which may aid in the education not merely of the minister
but of the man. The majority therefore of theological libraries are by
no means exclusively theological. They are general libraries with a
great theological preponderance. This will account in a measure for the
fact that they are usually so much larger than law and medical libraries.
These latter are confined more exclu sively to the specific literature of
law and medicine. The broader relation s of theology, reaching out into
every department of thought and life, make it requisite that a library of
theology embrace a wider range of books than is needed in the study of
the other professions.
Our theological libraries are of comparatively recent origin. Kot one
of them is a hundred years old. Only two are known to have been
begun before the end of the eighteenth century. One of these is the
Library of St. Mary's Theological Semi.nary of St. Sulpice, in^ Balti-
more, Md., which was founded in 1791 by the Catholic congregation of
the Sul{)itians. This, which now contains 15,000 volumes, appears to
have been our first theological library. The second was the library of
the seminary under the charge of the learned and pious John Ander-
son, D.D. He was appointed professor of theology by the Associate
Presbytery of Pennsylvania in 1794, and the seminary under his care
was established at Service Creek, Beaver County, Pa. Here a small
building of logs was erected for the accommodation of the students,
and a library was collected, comprising about 800 volumes of rare and
valuable works. Tliis seminary, after passing through various changes
and one or more periods of temporary suspension, has, since 1855, been
at Xenia, Ohio, and since 1859 has been under the management of the
England. Among chnrcli libraries of recent date, there is one of special value, con-
taining 3,500 volumes, connected with the First Congregational Chnroh in North Brook-
tieUl, Mass. It was founded in 1859 by the Hon. William Appleton, of Boston, whose
father was the second pastor of the church.
Theological Libraries. 129
United Presbyterian Church. Its library, (which has been known as "The
Library of the Associate Synod,") although now one of the smaller ones
on our list, includes the collection, for that period a large and valuable
one, which was first brought together at Service Creek. ^ Two other
seminaries for the education of ministers are known to have been estab-
lished at a still earlier period, that of the Rev. John Smith, D.D., under
the Associate Presbytery of Pennsylvania, in 1778, which was continued
for a few years only ; and the one at first under the charge of the Rev.
John H. Livingston, D.D., which is now the Theological Seminary of
the Reformed (Dutch) Church at New Brunswick, N. J. This school
went into operation iu New York in 1784, by the appointment of Dr. Liv-
ingston as professor of theology, and was removed to New Brunswick
in 1810. But we find no evidence of any library connected with the
former of these two seminaries, and that of the latter was not begun
until a much later period.^ To the end of the eighteenth century there
is no account of any other theological libraries in this country besides
the two which have been named, — that of the seminary of St. Sulpice,
in Baltimore, founded in 1791, and that of Dr. Anderson's seminary, at
Service Qreek, Pa., in 1794.
Within the first quarter of the present century, however, the work of
collecting such libraries was fairly under way. Of those which at the
present time number, each, about 10,000 volumes or more, the fol-
lowing nine libraries were established during this period: The library
at Andover, Mass., in 1808 ; at Bangor, Me., in 18J0; at Auburn, N. Y.,
in 1821; in New York City, (General Theological Seminary,) in 1821;
near Alexandria, Ya., iu 1823; and at Caoibridge, Mass., Hampden-
Sidney, Va., Lancaster, Pa., and Newtou, Mass., in 1825. The oldest of
these nine libraries is, however, about four years younger than the
one collected through the efforts of the Rev. John M. Mason, D. D., of
New York, for the theological school founded by him in 1804, and of
which the seminary in Newburgh, N.Y., now under the direction of the
United Presbyterian Church, is the continuation. This library contains
now somewhat over 3,500 volumes. It deserves to be mentioned, both
as a monument of the zeal and wisdom of its distinguished founder, and
because it is the first of the public theological libraries established in
this country in the present century.
iThe right to the possession of this library is, however, at the preseut time under
dispute, owiug to claims instituted by a remnant of the Associate Church, after the
union in 1858 which resulted in the formation of the United Presbyterian Church out
of the Associate and Associate Reformed Churches. Pending this legal process, the
library has been withdrawn i^om Xenia and now remains at Pittsburgh, lud.
2The New Brunswick Seminary, although founded in 1784, and united tempo-
rarily with Queen's (now Rutgers) College iu 1810, does not appear to have had any
library of its own distinct from the college library until after the year 1855, when
the Peter Hertzog Theological Hall was built. The theological portion of the college
library was then removed into this new building, and the foundation was laid for the
present seminary library, which now numbers more than 20,000 volumes, and is pro-
vided with funds for very large increase.
130 Fuhlic Libraries in the United States.
Besides the theological seminaries which have now been alluded to,
eight other seminaries and theological departments of colleges were
organized during the first quarter of this century, making in all twenty-
one institutions for theological training in existence as early as the year
1825. In 1838 there were from forty to forty-five of these setninaries in
the country. At the present time there are from one hundred and
twenty to one hundred and fifty. The largest number of volumes in any
one of the theological libraries existing in 1838 was 13,000. Now there
are two, (one of them not founded until 1837,) each of which num-
bers more than 30,000 volumes ; three others which exceed 20,000, and
eight more of 15,000 or upwards. In 1838 the aggregate number of
volumes in all our theological libraries was not more than about 100,000.
Now it is between five and six hundred thousand. These figures will
serve to show that our theological libraries, in respect both to their
number and size, have shared in the general growth of the nation, es-
l)ecially during the latter half of the century just closed. At the same
time it will be seen how very recent is the greater part of this progress,
two-thirds of these libraries having been founded during the past thirty-
seven years, and four-fifths of the books they contain having been col-
lected within the same period.
The recent origin of our theological libraries does not of course
imply thai before their establishment we were destitute of any collec-
tions of theological literature. We were not without an educated min-
istry, even before the founding of our theological seminaries. The
truth is that formerly a great part of theological as well as classical
education was obtained in the college. A prominent design in the
founding of our colleges was to provide the means for furnishing the
land with an educated clergy. In some of our oldest colleges this was
declared to be the leading end in view. Both Harvard and Yale were
essentially, although not exclusively, theological seminaries. The same
was true of Queen's College, in New Brunswick, N. J., which was char-
tered in 1770 for the express purpose of preparing young men for the
ministry. Hence it is not strange that the shelves of our college
libraries were largely occupied by theological works. In fact it may
be questioned whether, even from the first settlement of our country,
we have been better supplied with books in any department than in the
theological. And at the present day, notwithstanding the large number
of distinctively theological libraries, the department of sacred litera
ture is by no means excluded from the college library. Some of our other
public libraries, also, which embrace all departments of literature, pay
special attention to the acquisition of theological works. Among these
should be mentioned pre eminently the Astor Library in New York and
the Public Library of Boston. The superintendent of the latter was
able a few years since to affirm that "one of its strongest departments
is that of theology and the cognate subjects." Still, there can be no
question of the immense gain to the cause of theology which has come
Theological Libraries. 131
from the formation of libraries specially devoted to that science. And
there is a peculiar advantage in their connection with seminaries. By
this means our first theological scholars are engaged for the work. They
are the persons best qualified to make wise selections. The daily neces-
sities of their employment, that of scientific instructors in theology,
give them a living, x>ersonal interest in the acquisition of books, and
insure the utmost care and combined endeavor for the systematic and
proportionate building up of these libraries. The good result has been
seen in the growth which we are able to record. The treasures of
theological lore from Europe and the East have been flowing into our
country more and more copiously during the past fifty years; and we
hear of the agents of American theological schools as among the most
vigilant and eager frequenters of the book marts of the Old World. But
it was still possible for a distinguished professor to say, even less than
ten years ago :
The investigations of our theological students are checked by the want of books.
Among the difHcult themes pertaining to the history of the church, or to the history
of doctrines, or to the various methods of explaining difficult scriptures, there is prob-
ably not one which can be investigated as it needs to be in this land.
There has, however, been real progress, and although our deficiencies
are still exceedingly great, yet the enterprising spirit in this direc-
tion which prevails in our schools is rapidly removing the reproach
which has so long rested upon them, and is making their libraries more
and more the fountains of original information in the various depart-
ments of theology, and so rendering it less essential for the earnest
student to expend time and money in visits to the more thoroughly
furnished libraries of Europe.
INDIVIDUAL COLLECTIONS.
The sources from which our theological collections have been derived, as
well as the means by which they have grown up, are detailed with more
or less minuteness in the subjoined accounts; and the record will be found
an interesting one. One source of large accessions has been through
the donation or purchase of the libraries of deceased clergymen. This
is a means of growth which is of especial advantage to a young institu-
tion ; and it is not to be undervalued also by older and larger libraries,
provided the privilege be allowed the librarian of disposing of such por-
tions of the collection as would bring upon the shelves useless duplicates
or obsolete editions. Very many choice and rare books have been received
from this source. The Codman Library, bequeathed by its collector to
Andover Seminary, was a valuable accession of this kind; so atPrinceton,
the libraries of Dr. Joseph Addison Alexander and of Dr. John M. Krebs ;
at Gettysburgh, the library of Dr. Krauth; at Lane Seminary, of Rev.
Thornton A. Mills, D. D ; at Charleston, S. 0., of Rev. Thoiuas Smyth,
D. D. ; at Drew Seminary, of Rev. John McClintock, D. D.; at Chicago,
of Rev. George B. Ide, D. D. But accessions of a similar kind from
132 Public Libraries in the United States.
beyond the sea have been of yet greater importance in imparting
strength and richness to our collections. Several of our seminaries
have been so fortunate as to obtain possession of the large and valuable
collections of some of the most distinguished theologians of Germany
who have passed away within the last thirty years. The library of
the Catholic theologian, Dr. Leander Van Ess, professor at the Uni-
versity of Marburg, was purchased for the Union Seminary, in New
York City. It "comprised about 20,000 volumes, and is especially
rich in early editions of the Bible, of the Fathers, and of early the-
ological writers." Among its treasures is a very rare collection of
the pamphlets and writings of the Reformation, which was formerly
among the closely guarded possessions of the Monastery of St. Mary,
in Westphalia. The library of Dr. Neander, of Berlin, consisting
of about 4,000 volumes, was obtained by the Baptist Seminary at
Rochester, N.Y. That of Neander's successor. Dr. Niedner, also emi-
jient in the departiirent of ecclesiastical history, has added about the
same number of volumes to the shelves of Andover. Dr. Friedrich
Liicke, of Gottingeu, also left a library of more than 4,000 volumes,
which, through the beneficence of friends of the institution, was se-
cured for the Cambridge Divinity School. And, more recently*, the
libraries of Dr. Gieseler, of Gofetingen, and of Dr. Hengstenberg, of
Berlin, have found their way to Chicago, the former being now at the
Congregational Seminary of that city, and the latter, of about 10,000
volumes, constituting the larger portion of the library of the Baptist
Theological Seminary.
The lame of the original possessor of such collections gives them a
value even apart from the intrinsic worth of the books themselves.
And*often they contain single works, or groups of publications, so rare
that it would be impossible to procure them from any other source,
and whose money value it would be difficult to estimate. In general, such
an acquisition, provided it is made after due examination, and not solely
on the strength of the owner's great name, is a prize worth having. Yet
it is a gratification to know that our libraries are not exclusively, or
mainly, built up by the accession of whole private libraries, even of the
great German scholars. For it is evidently desirable that the selection
of the books which are to make up the substance of a library should rest
mainly upon the judgment of the learned men especially intrusted with
the work of theological instruction. In a very good degree this appears
to have been the method in American libraries. So that what was said
of one of them twenty-five years ago, may be truly said of others also:
It is a selected library, and not a chance accumulatiou of volumes rejected from the
shelves of a multitude of donors. Profound theological learning, thorough bibliographi-
cal knowledge and skill, have for the most part presided over the formation and
arrangement.
It would of course be wrong to conclude from the small size of certain
libraries, as given in the tables, that these are of less value for the
uses of theological study than some others which have a much larger
Theological Libraries. 133
number of volumes. Thus the Backnell Library, at Crozer Theological
Seminary, is one of rare value, selected with extraordinary judgment,
although numbering as yet not more than 8,000 volumes; and the
Divinity School of Yale College reports only about 2,000 volumes on its
own separate shelves, but the collection is one admirably chosen, and
comprises the best and most recent books to meet the demands of
theological students.
One advantage of distinctively theological libraries, especially as
connected with schools for ministerial education, is s^en in their rel^r
tion to the denominational divisions of the Christian world. A general
library, or even a general theological libi^ary, might be in danger of
omitting to supply in sufficient fulness the works relating to any one
branch of the Cbristian church. But now each of the leading denomina-
tions supports its own schools for the education of its clergy, and each
of these schools has its library. These libraries, therefore, are under
special obligation to collect and preserve all those documents which
make up the literature and detail the history of their respective
churches. By this means it may be expected that the history of the
diverse and opposing phases of religious thought, and of all sections of
the church, will be preserved and' transmitted to future times with the
greatest possible fidelity and completeness.
There are reported twenty- four libraries which contain from 10,000
to 34,000 volumes; and these twenty-four libraries belong to ten dif-
ferent denominations. Three are Baptist, two Catholic, two Congrega-
gational, three Episcopal, one Lutheran, two Methodist, seven Presbyte-
rian, one Reformed (Dutch), one Reformed (German), and two Unitarian.
And if we include those libraries which contain less than 10,000 volumes,
thelist of different denominations to which they belong is extended to fif-
teen or sixteen. The building up of libraries is certainly a work in which
the various sects may most profitably vie with each other. The vigor
with which they have entered upon it promises great results, and the
liberal s[)irit whi(;h appears to prevail in the composition of their libra-
ries is worthy of all praise.
EUROPEAN THEOLOGICAL LIBRARIES.
The public theological libraries in Europe have not, as a general thing,
attained a size sufficient to give them prominence in published accounts.
In London, there are two instances of important libraries which, although
not exclusively theological, may be considered as in some sense belong-
ing to the same class with our General Theological Library in Boston.
One of these is the Sion College Library, founded in 1631 for the use of
the clergy of the Established Church, and containing perhaps 55,000
volumes. The other is the Dr. Williams Library, intended more par-
ticularly for the use of the dissenting clergy, which was opened in 1729
and contains now more than 20,000 volumes. On the Continent also
there are libraries holding a somewhat similar position, which are known
134 Public Libraries in the United States.
under the name of preachers' libraries, or ministerial libraries, or as
libraries of particular religious coram anions. These are generally of
moderate size. In Neuchatel, Switzerland, there is one of these, a
"library for pastors and ministers," founded by the reformer Farel, in
1538, which contains about 8,000 volumes. And in Preetz, in the
province of Schleswig-Holstein, is a preachers' library of about 10,000
volumes. These are among the largest mentioned.
The archiepiscopal libraries may be named in this connection. Among
the principal of those in England is that at Lambeth Palace, in London,
founded in 1610 by George Bancroft, archbishop of Canterbury, and con-
taining some 27,000 volumes of printed books besides a rich collection
of manuscripts. On the Continent we find an archiepiscopal library at
Erlau, in Hungary, founded in the second halt of the eighteenth cen-
tury, which has about 35,000 volumes, including 250 manuscripts and
nearly 300 incunabula. In the same rank may be classed the various
cathedral libraries, ranging in the number of volumes from 2,000 or
less to 15,000.
There are also "Parochial " or "Church Libraries," existing in Great
Britain and on the Continent. In England we find them numbering
3,000 and 4,000 volumes. Their origin in that country dates from the
year 1537, at which time the royal injunction was issued that •" a book
of the whole Bible of the largest volume in English " should be pro-
vided and set up in some convenient [)lace within the church, " where
the parishioners may the most coramodiously resort to the same and
read it." On the Continent a much larger church library is found at
Halle, called the Marian Library, because connected with the Church
of St. Mary. It was founded in 1502, and contains now nearly 20,000
volumes, among which theology holds the principal place.
Specially worthy of mention, also, are the monastic libraries of the
Old World, a large number of which still exist, although a great many
have been scattered, in consequence of the suppression and destruction
of convents, and their treasures absorbed in other libraries. A notable
example of monastic libraries is that of the Benedictines at Monte Cas-
sino, in Italy, which contains about 20,000 volumes, including some 800
volumes of manuscripts. There are similar Benedictine libraries at St.
Gall, in Switzerland, of about 40,000 volumes ; 9-t Fulda, in Prussia, of
50,000 volumes, founded by Charlemagne; and at Kremsmiinster, in
Austria, of 50,000, besides 589 volumes of incunabula and 528 volumes
of manuscripts.
In all these various classes of the more distinctively religious libraries,
and not less in the larger general libraries of cities and universities,
have been stored immense and most precious treasures of theological
literature, — among them rarestprinted books of the fifteenth century, and
piles of venerable manuscripts. In view of these accumulations, which
have been growing for centuries, we need not be ashamed to acknowl-
Theological Libraries. 135
edge that the theological wealth of our libraries is still comparatively
small, especially in the rarer curiosities of literature ; although Amer-
ican shelves are not wholly without specimens even of these.
But our comparison must be chiefly with the libraries of theological
schools, in England we are not to look for separate libraries of this kind
in connection with the Established Church, as the clergy of that church
do not generally have their professional training in separate schools,
but as a part of their university course, or else in private. The same may
be said of the Established Church of Scotland. Theology is of course
one of the leading departments in the university libraries ; and at the Uni-
versity of Edinburgh there is an instance of a special theological library,
in addition to the public library of the university. It was founded by
Dr. George Campbell about the end of the seventeenth century, and
comprises now upwards of 5,000 volumes. It is chiefly or eutirely
among the dissenting and the Catholic churches in Great Britain that
we find separate schools for the training of the clergy. These theologi-
cal colleges ail aim at the creation of good libraries. The course of
study in some of them includes, it is true, academical as well as theo-
logical instruction, yet the libraries even of these probably do not differ
essentially in character from our own, and have a preponderance of
theological books. And as in their origin these seminaries, at least
the Protestant ones, are generally' not older than ours, so in the size of
their libraries they do not go beyond, even if they equal our own.
On the Continent there are similar theological schools, both under
Catholic and Protestant management, and some of them of ancient date.
In Tubingen, the Seminary of Evangelical Theology, founded in 1557,
has a library containing from 20,000 to 25,000 volumes. There is also
in the same place the Wilhelins Stitt Library, of perhaps 20,000 vol-
umes, 10,000 of which are theological. In Strasbourg, the library of the
Catholic seminary has about 30,000 volumes. In Cologne, in connec-
tion with the Archiepiscopal Priests' Seminary, there is a library of
about 20,000 volumes, founded in the seventeenth century. In Amster-
dam we find libraries belonging to the various religious bodies, said to
be chiefly composed of their respective denominational literature
Among these is one, nearly two hundred years old, consisting of per-
haps 10,000 volumes, which is connected with the Seminary of the Ana-
baptist or Menuonite Congregation. Of more recently established theo-
logical seminaries, there is one at Wittenberg, founded in 1817, which
has a librarj^ of from 10,000 to 20,000 volumes and 100 manuscripts.
As a result of our comparison, which is necessarily an imperfect one,
it would appear that in respect to numerical contents, — whatever may
be true as to the comparative value of those contents, — the libraries of
theological schools abroad do not surpass our own. This, in the case
of some pf them, is doubtless to be accounted for by their proximity to
the great university libraries which are equally accessible to the theo-
logical students; as, for example, in Tiibingen, where the university has
a library of 280,000 volumes.
136 Public Libraries iw the United States.
NEED OF LIBRARIES IN SEMINARIES.
ft is hardly necessary to saj^ anything: to prov^e the importance of a
library to the theological serniQary. It has been rightly termed the
" heart" of such an institution. And these libraries deserve to be sus-
tained and enlarged with reference to other and broader demands than*
simply the immediate requirements of the schools to which they belong.
They should be made centres of theological science for the whole com-
munity. It is right that the student in this highest of all sciences, who
is carrying his researches far beyond ordinary limits of investigation,
should resort to these libraries with the expectation of finding in them
all the helps which the learning of the world can furnish, at least within
the acknowledged bounds of theological thought. And indeed no theo-
logical seminary is complete, for the uses even of its pupils and pro-
fessors, if it does not include within its alcoves many works, especially
the large and costly books of reference, which lie outside the circle of
theology. To be prepared for the various exigencies which from time to
time arise in the history of the church and of religion; for the great
tasks which force themselves on our theological scholars once it may
be in thiee centuries, (as, for example, in the work now going on for
the revision of our English Bible;) for such demands, as well as for
the more common requirements of the faithful student, there is need
of a, liberal policy in our outlay for theological libraries. And this will
prove in the end the true economy. If the library, which is the store-
house of the Christian scholar, is left unreplenished, the evil result
will sooner or later be felt in the parish and in the church.
LIBRARY FUNDS NEEDED.
It may be allowable for us in passing to allude to the necessity of
larger provision for the care and management of our theological libraries.
This includes ot course the preparation of catalogues ; and it has been
truly said, "In the economy of libraries there is nothing more impor-
tant than the character of their catalogues. A poor library with a good
catalogue will often be of more utility to the student than a rich library
with a bad or carelessly compiled one." The libraries of our theological
seminaries are so peculiarly dependent on the voluntary benefactions of
the patrons of Christian learning, that there is special need of calling
attention to this point. For there is reason to fear that these libraries have
suftered from the want of adequate endowments in no particular more
seriously than in this. It would seem to have been taken for granted
that the books need only to be bought and placed upon the shelves^ and
that thenceforward they will not only take care of themselves, but vvill
also,like the flowers by the roadside, yield their sweetness spontaneously
to the passer by. Nothing is more noticeable in the reports from the
various libraries than the statements of the very small annual ex-
penditure for the librarian's salary or for the care of the books. Our
theological libraries may be emphatically said iu this respect to be
Theological Libraries. 137
cheaply conducted. There is not one of the larfjer ones which is provided
with an adequate workin;? force. Probably not more than one has a
librarian who is expected to give his whole time to its supervision*
Too often the leisure hours or half-hours of the busy professor, aided
it may be by the intermittent half paid assistance of some student, are
all that is afforded for this puri)ose. It would not be far from the truth
to say that any theological library of 20,000 volumes, which is growing
as such a library may be fairly supposed to grow, is defrauded of its
due care, and the institution to which it belongs is suffering from the
injustice, unless it is allowed the undivided services of at least one edu-
cated person.
There have been of late years cheering signs of a new interest in our
theological libraries on the part of men of wealth. The subjoined re-
ports make mention of several munificent gifts. We trust that these
examples will be imitated by the friends of libraries which have been
less favored. The excitement of a generous impulse in this direction
would be one of the best results of statistics such as are presented
in this Report. And, while providing funds for the purchase of books
and for fireproof buildings to contain them, it is to be hoped that these
friends will extend their generosity to the equally urgent need to which
we have now referred, the support of librarians and assistants, without
whose labors the books which are supplied cannot accomplish one-half
of their appointed work.
II.— CATHOLIC LIBRARIES.
Distinctive features of Catholic libraries — Valuable collections in the-
ological SCHOOLS — Growing collections — Catholic publications.
In treating of Catholic libraries for a publication which can necessa-
rily give but limited space to each contributor, it will not be possible to
do more than give a general idea of their scope. A Catholic library dif-
fers from no other library except in the greater accumulation of matter
illustrative of Catholic dogma and practice, or its larger collection of
Catholic literature, especially in the departments of his^^^ory and biogra-
phy. All learning is welcome to the shelves of Catholic libraries, and
nothing is excluded from them that should not equally be excluded from
any reputable collection of books. Nor will even anti-Catholic works be
found wanting to them, at least such as possess any force or origi-
nality. The history of the church being so interwoven with that of the
world since the days of Augustus Ceesar, there is no period which is not
redolent of her action, and consequently no history which does not have
to treat of her, either approvingly or the reverse. In regard to general
literature, she preserved, during the long period of social and political
disorder which followed the breaking up of the Roman Empire, all that
has come down to us from classic sources, and therefore works of this
character can be no strangers to shelves of Catholic libraries. Still less
138 Public Libraries in the United States.
can the Sacred Scriptures be, which Catholic hands collected, authenti-
cated, and handed down for the use of the meu of our time. Nor will the
sciences be overlooked by ecclesiastics in forming their libraries, for in
past ages it was the care of their brethren, with such limited facilities
as were at their command, and in days inauspicious lor scientific inves-
tigation, to cultivate them.
Still the character of Catholic libraries changes with the circum-
stances under which the books are brouglit together. And here it is
necessary to go a little into detail, outside of the libraries themselves,
in order to illustrate these circumstances. We will first speak of theo-
logical schools, and under this designation include not only the semina-
ries under the control and patronage of one or more bishops, for the
education of their subjects for the secular priesthood, but the houses of
study, or scholasticates, under the direction of the several religious orders
for the education of their own members. Of coarse in libraries of this
class a larger proportion of works on theology will be found than in
other Catholic libraries. Indeed, the statistics in this volume will prob-
ably show that but few Catholic libraries of any extent exist in this
country, except those attached to theological schools. Even that at
Georgetown, where this paper is prepared, owes the great number of its
works of this class to the fact that it was for many years a school of
theology as well as of letters.
In all theological collections, the Bible, both the Old and New Testa-
ments, must, as the principal authority in theological teaching, whether
of doctrine or morals, hold the prominent place. Commentaries and ex-
positions in abundance will be found in Juxtaposition with the Bibles
themselves. For the use of the professors, who are generally graduates
of the best theological schools of Europe, if not for the use of some
of the students themselves, versions of the Scriptures in the various
Oriental languages will be needed.
Next in authoritative rank come the Fathers and Doctors of the Church,
from those who received instruction from the apostles themselves and
committed their doctrine to writing, down to almost our own day ; for St.
Alphousus Ijiguori, the latest on whom the Holy See has conferred the
title of Doctor of the Universal Church, died only in the latter part of
the last century, and his authority is that which is principally followed
in the treatment of moral questions. Works also by later writers,
principally on dogmatic subjects, are constantly appearing. The
study of Dogma, embracing an investigation into all revealed truths,
and therefore essential to those who are to instruct others authori-
tatively, involves a reference to many learned books in which proofs
and illustrations are elaborated to the last degree of exactness^
side by side with every possible difficulty or objection that can be
brought to bear against each doctrine treated of. Some works are
occupied with the discussion of but a siugle point; others take in a
wide range, and some voluminous authors have published an entire
Theological Libraries. 139
course of dogma. Candidates for the scholastic (not the merely hon-
orary) degree of Doctor of Divinity must defend snccessfully, in the
presence of learned theologians, and against all objections proposed by
them, a number of the most diflBcult theses in theology. None but
those who-have made long and thorough studies would dare undertake
this ordeal; but at least the apparatus of learning is provided to this
end in the libraries of theological schools. But for those who, either
from advanced years, imperfect preliminary studies, feeble health,
or from the immediate need in which their bishop stands for their serv-
ices, are unable to make a long course, a shorter one is provided, ac-
quired from approved compendi urns which will be found in every
theological library, and as reference, in every ecclesiastical library of
any kind.
The study of Moral, the other great branch of Catholic theology,
embraces a scrutiny into every question of morals that needs to be
investigated by those who have the direction of consciences, or whose
duty it is, in the tribunal of penance, to adjudicate upon matters
affecting the rights of others. As solutions in these cases are some-
time^ attended with considerable difficulty, and a grave responsibility
is attached to the delivery of an opinion, authorities for reference must
be ample and exliaustive. Such authorities, more or less voluminous,
will be found in the theological libraries, and are relied upon in propor-
tion to their world-wide repute, as representing the opinions of prudent,
learned, and experienced men.
So far, the domain of theology, strictly speaking, in Catholic libraries.
But such libraries would be incomplete, both for the purposes of theo-
logical study and for general reference, without the publivshed acts of
the General Councils ot the Church, especially those of the Council of
Trent and of councils held within the country, national or provincial,
or the decrees of a synod of the diocese, in matters of discipline. To
these are to be added the decisions and solutions of the various "con-
gregations" in Kome, chiedy of that of " rites," and other documents
emanating from the Holy See. The professor of ecclesiastical history,
an indispensable member of the teaching faculty in every theological
school, must also have his resources at hand in the library.
Works on ritual supply the directions needed in all matters concern-
ing both public worship and the private administration of the sacra-
ments. Other works, technical or devotional, or combining both features,
are prepared for the use of those who are studying for the priesthood,
or who are already ordained ; they are frequently' only monitory in
their nature, and some are intended especially for the guidance of mem-
bers of religious orders. Of the latter class the Christian Perfection
of Fr. Rodriguez, for the Jesuits, is an example. As in theological
schools a course of rational philosophy of from one to three years pre-
cedes the study of theology, this department must also be well pro-
vided for iu the libraries attached to these institutions. Where the
140 Public Libraries in the United States.
young men in these schools are educated as teachers, as is the case with
the Jesuits, works on mathematics, physics, astronomy, meteorology,
chemistry, and other sciences, must be added.
The attention given in these schools to sacred eloquence — for practice
in which students are required to prepare and deliver sermons ia pres-
ence of the community — calls for the best models of sacred oratory,
besides works on rhetoric and elocution. As models of composition,
arrangement, and intrinsic solidity, the sermons of the ancient fathers
share equal attention with those of the great Freach orators of the last
century, and no library for the use of ecclesiastics will be without a
copious supply of the works of those and others of the best pulpit
orators in the church.
In regard to the ceremonial of the Church and plain chant, particular
instruction is given rather in the preparatory seminaries than in the
seminaries themselves, to which young men are transferred on reaching
the requisite age or proficiency ; and in these preparatory schools for
those who enter the secular priesthood, ox in the colleges whence mem-
bers of religious orders draw their candidates, the classics and modern
languages are also taught thoroughly. An ignorance of Latin would
debar or delay the entrance of a candidate into any theological school.
Once in* these students are supposed to be sufficiently advanced to be
able to understand lectures or ordinary class instructions given in Latin —
sometimes necessary when the professor is of a foreign nationality —
and in some institutions they are even obliged to converse in Latin,
except during hours of recreation. These circumstances are mentioned
in order that it may be understood why the classics and elementary
books on Latin and Greek do not necessarily constitute a marked feature
of Catholic theological, though they do of Catholic, college libraries.
Catholic libraries in general — and not those alone which are at-
tached to theological schools — will be found amply supplied with con-
troversial works written by Catholic authors. These are needed, how-
ever, not so much for the use of the owners as for that of non-Catholic
inquirers who wish to be enlightened in regard to some controverted
point, or who desire to learn the evidences upon which the Catholic
Church bases her claims to the credence of mankind. Catechetical
works, of which there are a great number, answer this purpose still
better when the polemic spirit has been allayed, and it is impossible to
conceive of a Catholic library, large or small, without an abundance of
both these classes of books. The controversial works discuss every ob-
jection which can be alleged against the church or the practice of mem-
bers of it, and are necessarily very numerous.
Every age has left behind it these testimonies to the controversies
that agitated it, and the present age is no less prolific than its prede-
cessors, though the grounds of dispute are shifting now rather from
dogma to historical questions and matters of science, indicating the
lessening hold which doctrine has on the non-Catholic mind.
Theological Libraries^ 141
The catechetical works range from the little catechism in which
every Catholic child and every non-Catholic adult who seeks to enter
the church must be instructed, to the voluminous works which even
the parish priest may consult for the piirpose of instructing his people.
A Catholic library will not fail to provide for all the requisites of
devotion, not only in the ordinatjy- prayer books, of which there is a great
variety, but in books of piety adapted to different conditions of life, or
different spiritual needs or illustrative of some special devotion. Every
private library in Catholic families abounds in these books. Prayer
books, however, are rarely found on library shelves, any more than the
Koman Breviary. The former are in the hands of the laity generally ;
and the latter, the vade mecum of the clergy, must be recited daily by
every ecclesiastic. Among books of piety are to be included a large
number of books of meditation, chiefly for the use of ecclesiastics and
members of religious orders, upon whom is enjoined the daily practice of
mental prayer, food for which is sought in these volumes. Libraries
which have to be consult€(^ by the clergy, at least by those who preach
missions to the people or retreats in religious houses — an annual observ-
ance— must find in them material adapted to their purpose. The
famous book of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, forms the
basis of most of these compilations, but many others exist besidesi
Keligious biographies also abound in Catholic libraries, and as they
embrace accounts of the lives of holy persons in every age since the
origin of Christianity, from the martyrs of the Roman arena or the
hermits of the Egyptian deserts, to our own day, and not only of those
who have been decreed the honor of canonization, but of great numbers
who have never been proposed for it, it may be imagined how compre-
hensive a collection these books form. These lives also illustrate more
or less the history of the times wherein the persons lived.
The great work in folio of the Bollandists, the Acta Sanctorum, be-
gun in 1643 and still in process of publication, is in fact a repertory of
most varied learning.
Ecclesiastical history, of course, forms an important element in Cath-
olic libraries; but this history not only includes the exhaustive tomes of
writers who take in the whole history of the church, but of others who
illustrate a particular age, country, event or transaction.
Works concerning the history of the church in the United States, or
in particular States, form a growing collection. The current of con-
temporary Catholic history is well shown forth through the monthly and
weekly publications which appear in many countries and languages.
The Catholic quarterlies, however, and some of the monthly publica-
tions, are devoted chiefly to literary or scientific criticism. The Catholic
weeklies in this country are now so numerous that their preservation
in libraries is seldom attended to. If this apology is needed for the
absence from such libraries of publications that will form an important
reference hereafter for others besides Catholics, it ought to be coupled
142 Public Libraries in the United States.
with the suggestion proper to be made in a work which will be placed
in the hands of persons of all religions, that a general Catholic library
ought to be established at some central point where every Catholic pub-
lication, at least among those issued in this country, may have a place.
Materials for history would gather in such a collection thafr might not
readily be found combined in any other.
Having thus touched upon the more important characteristics of Cath-
olic libraries, it would be well perhaps to observe that while the leading
ones in this country are attached to seminaries, colleges, or religious
houses, there are many private collections of considerable value, espe-
cially those in episcopal residences, or belonging to gentlemen of the
clergy or laity who, together with literary tastes, possess the means to
gratify them.
Catholic libraries are also beginning to be formed in cities and towns,
chiefly under the auspices of associations that seek to provide a safe
and pleasant resort for young men in the evenings. In these libraries
will be found the lighter Catholic literature, to which no reference has
so far been made in this paper — travels, sketches, i)oems, tales, &c., a
few of which are by American and some by Irish authors, but the ma-
jority by English writers, chiefly converts, or translated from the French,
German, Flemish, and other continental languages.
Finally, it would be well to observe that Catholic libraries are acces-
sible for reference, if not for study, to all inquirers. In most cases non-
Catholic visitors would doubtless be welcomed to them with great cor-
diality. Those who have these libraries in keeping rather invite than
repel scrutiny into whatever is distinctively Catholic in their collections.
III.- SKETCHES OF THEOLOGICAL LIBRARIES.
SAN FRANCISCO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.
This Seminary was founded by the Synod of the Pacific of the Pres-
byterian Church under the care of the General Assembly of the Presby-
terian Church of the United States, and went into operation in the year
1871. The library contains 5,000 volumes of valuable standard books.
Its increase is by donations, and has averaged, since 1872, about 100
volumes a year. It possesses also some 500 pamphlets, but no manu-
scripts worthy of mention. It is solely for the use and benefit of the
students. The seminary, being yet in its intancy, has no building of its
own, but several comfortable rooms for students have been fitted up
and furnished by the St. John's Presbyterian Church, and the trustees
of University College have kindly placed at the disposal of the semi-
nary sufficient room in the college building.
By the liberality of the officers of the Mercantile Library Association,
of the Mechanics' Institute, and of the Odd Fellows' Library Associa-
tion, the students have the use also of these three large and rich col-
lections of books. In property, money, and subscriptions, the funds of
the seminary amount to $80,500.
Theological Libraries. 143
BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, CHICAGO, ILL.
The seminary has had an active and orgauized existence only since
October, 1867, and the library, now numbering 15,000 volumes, has been
collected since that time. The first important step towards its forma-
tion was the purchase, in 1809, of the library of Prof. E. W. Hengsten-
berg, of Berlin, consisting of about 10,000 bound volumes, and 2,000 or
3,000 unbound books and pamphlets, chiefly in the departments of theol-
ogy, church history, and biblical literature. The funds for this purchase
were furnished by a few friends of theological education in Chicago. In
October, 1871, there was purchased, through the liberality of 13.
Henry Sheldon, Adam Smith, and other gentlemen of Chicago, a
very choice collection of works, (209 volumes,) relating to the Anabap-
tists of Germany in the time of the Reformation, comprising the works
of BuUinger, Zwingli, Fabri, Osiander, Eck, and others o])posing the
tenets of the Anabaptists, and tlie responses of Hubmaier and other
adherents of their doctrines. In March, 1873, the library (over 3,000
volumes) of the late Kev. George B. Ide, of Springfield, Mass., was pur-
chased by the trustees, and added to the collection. There have also
been valuable donations from private individuals.
Ko classified and complete catalogue of the library has, as yet, been
prepared ; but each separate collection has a catalogue of its own.
CHICAGO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, CHICAGO, ILL.
The first step toward the formation of a library was taken in 1855, the
year in which the seminary received its charter, by the purchase of the
library of the late Dr. J. C. L. Gieseler, professor in the University of
Gottingen. During the following year, (1856,) 500 volumes were added
by the liberality of Eev. Geo. W. Perkins, of Chicago, liev. Wm. Pat-
ton presented several hundred volumes froni his own collection, and
rendered valuable aid by securing donations of books In England.
Through the efforts of Prof. S. C. Bartlett, nearly $1,000 were collected
in Chicago, and expended in the purchase of books. In 1875, Eev. E. M.
WilirAms, an alumnus of the seminary, gave books to the value of $1,500.
Other valuable contributions of money and books have been received
from friends in various parts of the country, but the names are too
numerous for insertion. Annual contributions for the purchase of books
are made by the Alumni Society.
There is, at present, no permanent library fund, except that known
as the Patton binding fund, amounting to $1,000, the gift of Rev. W.
W. Patton, of Chicago. The amount received and expended during
the year 1874-'75, was about $2,000.
The library contains at present 5,500 volumes. The catalogue is in
manuscript.
144 Public Libraries in the United States.
PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOaiOAL SEMINARY OF THE NORTHWEST, CHI-
CAGO, ILL.
This library was begun in 1859, and now numbers about 8,000 volnmes.
Many donacions of books have been received, but no particulars are
given. The sum of $2,500 towards a permanent fund was received from
H. R. Corning, of New York.
There is no printed catalogue of the library.
WOODSTOCK COLLEGE, WOODSTOCK, MD.
The existence of this library, which was opened in 1869, is due in great
measure to the efforts of Rev. Angelo M. Paresce, who, for several years
prior to the opening of Woodstock College, had agents in the principal
literary centres of Europe engaged in the collection of books. In this
manner more than half the works which constitute the present library
were obtained.
The library now contains about 18,000 bound volumes, chiefly the-
ological, and nearly 2,000 pamphlets. Among the works of special value
are Walton's Polyglot, London, 1657; Cardin«l Mai's critical works on
the Old and New Testaments, 5 volumes; the Hexapla of Origen ; the
Holy Fathers, Migne's edition, 153 volumes Latin, and 161 volumes
Greek; Durandus, 1539; Duns Scotus, 1609; Baronius, 59 volumes;
the works of the Bollandists, 00 volumes; and among the curiosities a
manuscript of the tenth century, parchment, written in Hebrew, being
a scroll of the book of Moses, 97 feet long and 2 feet 10 inches wide,
formerly used in a synagogue at Yemen ; an illuminated breviary of
the thirteenth century ; and Antonini Theologia, in black letter, 1506,
There are also works in the Turkish, Persian, Chaldaic, Coptic, Egyp-
tian, Arabic, Russian, Armenian, and Chinese languages.
The annual additions to the library average about 200 volumes and 300
pamphlets.
The library occupies a hall 75 by 41 feet, and 25 feet in height. The
most noticeable feature of the room is the frescoed ceiling, on which is
represented the solar system, forming not merely an artistic decoration
but a reliable astronomical chart.
ANDOVER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIT, ANDOVER, MASS.
This seminary was founded in 1807, and was opened for instruction Sep-
tember 28, 1808. The library was recognized as a constituent part of the
institution from the beginning.
Donations and bequests of money for the purchase of books have been
received from time to time, a statement of which will be found below.
There have also been gifts of books, from time to time ; the chief of
these being the bequest, iny 1847, of the valuable theological library
of the Rev. John Codman, of Dorchester, numbering 1,250 volumes.
Theological Libraries. 145
Mentiou should also be made of a very valuable gift of books, worth
perhaps from $500 to $1,000, by the late Lieutenaat Governor Samuel
T. Armstrong, of Boston; and of a gift of some 60 volumes received in
1843, from John Danlop, of Edinburgh, Scotland.
In 1867, Mrs. Susan Flint Shedd, of Boston, presented a copy of
Tischendorf's splendid fac simile edition of the Codex Sinaiticus, at a
cost of not far from $200.
In 1809 and 1870 a most interesting collection of pamphlets, number-
ing more than 8,000, was given to the library by the Rev. William B.
Sprague, of Albany, N. Y. Among these is a large number of the
"election sermons" of early dates preached in Massachusetts and
other States, besides many other sermons of the eighteenth century, and
other publications of much value in reference to the religious history of
this country.
The libraries of two societies of students in the seminary — the Society
of Inquiry on Missions, and the Porter Rhetorical Society — have, within
the last twenty years, been transferred to the trustees, and many of the
books, to the number of perhaps 2,500 volumes, have been placed on the
shelves of the Seminary Library.
The number of volumes in the library is now more than 34,000, (in-
cluding duplicates,) besides 10,000 or 12,000 pamphlets.
More than 10,000 volumes have been added during the past ten years.
The largest accession at any one time in that period was by the purchase
of the library of the late Dr. 0. W. Niedner, professor of theology at
the University" of Berlin. This collection consisted of some 4,000 vol-
umes, chiefly in the German and Latin languages, among which are
many rare and curious books, and works of great value to the theologi-
cal student, especially in the department of history.
The Andover Library, considering the very moderate funds which
have bee^ at its disposal, is reasonably well furnished in the several
departments of theology, and to some extent is able to meet the more
common demands in other lines of study.
A catalogue of 161 pages, octavo, prepared by Mr. J. W. Gibbs, after-
wards professor in Yale College, was printed in 1819 ; and another of 531
pages, octavo, by the Rev. Oliver A. Taylor, in 1838. But one supple-
mentary catalogue has been issued; it comprised 67 pages, and was
printed in 1849.
For nearly fifty years the library occupied a hall, constructed for the
purpose in the chapel, built in 1818, by William Bartlet, of Newbury-
port, one of the principal benefactors of the seminary. In 186^ it
was removed to its present quarters in Brechin Hall,^ ah elegant
stane edifice, built for its accommodation, at a cost of $41,000, by the
gift of Messrs. John Smith, Peter Smith, and John Dove, of Andover.
To the three last named gentlemen the library is also indebted for a
'So named by the donors in honor of their native place, Brechin, Scotland.
10 E
146 Public Libraries in the United States.
perraaoent fund of $25,000, the income of which is to be devoted to the
preservation of the building' and to the purchase of books.
Besides the above, the income of other funds, amounting to about
$18,500, is now available for the purchase of books. These funds were
given for this object by donors already named.
The persons entitled to borrow books from the library are the officers
and students of the theological seminary, the instructors of Phillips
Academy, settled ministers of the gospel in Andover, and such other
persons as may obtain special permission from the faculty.
The library is open every week day, except during the vacations of
the seminary.
The following is a list of the principal gifts of money for the library,
with the date of reception of each, chiefly for the purchase of books.
It does not include a number of generous donations which have been
made within the past ten years for the current salary of the librarian,
among which was one of $3,000 from the three donors of the new library
building.
Donations of money.
Brown, Newbnryport, Mass., 1808. $i;000
Hon. John Norris, Salem, Mass., 1808 1,000
Capt. Stephen Holland, Newbury port, Mass., 1808... 500
Hon. WilliatQ Gray, Boston, Mass., 1811 3:?3
Hon. Isaac Tichenor, Bcsnnington, Vt., 1812 20
Henry Gray, Dorchester, Mass., 1816 3,000
Jonathan Marsh, Newburyport, Mass., 1819 500
Anonymous donors, 1865-'66 1, 100
Ehenezer Aldeu, M. D., Randolph, 1871 100
Rev. Theodore I). Woolsey, D. D., New Haven, Conn., 1873 50
Bequests of money.
Samuel Abbot, Andover, Mass., 1812 1,000
Hon. William Phillips, Boston, Mass., 1827 ' 5,000
Hon. William Reed, Marblehead, Mass., 1837 5,000
GENERAL THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY, BOSTON, MASS. ^
This library was formed in 1860, and numbers about 12,000 volumes.
Donations have been made to it as follows : In 1865 the Rev. Charles
Burroughs, D. D., gave the Acta Sanctorum, in 61 folio volumes, at
an expense of about $1,500. He also gave (l880-'65) $500 j and be-
queathed nearly all his private library, some 3,01)0 volumes, and
$5,000. These bequests have not yet been received. Miss Arabella
Rice left a bequest of $3,000. Mr. Eben Dale gave $500, and
also left a bequest of $500. The late Messrs. James Read and Seth
' Mr. Pliillips's f.md, having been increased in accDrdance with the terms of tUe be-
quest, amounts now to about $13,650, two-thirds of the income of which is available
annually for the purchase of books. The available fund may therefore be called
about $9,000.
* 1 urther details respecting this library, written by the librarian, will be found in
the article entitled Public Libraries of Boston and Vicinity.
Theological Libraries. 147
Adams left bequests of $500 each. Tlie trustees of the late Charles
Sauders gave to the library $500. Edward Brooks, novv president
of the iustitutioQ ; John G-. Casing, William E.aerson Baker, and
the late John Taylor, have each given $500 or more. These gifts
were received between 1864 and 1874. Messrs. Peter C. Brooks,
James Parker, Gardner B. Perry, Robert M. Cashing, F. Gordon
Dexter, E. L. Tobey, George C. Shattuck, M. D., the late Rev. Dr.
Nathaniel L. Frothingham, and the late Dr. John C. Hayden, have
each given the association $300 or more. Hon. Robert C. Win-
throp, H. Hollis Hanaewell, Rev. Luther Farnham, and 62 others,
have each given $L00 or more. All these donations were received
between 186J and 1875, and were chiefly from residents of Boston and
vicinity. The number of volumes in the library is 12,000. There is
no printed catalogue, but two manuscript catalogues, both arranged
alphabetically, one by authors, the other by subjects.
DIVINITY SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY, CAMBRID&E, MASS. ^
In the academic year 18 -'5-'26 several boxes of books for the Divinity
School of Harvard University were imported from England. Divinity
Hall was then going up, and was ready for occupation* by students,
and for tlie reception of books in the summer of 1826, and these
books were then sent there. About the same time circulars represent-
ing the wants of the school and library were sent to clergymen and
others, soliciting donations. About 1829 the Rev. Thaddeus Mason
Harris, of Dorchester, gave several hundred volumes from his private
library. Tliere have been other gifts, but the amounts an I names of
donors are not specified. The last donation received was a bequest of
800 volumes from the Rev. James Walker, D.D.
The number of volumes now in the library is about 17,000, besides
1,200 numbers of quarterly reviews, unbound.
NEWTON THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION, NEWTON CENTRE, MASS.
The institution was opened in December, 1825, and the library was
begun about the same time, by donations of books from a few friends.
The amount of library funds may be given as $25,000, though the li-
brary has not yet been able to draw the interest on more than $10,000.
The remaining $15,000 is subscribed and paid, but the interest cannot
be used until the general endowment subscription is collected. Mean-
while Mr. Gardner Colby, president of the board of trustees, gives to
the library $500 annually, and has engaged to do so for the next seven
years. The library has, therefore, $1,200 a year to use for the purchase
and binding of books. The salary of the librarian, $650 a year, is paid
from the general funds of the institution.
^ A further account of this library will be fouud iu the sketches of university and
college libraries, in Chapter IlL
148 Public Libraries in the United States.
Tbe library has, during its whole history, received generous benefac-
tions, but of the earlier ones no particulars are given. The largest re-
cent benefactors are Hon. J. Warren Merrill, of Cambridge, Mass. ;
Gardner Colby, of Newton, Mass. ; Hon. Isaac Davis, of Worces-
ter, Mass. ; and Matthew Bolles, of Boston, who have contributed
altogether about $20,000.
The present number of volumes in the library is 13,000. The yearly
additions average about 400 volumes. The yearly expenditure for new
books is $1,000.
For the last fifteen years the books have been selected, with few
exceptions, by the professors, with a view to meeting their own wants
and those of the students.
There is no printed catalogue, but two card catalogues ; one arranged
by authors, the other by subjects.
The library building, which is of stone, lighted from the top, was
built about ten years ago.
DREW THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, MADISON, N. J.
This seminary, founded by Daniel Drew, of New York City, was
opened November G, 1867. Mr. Drew gave to the seminary ninety-
nine acres of land with the buildings thereon, fitted up two of these for
dormitories, and subsequently built four professors' houses at an
expense of $20,000 each. In addition to this, he gave $25,000 for a
library.
DoctorMcCliutock,afterwardspresidentof the seminary, was intrusted
with the selection of books for a library, and the seminary opened with
a collection ot some 5,000 volumes. In a year the number had increased
to 10,000 volumes. Among the books purchased at this time was the
collection on hymnology of David Creamer, of Baltimore. Nearly all
the 665 volumes of this collection were hymn books, representing nearly
all modern publications and many old and rare ones.
After January, 1869, the purchases of books appear to have nearly
ceased. After the death of Doctor McCliutock in 1870, his private
library, about 3,000 volumes, was purchased for the seminary for the
sum of $2,500, of which $2,000 were subscribed by friends in New York
City.
From 1870 to 1874 there were a few donations but no purchases ; even
the periodicals were not kept up, and, owing to changes in the office of
librarian, little, if any, progress was made. Several students acted as
assistant librarians gratuitously. The library was moved from one
part of the building to another, and, unless the number of books pur-
chased was over-estimated, not a few were scattered and lost.
During the year 1874-'75 the books have been well protected and
classified. An assistant librarian with a salary has been appointed, and
the library is in very good condition. A gift of $350 has lately been re-
ceived from J. B. CoDuell,.for bindiiig periodicals and making purchases.
Theological Libraries. 149
"Numerous donations of books have been received, most of them small,
though in many cases valuable, and tlie list of donors is too long for
insertion.
The library contained, June, 1875, 10,875 bound volumes, 4,950 pam-
phlets, and about 40 volumes of newspapers. Of the books, 8,300 are
in English, 1,300 in German, 500 in French, GOO in Greek and Latin,
and 150 Italian and miscellaneous.
A manuscript catalogue, alphabetically arranged by authors and sub
jects, is approaching completion.
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW BRUNSWICK, N. J.
The seminary of the Reformed (Dutch) Church of America was estab-
lished in 1784 and was for many years connected with Queens, now Rut-
gers College. The library, which was small, having perhaps 5,000 vol-
umes, belonged to both institutions in common.
In 1855 Mrs. Anna-Hertzog, of Philadelphia, gave $30,000 for a build-
ing to be called the Peter Hertzog Theological Hall. Into this build-
ing when completed the theo'ogical books of the library were removed,
and the foundation was laid for the present seminary library, which
now contains about 26,000 volumes. Most of the original collection con-
sists of works of Swiss and Holland theologians, which appear to have
been given at different times by the ministers of the church.
In 1874 a large fire proof structure was built for the library on the
seminary grounds by Col. Gardner A. Sage, of New York. Into -this
building tlie books have been removed. Additions of standard books
are constantly being made, and the seminary has funds on hand to in-
crease the number to 80,000 volumes.
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, PRINCETON, N. J.
Prior to 1821 the seminary possessed no regular library. In that
year a union took place between the Associate Reformed Church and
the Presbyterian Church in the [luited States, one of tiie terms of which
specified that the theological library then belonging to the former, mainly
consisting of books left by Rev. John M. Mason, D. D., " shall be trans-
ferred and belong to the seminary at Princeton." In accordance with
this more than 2,400 volumes, forming that collection, were received at
Princeton in 1822. Subsequently, however, a small party of dissent-
ers from that action of the Associate Reformed Church advanced a
claim to the ownership of these books. Amicable litigation- followed ;
and at last, in 1838 — the chancellor of the State of New Jersey having
allowed the claim — they were removed to New burgh, N. Y. The friends
of the seminary at once came to its relief, and by liberal donations laid
the foundation of the present library. Prominent among these bene-
factors was James Lenox, of New York City, who has not onlj' en-
riched the library by a long succession of gifts in books, but, observing
150 PtiNic Libraries in the United States.
the Deed of more secure protection for tbem, built the beautiful Gothic
building known as Lenox Hal), completed in 1844, and since occupied by
the theological library.
Dr. Archibald Alexander acted as librarian till his death in 1851 ;
Dr. William Henry Green assumed the trust when he became professor
of Oriental literature in that year; and Dr. Charles Aiken, when he
was elected professor of Christian ethics and apologetics in 1872.
From the report of the trustees in 1851, it appears that the library
then contained only 9,000 volumes. In 1852 the trustees represented
to the general assembly of the church the need of regular grants for the
increase of the library ; but the yearly reports still exhibited a slow
rate of growth. In 1853, the Rev. W. B. Sprague, of Albany, N. Y.,
gave to the library a remarkable collection of pamphlets, mainly theo-
logical. The 1,200 volumes of this collection probably include 20,000
titles, and consist of long series of sermons preached at the elections in
several States, on fast, thanksgiving, ordination, funeral, and other
occasions ; orations and addresses before literary societies and at col-
lege commencements; reports of benevolent associations in this country
and in England; discussions of social questions; arguments elicited by
theological controversies in both countries ; and literature of the civil
war.
In 1855 Mr. Samuel Agnew presented 730 volumes, mainly theologi-
cal.
In 1861 E. L. and A. Stuart, of New York City, purchased and pre-
sented to the library the rare collection, consisting of 3,400 volumes?
left by Professor Joseph Addison Alexander; and in 1862, gave$10,000
in United States bonds, yielding $600 a year. They have also made
valuable gifts of books in every subsequent year; in 1868, the family
of the late Rev. John M. Krebs gave his library, consisting of 1,147
volumes ; in 1871, 824 volumes of miscellaneous books came to the li-
brary from the collection of the late Stephen Collins, M. D., of Baltimore.
Many other benefactors have at various times enriched the library
with their gifts.
The number of volumes reported in the library in 1875 was 26,779,
Among them are the four great polyglots of the Holy Scriptures, the
Complutensiau, 5 volumes, folio, printed at Alcalain 1509-'17; the Ant-
werp, 8 volumes, folio, 1569-'72; the Paris, 10 volumes, folio, 1628-'45 ;
and the London, 6 volumes, folio, 1657 ; the Annales Ecclesiastici of
Baronius and others, 42 volumes, folio; the works of Luther, Calvin,
and Melancthon in many editions ; the Benedictine and other editions of
many of the Fathers, and the ancient impressions or modern reprints of
worthies, confessors, and martyrs; the Codex Yaticanus Novi Testa-
menti, folio, Rome, 1857-71 ; the Codex Yaticanus Yeteris Testamenti,
])ublished at Rome by Yercellone and Cozza, in 4 volu mes, quarto, 1872 ;
the Codex Alexandrinus Yeteris Testamenti, by Woide and Baber, 4 vol-
umes, folio, Loudon, 1786 and 18i6-'28; the Codex Bezoe Cantabrigieu-
Theological Libraries. 151
sis, by Kipling, 2 volumes, folio, Loudon, 1793; and the Codex Sinaiti-
cus, by Tiscbeudoif, 4 volumes, quarto, St. Petersburgli, 18G2. lu addi-
tion to these is the splendid succession of twelve fac similes of palimp-
sests and other ancient manuscripts of the Scriptures, published also by
Tischendorf, in quarto, between 1845 and 1870. These are the gifts of
the Messrs. Stuart, and to these they have lately added the splendid
fac simile of the Utrecht Psalter.
AUBURN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, AUBURN, N. Y.
The library of the seminary is nearly, if not quite, coeval with the
seminary itself, which was incor porated April, 1820. Tbe founders of
the seminary, the clergy of the Presbyterian Church in central and west-
ern New York, became also the founders of the library, by giving their
own books as a nucleus.
During a period of thirty-five years from the foundation of thelibrary
it depended for its increase almost exclusively upon contributions of
books. The list of donors during this period is too long for insertion,
but, as the result of their liberality, the library in 1855 numbered 6,000
volumes.
The increase of the library during the last twenty years is due also
in great measure to the gifts of its friends.
One of the most valuable gifts to the library was received from S. R.
Brown, D. D., missionary of the Reformed Church, formerly in China,
and now in Japan, and consisted of 204 volumes of Chinese works;
among them, besides the Chinese classics, the Imperial Chinese Diction-
ary, the Imperial Statutes of Cliina, and Dr. Morrison's translation of
the Bible into the Chinese language.
A copy of the Codex Sinaiticus was presented by Sylvester Willard,
M.D., in 1870.
From 1821 to 1827 only five gifts of money are recorded. Four of
these amounted to $94; the amount of the last, received from Arthur
Tappau, is not mentioned, but with it 28 volumes of costly works
were purchased. During the next twenty-five years small donations of
money were undoubtedly received, but no record of them has been pre-
served. After 1855, through the exertions of Rev. Frederick Starr,
financial agent of the seminary, a permanent library fund of $11,000 was
secured. Of this amount $5,000 were given by Simeon Benjamin, of
Elmira; $1,500 by T. G. Maxwell and brother, of Geneva; 11,280 by
G. R. Rich, of Buffalo; $1,000 by Ferdinand Beebee, of East Bloom-
field; $900 by Mrs. Sarah Downs, of Downsville, and smaller amounts
by a few others. Robert Nelson, of Auburn, has recently added $500 to
the fund. The interest only of the permanent fund is to be expended
for books.
Albert H. Porter, of Niagara Falls, has recently given $6,000 to
be expended in filling an alcove with the standard patristic and rab
binical works. Several hundred volumes have already been purchased.
152 Public Libraries in the United States.
The library now contains about 10,000 volumes. Thie average yearly
additions during the fifty years of its existence have been somewhat less
than 200 volumes. But, during the last eight years, the additions have
averaged over 300 volumes a year.
In the biblical, critical and exegetical department, including the
patristic and rabbinical works, there are about 2,500 volumes; in the
theological and homiletical department, about 2,000 volumes ; in the
department of religious literature, over 2,000 volumes; in the depart-
ment of literature, about 2,000 volumes ; of United States and State
government documents, about 1,000 volumes; and of pamphlets, bound
and unbound, about 1,000 volumes.
No catalogue of the library has yet been printed. Complete manu-
script catalogues of authors and subjects are in separate volumes.
The library is open daily except Sunday, the year round, and is free
to the public for reference.
The new library building, which cost $40,0[)0, is the gift of Hon. Wm.
E. Dodge, and Hon. Brlwin D. Morgan, of New York, who shared the
expense equally. The capacity of the building is from 80,000 to 10;),000
volumes.
GENERAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL
CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES, NEW YORK, N. Y.
The seminary was opened September 7, 1820, and the nucleus of a
library was almost immediately formed by the liberality of a few indi-
viduals. In 1821 the trustees reported 900 volumes, upwards of 300 of
which were folios, and many of them extremely rare and valuable. This
was exclusive of a valuable collection of theological books deposited for
the use of the students by a gentleman of Connecticut.
In 1821 the General Seminary of the Church, then in New Haven, was
incorporated with the Theological School of New York, and the union of
the two libraries iormed a collection of about 2,500 volumes, a large
proportion of which were folios and quartos. Valuable donations were
received from a number of gentlemen, particularly the Rev. Mr. Price,
of Tulworth, England, and John Pintard, of New York. Since then
the library has steadily increased, by gifts and purchases from the
library fund. In 1836 the sum of $10,000 was presented to the seminary,
of which $4,000 were a gift from Trinity Church, New York ; a portion
was from a legacy, and the remainder was raised by subscription. The
whole amount was to be devoted to the increase of the library', $4,000
to be immediately used in the purchase of books, and the remainder
to be held in trust for the benefit of the library.
The most liberal and constant donor to the library has been the
Society for the Promotion of Religion and Learning in the Diocese of
New York. Every year additions are made to the library by this so-
ciety, and in 1852 it gave 1,348 volumes purchased at the sale of the
library of the late Samuel F. Jarvis, D. D., for the sum of $3,153.
Theological Libraries. 153
Thi5 special value of this gift lay in the fact that many of the books
were purchased expressly to fill vacancies existing in the collection,
and by these means it was not only increased in numbers but its
intrinsic value was greatly enhanced.
A valuable collection of books, 552 volumes, from the library of the
late Professor Walton, was placed in the library in 1873, in an alcove
bearing his name.
The library is largely theological, but comprises also works on general
and on special history, on geography, biography, mythology, archaeology,
as well as much encyclopaedic literature. It has also an extensive de-
partment of ancient classical literature. Its collection of works in
lexicography is especially rich. The pamphlet collection, which is very
large, embraces miscellaneous pamphlets from the year 1641 to date,
journals of church conventions, serial pamphlets, reviews, and maga-
zines. These are arranged and catalogued so that reference to them is
easy.
The number of volumes in the library is 15,208; the number of pam-
phlets, 7,481, of which 2,338 are serials and 5,143 miscellaneous, besides
1,719 " notices," equivalent to 9,200 in pamphlet department collected
since 1802. The catalogues of the library, though only in manuscript,
are full and complete.
UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK, N. Y.
The basis of this collection is the very valuable library of Leander Van
Ess, the distinguished Roman Catholic divine, editor of the Septuagint
and Vulgate, purchased in 1839. That library consisted of 17,000 titles,
containing an unusual number of rare and valuable works ; about 500
incunabula, (before 1510,) and manuscripts; some 1,800 works, orig-
inal editions, produced in the Reformation century ; the chief large
collections on councils, on church history, and especially on canon law ;
early editions, Benedictine and others, of the fathers and doctors of the
church ; some 200 editions of the Vulgate and of German Bibles, (the
oldest, 1478 ;) in short, the most valuable collection of works of this
character ever brought into this country.
The Van Ess collection and about 8,000 volumes besides were given
to the library.
The library now consists of about 34,000 volumes, almost entirely
theological in character. There is no printed catalogue, but a full
manuscript catalogue of authors, in 4 volumes, folio. There is no library
fund. About $750 a year are expended upon the library from the
general funds of the seminary. There is no separate library building.
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, ROCHESTER, N. Y.
The collection of the library began with the founding of the seminary
in 1851. It aims to provide facilities for investigation in the various de-
154 Public Libraries in the United States.
partments of theology. Works on scieuee, arts, and literature are to
some extent included, but only as they have relation to theological in-
struction.
Besides numerous small gifts of money and books, the library has
received two important benefactions. Soon after its establishment the
purchase, in Berlin, Germany, of the library of Dr. August iNTeander, the
celebrated church historian, was effected through the liberality of Hon.
Eoswell S. Burrows, of Albion, K Y. This library, specially rich in
patristics and in material for historical investigation, was obtained for
$3,000 in gold, a sum far beneath its real value.
In tiie early part of 1872, the gift of $25,000 by John M. Brace, of
YonkQrs, X. Y., placed the library upon an independent basis. The
yearly interest of this sum, amounting to $1,750, is devoted exclusively
to the purchase of books.
There are now about 10,000 volumes in the library. No catalogue has
been printed.
LANE THE0L0GK;AL seminary, CINCINNATI, OHIO.
The library dates from the opening of the seminary in 1829, and was for
several years a miscellaneous collection, mainly classics and text books,
given by friends as a nucleus. The first extensive purchase was made in
1836, in Europe, by Professor Stowe, who made an admirable selection
in every department of theological literature. In 1865 a gift of $10,000
was received from Rev. W. Van Vleck, of Cincinnati, an alumnus of
the seminary. About $6,000 of this amount were applied to the pur-
chase of b()ok>!, and the remainder added to the permanent library fund.
In 1868 the library of the late Rev. Thornton A. Mills, consisting of
about 800 volumes, was given by his widow; and in 1875 about 200 vol-
umes belonging to the library of the late Dr. T. E. Thomas, professor
in the seminary, were given by Mrs. Thomas. The present number of
volumes is 12,000.
The library has an invested fund of $9,600.
The Smith Library Hall was built in 1863, through the liberality of
Preserved Smith, of Dayton, Ohio.
MT. ST. MARY'S SEMINARY OF THE WEST, CINCINNATI, OHIO.
Mt. St. Mary's library was founded by the Most Rev. J. B. Pur-
cell, archbishop of Cincinnati, who gave a collection of books from his
own library as a nucleus. This collection was steadily increased by the
gifts of friends in this country and in Europe, and the library was be-
coming very valuable, when, in 1863, a tire in the seminary building
occasioned the loss of a great number of the books. In 1865 the founder
gave another collection of 5,000 volu.nes ; and receiving about the same
time a bequest of 4,80D volumes, valued at about $25,000 from the late
Very liuv. Father Collins, of Cincinnati, he transferred this also to the
seminary.
Theological Libraries. 155
The library now contains 15,100 volnmes and 4,000 pamphlets.
There is also a library of some 3,000 school books. About 2,500 volnmes
are in the ancient classical languages, and over 4,000 in modern Euro
pean languages. Among the old and rare works are the following printed
before or about 1500 ; Biblia Gerraanica, Cologne, 1468-'70; the Decre-
tum Gratiahi, Strassburg, 1472 ; and Nicholas de Lyra's Commentaries,
6 volumes, 1501.
The plan of catalogue is the same as that adopted for the Public
Library of Cincinnati.
WESTERN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,
ALLEGHENY, PA.
Soon after the establishment of the seminary at Allegheny in 1827,
the Eev. Allan D. Campbell, of that city, was commissioned to visit
Great Britain for the purpose of soliciting donations to the library, [u
response to his appeal, many valuable gifts of books were received.
The library of the Rev. T. Charlton Henry, of Charleston, S. C, rich
in biblical learning, was at his decease given to the seminary.
The Rev. Luther Halsey, D.D., professor in the seminary, has contri-
buted about 3,000 volumes to the library.
The liev. Charles C. Beatty, D. D., one of the earliest friends of the
seminary, and its most munificent patron, has from time to time given
costly works.
The library fund amounts to $5,000, the interest of which is available
for purchases.
The total number of volumes is about 15,000, well arranged in a new
building which is considered to be fire-proof.
CROZER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, CHESTER, PA.
The Bucknell Library, belonging to this seminary, derives its name
from William Bucknell, of Philadelphia, who, at the time of the organi-
zation of the seminary in 186S, gave $25,000 to be expended in books,
and afterwards built a handsome fire-proof building for their accom-
modation.
The fund has been nearly all used, according to the design of the
donor, leaving only enough to continue serial works and periodicals.
In the selection of this library the most scholarly care has been exer-
cised, and it has the very best works in each department represented.
It abounds in books which pre-eminently belong to great libraries, books
of the first importance, as the great Patristic Collections, the Thesauri,
the Talmudic Collections, the Documentary Collections of Councils. It
has the leading theological reviews of the various churches; among
them the very rare and valuable Altes und Neues : die Unschuldige
Nachrichten, complete in every respect, 1701-50; the Studien und Kriti
ken ; the Journal of Sacred Literature; and the Theologische JahrbUcher.
156 Public Libraries in the United States.
There are also the choice reviews of Oriental literature, the Jourual of
the German Oriental Society, 1847-72; of history, the Zeitschrift (iir
<jie historische Theologie, 1832-'73, 43 volumes, and many others. The
library is very rich in the collected works of theologians, and is particu-
larly strong in exegetic theology. The great fac-simile codices are
nearly all here, (the Vatican, Vercellone, and Oozza.) Here are also
the choicest editions of the Septuagint, (Rome, 1586;) Drigen's Hex-
apla; the Syriac New Testament, (Widmanstadt, 1555;) the Itala, in
the invaluable edition of Sabatier, 3 volumes, folio, Paris, 1751; and
the Gothic of TJlfilas. In sacred philology and the associated parts of
general philology, a good foundation has been laid. In works bearing
on the matter of the Bible, the library is well furnished. In system-
atic theology, symbolics, polemics, and apologetics, tbe works, though
not numerous, are well selected; and there are a number of the best
monographs on special doctrines. In no department is the library
stronger than in historical theology, and few libraries can compare with
it in the rich array of the works of the Fathers and of the mediaeval
divines. There is also a great deal of choice general literature, the
leading Greek and Roman classics, and many valuable books of general
reference. The bulk of the library consists of the works of standard
authors, and it is a library for scholarly research rather than a repos-
itory of popular books.
It numbers about 7,500 volumes.
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH,
GETTYSBURG, PA.
Soon after the establishment of the seminary, in 1826, tlie Rev. Benja-
min Kurtz was commissioned to visit Germany and solicit funds towards
its endowment, and gifts of books for its library. He procured several
thousand volumes, German and English, comprising many of the stand-
ard works in exegesis, dogmatics, ethics, homiletics, and ecclesiastical
history. A considerable number of English theological works were
added through the eflbrts of Rev. Dr. Sch mucker. About 1865 the
widow of Professor Theophilus Hartman presented 75 volumes. In 1869
the library of the late Rev. Dr. Krauth, 1,100 volumes, was added by
purchase. Several of the adjacent Lutheran synods have from time to
time contributed small sums for the purchase of books, but the library
has at no time had any fixed revenue, and is still very deficient in Eng-
lish theological literature.
The library at present numbers 11,000 volumes. For the past ten
years the additions have averaged 200 volumes annually.
No catalogue has been published. A card catalogue is in use.
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARS OF THE REFORMED (GERMAN) CHURCH,
LANCASTER, PA.
The seminary was opened in March, 1825, with a library of about 100
volumes. Shortly after, Rev. James R. Reily was seht to Europe to
Theological Libraries. 157
solicit gifts of money and books for the seminary. In many cities of
Holland, Germany, and Switzerland, he met with great success; 329
volumes were procured in Heidelberg; 311 in Berlin ; 150 iu Bremen ; 91
in Basle ; 90 in Amsterdam ; and the collection made in Leipzig was
valued at $700. Gifts of books were received iu other places, and many
valuable works were contributed by professors in the universities, not-
ably Sack, Nitzch, Liicke, Creutzer, Sheudel, Gesenius. Mr. Eeily also
received nearly $7,000 in money, of which he expended nearly $1,700
for books.
In 1863, when the Reformed Church celebrated the tercentenary of
the adoption of the Heidelberg Catechism, the seminary received lib-
eral gifts. Rev. D;'. Schaflf, then profej^sor in the institution, presented
a number of select works, valued at $500.
The library now numbers 10,000 volumes. It represents every de-
partment of theological science, though it is richest in exegetical and
historical works. There is a fund amounting to nearly $2,000, the inter-
est of which is expended for books, mainly by German authors.
MEA.DVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL, MEA.DVILLE, PA.
The library was founded in 1845, at the same time with the school, by
donations from the Church of All Souls and the Church of the Messiah,
New York, and from individuals living chietiy in New York and Boston.
The only fund for the increase of the lihi;ary, the interest of which is
$72, was given by A. Worthington, of Cincinnati.
The library contains 12,308 volumes. The annual accessions average
about 200 volumes. A card catalogue of authors and subjects is being
prepared.
Between 1845 and 1850 Joshua Brookes, of New York, placed in the
hands of the trustees $20,000, since increased by investment to $22,000,
the annual income of which is expended for theological works and their
distribution among western clergymen who make application for them.
About 2,000 volumes are thus distributed annually among some 200
clergymen. In this way 35,000 volumes of the best theological literature
have been given to western settled clergymen, irrespec ive of denomi-
nation.
DIVINITY SCHOOL OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, PHILA-
DELPHIA, PA.
The library of this school was established abaut 1865 by a gift of $3,000
from Charles Easton, of New York, furnishing a nucleus of 954 vol-
umes. It has been increased by the addition of the librai-ies of Rev. Dr.
JamesMay, 932 volumes; and the Rev. Dr. Turner, 874 volumes; by the
gift of the Fair Library, 1,177 volumes; by the joint gift of J. D. Wolfe
and Bishop Alonzo Potter, 1,306 volumes; by the gift of William Apple-
ton, of Boston, 708 volumes; and by sundry other gifts and purchases.
158 Public Libraries in the United States.
The library at ])resent number-; about 6,578 volumes. There is a library
fund yielding $180 a year, part of which is expended under the direc-
tion of a committee and the remainder allowed to accumulate.
SEMINARY OF ST. CHARLES BORROMEO, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
The library of this Roman Catholic college comprises about 9,500 vol-
umes, mostly theological. The classification is as follows : Dogmatic
and moral theology; Sacred Scripture: Canon law; The Fathers; Eccle-
siastical history ; Profane history; Liturgy; Greek and Latin classics;
Scientific works ; Ascetical writers ; Biography ; English literature ;
Catholic periodicals; Dictionaries and public documents.
The theological works are selected to meet the needs of students pre-
paring for holy orders.
VILLANOVA COLLEGE, VILLANOVA, PA.
There are two libraries in this college, one belonging to the monastery,
and devoted exclusively to the use of the professors and members of the
community, the other belonging to the college proper, and altogether
for the students.
The monastery library was founded in 1842, by the Very Rev. Dr.
Moriarty, O. S. A., from donations of books, pamphlets, and manuscripts,
by the fathers of St. Augustine's Church, Philadelphia, and by other
members of the Augustinian Order in the United States.
This library contains 5,000 volumes, 1,000 pamphlets, and 300 manu-
scripts. The value of the annual additions averages about $200. The
collection is chiefly of a theological character. It occupies a large
room in the monastery building, and is accessible at all times to pro-
fessors and members of the community. There is also a college or
students' library, dating from 1846. of a more general character, con-
taining about 3,000 volumes.
PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, COLUMBIA, S. C.
The seminary was founded in 1829, and the first grant for the library
was then made. In 1855 it numbered 5,487 volumes. In that year the
library of the Rev. Dr. Thomas Smyth, of Charleston, containing over
12,000 volumes, collected principally in Europe, was bought for the
seminary.
Besides gifts of books, from $28,000 to $30,000 have been raised by
subscription, and expended for the library. There was, at one time, a
small invested fund, but this, with the greater part of the endowment,
was lost during the late war.
The library now contains 18*,884 volumes. The average yearly in-
crease is about 150 volumes. There is no printed catalogue, but one in
manuscript, arranged alphabetically by authors.
Theological Libraries.
159
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
NEAR ALEXANDRIA, \A.
This library, begua in 1823, has now more than 10,000 volumes and
3,000 pamphlets. It has received, by gift, the libraries of several clergy-
men, and a bequest of $10,000 from one of its alumni. Its character is
purely theological.
Among its old and rare books are the second edition of Fox's Book
of Martyrs, 1586 ; Baxter's Saint's Rest, edition of 1057 ; Antwerp Poly-
glot, 8 volumes: Speculum Historiale of John Menklin, 1473, a large
folio in fine preservation; Peter Martyr's Works, first edition, and
King James's Bible, Barker's first edition, of 1611. It also has a goat-
skin manuscript of great antiquity, from Cairo, Egypt.
IV.— TABLE OF THE PRINCIPAL THEOLOGICAL LIBRARIES.
For further information respecting these and other theological libra-
ries, see the general table of statistics elsewhere iu this report.
Place.
Name.
"3
|i
a
1S71
1834
1855
1870
1869
1855
1859
1853
18-20
1791
1868
1869
1807
1860
1825
1826
1860
1867
1784
1821
1821
1858
1820
1836
1851
1«64
5,000
7,000
16, 000
New Haven
Theological Department of Yale College
2,000
13, 000
5,'500
Ohicago
Presbyterian Theological Seminary of the
Northwest.
Danville Theolcical Seminary
8,000
10, 000
15,000
Kentucky Danville
Mainr"! Pangnr ,
Bangor Theological Seminary
Maryland Baltimore
Ilchester
St. Mary's Theological Seminary of St. Siilpice..
Mt St Clement's College
15, 000
9 OCO
Woodatock ..
Woodstock CoUerre
18 000
34, 000
Boston
General Theoloi^ical Library .. . .
12 000
17, 000
13, 000
Minnesota Faribaolt
Seabury Divinity College
5,003
10, 875
New Brunswick . . .
Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church. .
Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church
26, 000
New York Auburn
10, 000
5,600
Canton .-. ...
Theological Department St. Lawrence University
General Theological Seminary of the Protestant
Episcopal Church.
New York
15 400
New York
34, 000
Kochester
Rochester Theological Seminary
10 000
Troy
St. Joseph's Provincial Seminary
8,000
160
Public Libraries in the United States.
Place.
Name.
.S
bO
1
i
if
2
Ohio
. . . Carthagena
Theological Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo ..
1864
1829
1849
1826
1794
1827
1826
1825
1840
1845
18C5
1868
1842
1829
1869
1823
1825
1842
5,000
12, 000
Theological Seminary of the Diocese of Ohio ....
United Presbyterian Theological Seminary
"Western Theological Seminary of the Presbyte-
rian Church.
Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Lu-
theran Church.
Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church..
Philadelphia Theological Seminary of St. Charles
Borromeo.
Meadville Theoloo-ical School
7,000
5,000
Peunsylvauia .
...Allegheny City....
Getty sburgh
15, 000
11,000
10, 000
Lower Merlon .....
Meadville
9,500
12, 308
6,578
7,500
Philadelphia
Upland
Philadelphia Divinity School of the Protestant
Episcopal Church.
Buckuell Library of Crozer Theological Seminary
Monastery Library of Villanova College
Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church
Southern Bapti.st Theological Seminary
Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episco-
pal Church.
Villanova.
5,000
18, 884
5,000
Virginia
. .Near Alexandria. . .
Hampden-Sidney . . .
..Nashotah Mission..
10, 000
10, 000
6 000
CHAPTER V.
LAW LIBRARIES.
BY STEPHEJf B. GRISWOLD, LL,. B.,
Librarian of the Law Department of the New York State Library.
I.— LAW LIBRAEIES.
Bkitish and American reports — State and county libraries — Law associ-
ations — Libraries of schools of law — Some notable collections.
It is not probably well known, outside of the legal profession, that
the entire body of municipal law which governs and regulates society
is contained in printed books. To these books, the bench and the bar
must constantly refer in the discharge of their respective duties; a fact
which goes far to corroborate the statement of Voltaire, that "books
rule the whole civilized world."
The multiplication of law books has been so rapid of late years, that
few lawyers, iu<leed, can procure by their own private resources all that
they need for their iuvestigations. And this multiplication has corres-
pondingly increased the number of volumes which it is necessary for
every member of the profession who would be thorough and accurate
in the discharge of his professional duties to consult. Hence public
law libraries have become indispensable in the administration of justice.
While a law library has narrower aims and a more specific character
than a library of general literature, and although its collection apper-
tains to the subject of jurisprudence only, yet the publications upon
this subject have become so numerous and expensive as to place it be-
yond the uieans of any, except State libraries and those of associations
in the larger cities, to approach comijleteness. This is shown, when we
consider the least number of volumes which a law library must have in
order to claim for itself any fair degree of fullness.
Law books may be classified generally as follows: Reports; Treatises;
Statute Law. The practice of reporting the decisions of the judges
began in the reign of Edward I, and from that time we have a series of
judicial reports of those decisions. In the time of Lord Bacon, these
reports extended to fifty or sixty volumes. During the two hundred
and tilty years that have passed since then, nothing has been done by
way of revision or expurgation; but these publications have been con-
stantly increasing, so tliat, at the close of the year 1874, the published
volumes of reports were as follows: English, 1,350 volumes; Irish, 175
volumes; Scotch, 225 volumes; Canadian, 135 volumes; American, 2,400
volumes.^ With respect to treatises (including law periodica's and
'This rapid multiplication of the reports has claimed the atteution of the British
bar at various times in the past century, but no concerted action was taken for check-
11 E
162 Piiblic Libraries hi the United States.
digests,) and without including' more than one edition of the same work,
it is safe to say that a fair collection would embrace at least 2,000 vol-
umes. The statute law of England, Ireland, and Scotland is contained
in about 100 volumes. The statute law of the United States, if confined
to the general or revised statutes and codes, may be brought within 100
volumes. It, however, the sessional acts be included, the collec-tion would
amount to over 1,500 volumes. It is thus seen that a fairly complete
law library would embrace more than 7,000 volumes, which could not
be placed upon its shelves for less than $50,000.
The foregoing list does not include books which relate to the Roman
law, as received and adopted in continental Europe. It has long been
a comi)laint in France that the reports of decisions encumber the law
libraries. In the catalogue of M. Camus, annexed to his Lettres sur
la Profession d'Avocat, edition of 1772, the titles of nearly 2,000 vol-
umes of select books for a lawyer's library are given, and not one of
them had an3' reference to the English statute or common law. The
addition of foreign law to the list would increase the total number of
volumes to about 10,000.
The expenditure necessary for the purchase simply of the annual law
publications of the English and American press is so great that but few
members of the profession and only the stronger libraries are able to
keep up with the printing press in this regard. During the year 1874,
there were published of reports as follows: English, Irish, Scotch, and
Canadian, 22 volumes; American, 82 volumes; besides some 20 volumes
of law periodicals, containing reports of cases not elsewhere reported,
and several volumes of collected cases with valuable notes. There were
also published of new treatises and new editions of old ones, English
and American, upwards of 80 volumes; together with many volumes of
digests, hand books, and works relating to the literature of the law,
amounting in all to over 200 volumes, which would cost, at a low esti-
mate, over $1,000.
ing the evil until December, 1863, when, at a meeting of the bar of England, a com-
mittee was appointed to consider plans of reform in the methods of law reporting. At
that time there were in England, besides weekly serials, fourteen independent series
of law reports. The profession was also embarrassed by the custom prevailing among
judges of delivering oral opinions; so that the reporters acted not only as editors and
digesters, but actually reported the words which fell from the lips of the court. The
committee recommended that a set of reports should be prepared and published under
the management of a council represeutiug the whole bar. The recommendation was
favorably received, and since the year 1866 the English reports have beeu published in
a single series, under the supervision of the Council of Law Reportiug.
The system of law reportiug in New York has of late years beeu the subject of severe
criticism on the part of the profession, aud in March, 1873, a committee was appointed
by the Bar Association of the City of New York to prepare a plau of amendment. In
this report the committee says : " From the year 1794 to 1873, a period of seventj--nioe
years, there were published in the State of New York alous 400 volumes of reports, more
than one-third of the reports of Great Britain for five hunrlred and sixty-five years." —
Editohs.
Law Lihraries. 1.-63
A word at this point on the subject of the publication and sale of law re-
ports may not be inappropriate. If there is any one thing more tlian an-
other that has become burdensome to the profession, it is the rai)id multi-
plication of these publications and their increased price. If Lord Bacon in
his time, with only sixty volumes of reports then published, felt the burden
to be so great as to lead him to propose to King James I to compile a digest
of the laws of England, " and that these books should be purged and re-
vised, whereby they may be reduced to fewer volumes and clearer resolu-
tions," what shall be said of the grievance of the profession at the present
day with upwards of 4,000 volumes in existence. The number of pages
of reported cases in the English and American courts issued yearly is
not less than 70,000. Add to these the yearly volumes of statute law
and treatises and it is obviously only a problem of arithmetic to dis-
cover the time when the walls even of our public libraries will no longer
afford space for the load, and when some means must be adopted to
compress or abridge the contents of these thousands of volumes. The
rapid accumulation of case-law may be somewhat checked by a wise
discretion on the part of the reporters. In many of our American
reports, if the irrelevant matter were stricken out, arguments abridged,
and repetitions expunged, the size of the vohimes would be reduced
more than one-third; while others are prepared with a discrimination
that is commendable. Just what and how reporters should report,
may be difficult to state. If, however, they would follow more closely
the quaint counsel of Sidney Smith, perhaps there would be fewer and
better reports. His advice was, "to think upon Noah and the ark, and
be brief. The ark should constantly remind him of the little time there
is left for reading; and he should learn as they did in the ark to crowd
a great deal of matter into a very little space." A writer has well said
that "it is as true in law literature, in fact in all literature, as it is in
nuance, that much paper and poverty may co-exist." Each State
should own the copyright in its judicial reports, and prevent any
monopoly in their publication. The people should be supplied with the
decisions of the courts at reasonable rates. The prices of the current
volumes of the American reports vary from $1.10 to $10 a volume.
While the reports of the New York Court of Appeals are sold at the
former, those of Louisiana sell at the latter rate. The Ohio State
reports are sold at $2.50, l;hose of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and
Indiana at $4.50; the reports of the United States courts and of
the several States, (other than those named,) sell at prices ranging from
$4.50 to $8 a volume. The whole American bar is interested in the
question of what makes this difference. It is one, however, that has
been very clearly answered by Mr. W. S. Scarborough, of Cincinnati, in
the following words:
In Ohio, the reporter is a salaried officer, aud hence the reports are the property of
the State, and are copyrighted, though in the name of the reporter, in favor of the
State. The same is true of the reporter and the reports of the Court of Appeals of the
State of New York. Those reports are, in terms, entered for copyright "in trust for
164 Public Libraries in the United States.
the benefit of the people of the State." In the highest courts of the other States, and
in the Supreme Conrf of the United States, the reporter has either no salary or one
admitted to be insufficient, and, under whatever limitations the legislature may choose
to subject him, he gets his pay out of the reports. In all cases, before publication, he
obtains a copyright in favor either of himself or his publisher. He never electrotypes
or stereotypes, and is favorable to small editious. He knows that a certain, though
limited, number of volumes will sell quickly, almost irrespective of price, and he gov-
erns himself accordingly. Quite a portion of his edition is taken under some act or
joint resolution, possibly of his own devising, at enormo«s rates, for the supply of State
and Governme nt officials. Most of the copies so distributed, if not sold directly or
indirectly to the profession by the recipients, are sure to be wasted and speedily to
disappear ; and in a few years the reports are out of pritit, and the reporter is at leugth
induced, with apparent reluctance, and upon the payment to him of a considerable
bonus, to get out another edition.
A public law library may be defined as one which is accessible, either
without restriction, or upon conditions with which all can easily comply,
to every person who wishes to use it for its appropriate purposes. Un-
der this definition the public law libraries of the United States may
be divided into those of the State, county, association, and school. It
may be proper to ad<l, however, that besides the libraries included in
the foregoing classification, there are many of a quasi public character^
in the possession of the United States district courts and several State
courts and judges, which are maintained at the public charge and for
public uses, but are accessible only to their immediate custodians.
STATE LIBRARIES.
Each State in the Union has a public library, located at the seat of
government, maintained at the public charge and primarily for the use
of members of the legislature, State officers, the courts and the bar. In
most of the States, the collection of law books forms a department of
the State library; in a few cases, however, the law books are contained
in a separate library, called the Supreme Court Library. These libraries,
by reason of their situation and public maintenance, have demands made
upon them that others do not have. 'The controlling purpose of these
libraries should be to obtain a collection of such books as may directly
assist the legislature. State officers, and the courts to an intelligent dis-
charge of their public trusts. They should be sufficiently full to enable
the bench and the bar to verify all the authorities cited io the reports
and freatises, and furnish the means of tracing the progress of jurispru-
dence. In short, they should be as complete as it is possible to make
them.
The reports and statutes of the State in which they are situated should
doubtless be among the earliest purchases. Following these, the reports
of the United States courts should be obtained. There is some differ-
ence of opinion as to whether the re[)orts of the several States, or the
reports of the courts of England and Ireland, should rank next in order
of purchase. If, however, the decision is to turn upon the measure of
use of the volumes, preference must be given to the latter. The Scotch
Laiv Libraries. 165
and Canadian reports are also needed to complete this most essential de-
partment. The principal law magazines and treatises in American and
En_glish law, tlie best editions of the Roman or civil law, together with
the most celebrated commentaries thereon, and a selection of the lead-
ing works relating to the commercial law of continental Europe, should
be found upon the shelves of these libraries. The statutes df the United
States and of the several States, and of G-reat Britain, are also highly
important. State papers constitute a most valuable acquisition to
these libraries. Under this head may be comprised the legislative
journals and documents published by the State and United States gov-
ernments, congressional debates, the debates of constitutional con-
ventions, and the proceedings of other important political bodies, includ-
ing the parliamentary debates, journals, and documents of Great Brit-
ain and Canada. The state papers of the State and Uuited States gov-
ernments and Canada, form a collection of ov^er 6,000 volumes, aud those
of Great Britain, 2,500 volumes. These publications are directly useful,
and many of them quite necessary to economical and enlightened legis-
lation, and a proper administration of the government. The recorded
investigations and experience of the past, if accessible, supersede the
necessity of re-investigation and suggest important lessons for the guid-
ance of the legislator of the present day.
Pains should be taken to collect the ephemera of jurisprudence. Among
these may be mentioned civil and criminal trials, reviews of cases,
arguments, opinions, essays upon law reform, and tracts upon a variety
of subjects relating to the literature of the law.
With reference to completeness, several of the State libraries already
take high rank. In the department of reports, the libraries of New Yqrk,
California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Iowa are undoubtedly the
most complete, while the largest collections of statute law and Statrt
papers exist in those of Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York. The
matter of supplying deficiencies in reports and statutes has engaged
the attention of several of the* States under special grants there-
for, as follows ; Kansas, 1871 and 1872, $5,000; Indiana, 1871, $6,500 ;
Michigan, 1873, $5,C00; New York, 1871, $1,500; Rhode Island, 1875,
$1,500; Wisconsin, 1875, $3,500; California paid, in coin, the sum of
$14,500 for law books in 1869; and Iowa completed the English, Irish,
and Scotch reports in 1871 and 1872, at a cost of several thousand dol-
lars. The States of Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are
also engaged in like efforts, though under more limited grants. The
tendency among the States at the present time is to increase the yearly
grant to their respective libraries. It is believed that this tendency
exists in the case of every State except the State of Tennessee, which,
by a recent act, has reduced the yearly grant to her library from $2,500
to $500.
Books are received into the State libraries from three sources, namely,
(1) by purchase, (2) by donation, and (3) by exchange. In respect to the
166 Public Libraries in the United States.
latter source, these libraries enjoy an advantage over all others. The
system of inter-State exchanges is established upon a most reliable basis,
viz, that of the publications of the States themselves; and these ex-
changes have never been more regular and complete than at the present
time. From this source the State library is supplied with the reports,
statutes, and state papers of each of the several States and of Canada,
and with the statutes and state papers of the United States ; and, in
return, furnishes these governments, for their libraries, with the like
publications of its own government. Each State library receives about
450 volumes yearly from this source.
In order, however, that libraries may reap full benefits from this sys-
tem, great vigilance must be exercised by those in charge. Upon this
point the remarks of Mr. White, State librarian of Massachusetts, in his
report for 1873, are most pertinent. He says :
As our States and Territories multiply, and as practiced ofificials are, through politi-
cal changes, often superseded in office by inexperienced substitutes, not knowing or not
regarding their duty in this respect, it requires constant watchfulness and frequent
correspondence to prevent our series of State publications from failing of completeness.
The deficiency becomes almost hopeless, if such publications are not obtained soon
after issued, as the supply becoming soon exhausted by a free distribution, the volumes
needed to keep sets complete cannot be furnished without difficulty.
Too much stress cannot be laid upon the importance of securing the
law reports at an early day after their publication. Delay in purchas-
ing not only increases the difficulty of obtaining them, but their price
almost invariably advances with time ; indeed, as a general rule, the
best time to purchase a volume of reports, new or old, so far as price is
concerned, is the present, and, if possible, before there has been such a
lapse of time as would compel an order to be answered by the phrase
" out of print." They belong to a class of books whose purchase can-
not be long delayed and the character of the library sustained. The
courts and the profession look for every volume of reports at the e.ir-
liest day after its publication. Xew treatises and new editions of old
ones that are standard in their character are also.imperatively demanded.
There can be no delay, for every new decision is of immediate applica-
tion. To this demand, entirely reasonable, the authorities of every
library should respond to the extent of their power.
COUNTY LIBRARIES.
In nearly all, if not all the States, provision is made by law for the
distribution of the reports, statutes, and state papers of the State to
each of the counties therein, which, together with such books as are
purchased by means of small grants from the county treasury, by
order of the board of supervisors or of the county court, form what may
be called a county law library, of which the county clerk is the custo-
dian. This library is at the county seat, and exists for the use of
county officers and the courts. These libraries cannot be expected to
have a complete set of English and American reports and statutes, nor
Law Libraries. 167
any very considerable number of text books. A complete set of the re-
ports, statutes, and state papers of the State in which they are situated,
with a few volumes of such treatises as are ordinarily used at nisi prius,
will suflficiently meet the purposes of their establishment. To this ex-
tent these libraries should aim to be complete, and in some of the States
they have reached this standard.^
LAW ASSOCIATION LIBEARIES,
By reason of the rapid multiplication of law books, public law libra-
ries have become a necessity. For the purpose of establishing and
maintaining such libraries, associations have been formed in many cities.
Keturns have been received from about thirty of these libraries, show-
ing collections ranging from a few hundred to 20,000 volumes each.
They are strictly reference libraries, with few exceptions, and are free
to members of their respective associations, and also by courtesy to the
bench. So far as the bench and the bar are concerned, the object of
these libraries, especially in the larger cities, is identical with that of
the State libraries, and the same classes of books should be found upon
their shelves, with the exception of State papers and session laws. The
general statutes and codes of the several States, however, are impor-
tant and should be secured.
Several of these libraries are quite cx)mplete in their collections of re-
ports and treatises. Among others the following may be mentioned as
possessing very full collections: Library of the New York Law Insti-
tute, Social Law Library of Boston, Library of the Law Association of
St. Louis, Library of the Law Association of Philadelphia, Cincinnati
Law Library, Library of the Baltimore Bar, and the Library of the Bar
Association of the City of New York. It is believed that it would be
diflBcult to find a citation illustrative of the common law in any Eng-
lish or American law book which any one of the libraries named could
not fnrnish the means of verifying.
1 In Massachusetts, county law libraries, to be accessible and free to all the inhabit-
ants of the several counties, were created by the act of March, 1H42, -which consti-
tuted the counselors and attorneys of each county a corporation for the purpose of
holding and managing said libraries under the general direction of the justices of the
court of common pleas. By act of 1^63, amendatory of act of 1859, the county com-
missioners of the several counties are required to grant for the county library
the entire amount received from clerk's fees, provided the same does not exceed $400
a year; if the fees exceed that sum one-fourth of the surplus is to be so allotted,
but the whole grant shall not exceed $1,0C0 a year, except in the discretion of the com-
missioners, who may make additional grants in accordance with the act of 1859.
The law does not apply to the county of Suftblk.
Imperfect reports from a few States of this class of libraries show that seventy-four
of the libraries contained 66,600 volumes, ranging from 200 to 4,000 volumes, and mak-
ing an average of 900 volumes each. In Illinois, according to the report of the super-
intendent of public instruction for 1870, there were nearly 19,000 volumes in the court
libraries. — Editors.
168 Public Libraries in the United States.
LIBRARIES OF LAW SCHOOLS.
Of thirty eight law scliools in the United States, twenty-one are in
the possession of libraries ranging from 300 to 15,000 -volumes each.
The largest and most important library under this head is that of the
Law School of Harvard University, which was begun by the purchase
of the valuable collection of Mr. Justice Story, and has received from
time to time large accessions from private contributors. Perhaps no
library in this country has such a rich collection of works on early
Eoman law and the commercial law of continental Europe as this.
Next in size and completeness is the library of the Law School of
Yale College, which numbers 8,000 volumes. This library contains full
sets of American, English, and Irish reports, and many valuable works
in jurisprudence and international law.
While it would be well for these libraries to have a complete set of
the English and American reports, very few of the schools can afford
the expense of procuring and maintaining a library upon so broad a
foundation. Doubtless their object will be fairly met, if they contain
the reports of the State in which they are situated, those of the Su-
preme Court of the United States, and a selection of the principal
treatises upon American and English law.
A review of the catalogues of the law libraries of those countries
■which have adopted the common law, shows that no one is so rich in
collections of books that appertain strictly to the law as our own.
While the English libraries have, perhaps, more books relating to the
early Eoman law, and more of the earlier treatises upon the common
law^ than the American, yet, in the department of reports, the Ameri-
can libraries far exceed the English. A complete series of the English,
Irish, and Scotch reports may, indeed, be found upon the shelves of
several, if not all, of the public law libraries of England ; but not one,
not even the British Museum, has a complete set of the American
reports. In this country, however, as has been shown, several libraries,
State and association, have complete sets of the English, Irish, Scotch,
and American reports, numbering more than 4,000 volumes. Again,
the English libraries have comparatively few of the American treatises,
and are very meagre in American statute law, while the American
libraries have very full collections in these departments, and all of the
principal English treatises, together with a complete collection of Eng-
lish statutes.
Some of the English libraries have been centuries in accumulating
their treasures. The library of Lincoln's Inn, of London, is the oldest
library in the metropolis, and dates its beginning from the year 1497 ;
that of the Middle Temple was founded in 1641, and the library of the
Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh was established in 1G80. Our
American law libraries are a product of the present century. Very
few have had an existence of over fifty years.
The enterprise that has characterized our national growth has been in
Law Lihrari
les.
169
no department more manifest than in that of our libraries. Pnblic treas-
ure, as well as private munificence, has contributed to make them what
they are. While a lack of means is the obstacle universally encoun-
tered by those who have the growth of libraries in charge, still there is
such a general sense of their value, on the part both of the authorities
and of the profession, as cannot fail to insure .their progress.
Principal law libraries in the United States, not including those of the General Government.
Name of library.
Alabama Mobile Law Association
California Sacramento. .. Supreme Court
San Francisco Law Association
Connecticut New Haven Law School of Tale College
Illinois Bloomington Law Department Illinois Wesleyan University'.
Chicago. , Chicago Law Institute
Jacksonville Morgan Connty
Mount Vernon Supreme Court, southern grand division
Ottawa Supreme Court, northern grand division
Springfield Supreme Court, central grand division
Kansas Leavenworth Law Association
Kentucky Lexington Law College, Kentucky University.
Louisville Louisville Bar
Louisiana New Orleans , Law Association
Maine Alfred York County Bar Association
Maryland Baltimore Baltimore Bar
Massachusetts. . Boston Social Law Library
Cambridge Harvard University Law School
Middlesex Middlesex County
Pittsfield Berkshire Law Association
Salem Essex County
Worcester Worcester County Law Association
Michigan Ann Arbor University of Michigan, Law Department
Detroit Detroit Bar
Missouri Kansas City i Bar Association
St. Joseph ; Bar Association
St. Louis I Bar A.ssociation
St. Louis . . St. Louis Law School
New York Albany j Attorney General's Office
Albany Court of Appeals
Belmont : Allegany County
Brooklyn : Bar As.sociation
Buffalo j Supreme Court, eighth judicial district
Clinton I Hamilton College Law School
Monticello ' Sullivan County
New York j Bar Association
New York ! Columbia College Law School
New York I Law Institute *. .
New York Supreme Court, first department, first judicial
I district.
Rochester ; Court of Appeals
1869
1868
18-15
1874
1857
1874
1849
1837
1866
1865
1850
1855
170 Public Libraries in the United States.
Prineipal law libraries in the United States, 4'C. — Continued.
Name of library.
New York Schenectady Fourth j iidicial district .
Syracuse | Court of Appeals
Ohio Cincinnati . . .
Cleveland
Pennsylvania .
.Harrisburgh.
Lancaster
Philadelphia .
Pottsville
.Providence ..
Khode Island
Texas Tyler .
Bar Association
Ohio State and Union Law College .
Dauphin Countj-
Law Association
Law Association
Schuylkill County
State Law Library
Supreme Court
1866
2.500
1849
8,500
1847
6,329
18.')6
3,000
1805
2,191
1854
4,700
1802
8, 500
1861
2,000
1868
5,000
1853
3,000
CHAPTER VI.
MEDICAL LIBRARIES IN THE UNITED STATES.
BY J. S. BILLINGS,
Assistant Surfjeon United Statis Army.
Extent of Medical Litkkatuke — Several important collections — Cata-
loguing AND INDEXING— Medical periodical literature — Theses and inau-
gural addresses —Forming a medical library— Arrangement of pamphlets —
Necessary woijks of reference.
It is proposed in the following sketch to give some account of the
resources available to the medical scholar and writer in the United States
in the way of libraries which have been formed with reference to his
special wants, and to make some remarks on the formation and care of
such collections.
Comparatively i^w persons have any idea of the amount of medical
literature in existence, or of its proper use and true value, and the result
is that the same ground is traversed over and over again. Cases are re-
ported as unique and inexplicable which, when compared with accounts
of others buried in obscure periodicals or collections of observations,
fall into their proper place and both receive and give explanation. Old
theories and hyi)otheses, evolved from the depths of the inner conscious-
ness of men too zealous or too indolent to undergo the labor of examin-
ing the works of their predecessors, re-appear, and are re-exploded with
the regular periodicity of organic life; and even when literary research
is attempted, it is too often either for controversial purposes, to serve
the ends of prejudiced criticism, or to support a charge of plagiarism?
or else for thei purpose of o btaining a goodly array of foot-notes, which
shall imply that the subject is exhausted, and give a flavor of erudition
to the work. This state of thi ngs is by no means peculiar to medicine,
but its literature is certainly an excellent illustration of the maxim "The
thing which has been is that which shall be, and there is no new thing
under the sun."
The record of the researches, experiences, and speculations relating
to medical science during the last four hundred years is contained in be-
tween two and three hundred thousand volumes and pamphlets; and
while the immense majority of these have little or nothing of what we
call ''practical value," yet there is no one of them which would not be
called for b}" some inquirer if he knew of its existence.
Hence, it is desirable, in this branch of literature, as in others, that in
each country there should be at least one collection embracing every-
172 Public Libraries in the United States.
thing that is too costly, too ephemeral, or of too little interest to be ob-
tained and preserved in private libraries.
When the great work of Mr. Caxton, the History of Human Error, is
written, the medical section will be among the most instructive and im-
portant, and also that for which it will be most difficult to obtain the
data.
There are a number of valuable private medical libraries in this coun-
try of from four to ten thousand volumes each. Having been collected
for the most part with reference to some special subject or department,
they are the more valuable on that account. The majority of the med-
ical schools also have libraries of greater or less value to the student.
The collections relating to medicine and the cognate sciences, which
are available to the public and are of sufficient interest to require no-
tice in this connection, are those of Boston, Philadelphia, New York,
Cincinnati, and Washington. No one of these indeed approaches com-
pleteness, but each supplements the other to such an extent that it sel-
dom happens that bibliographical inquiries cannot be answered by
referring to them in succession.
MEDICAL LIBRARIES IN BOSTON.
The principal medical collection in Boston is that of the Boston Pub-
lic Library, which now comi)risesabout 11,000 v^olumes,for theraostpart
standard works anci periodicals, the latter containing files of the princi-
pal American and foreign publications. There is no separate printed
catalogue of the medical section nor of any of the medical libraries
of Boston, which fact much impairs their practical usefulness.
The Boston Athenaeum has about 5,000 volumes of medical works.
The Bostoji Society for Medical Improvement has 1,000 volumes of
bound periodicals. The Treadwell Medical Library at the Massachu-
setts General Hospital contains about 3,542 volumes. Harvard Univer-
sity Library, including the library of the medical school, has between
5,000 and 6,000 volumes of medicine, including some of much raiity and
value.
A collection which gives promise of much usefulness is that of the
Boston Medical Library Association, which, although only about a year
old, already contains about 3,000 volumes and receives the most impor-
ant medical periodicals.
If the resources of Boston and vicinity in the way of medical litera-
ture available to the student could be shown by a good catalogue indi-
cating where each of the several works may be found, the practical
working value of the collections would be greatly enhanced. The diffi-
culties in the way of accomplishing such a desirable result, although
great, do not appear to be at all insuperable, and might be readily
overcome by the conjoint action of the medical societies and of the
libraries interested. The same remark will apply to the medical col-
lections of New York and Philadelphia. _
'For statistics of the princii>al librai'ies of medical schools and societies, see table
at the end of this article. — Editous.
Medical Lihraries. 173
MEDICAL LIBRARIES IN NEW. YORK.
The librar}' of the New York Hospital is the oldest and largest col-
lectiou ill the city, and now contains about 10,000 volumes. It is well
housed in a building which although not fire proof is comparativel}^ so.
The books are conveniently arranged, and there is room for twice the
present number. It receives about 100 current periodicals, but with
this exception does not contain much recent literature. An alphabet-
ical catalogue of authors was published in 1845 ; three supplement-
ary catalogues have since been |)rinted, and a fourth is now in the
press. The one jjublished in 1865 is a list of the donation of Dr. John
Walson, consisting of 481 volumes of rare and valuable books. This
library is for consultation and reference only, as no books are loaned,
and is open daily, except Sunday, from 9 a. m. to 10 p. in.
The collection of the New York Medical Library and Journal Associa-
tion now contains about 3,500 volumes, and is mtiinly valuable for its
collf'ction of periodical literature. It receives about 95 current journals.
No catalogue of this collection has been i)ni)ted.
The Mott Memorial Library is free and numbers 4,700 volumes.'
The Academy of Medioine of New York City has recently taken steps
to purchase a building, with the intention of forming a library which
shall meet the requirements of so important a medical centre as New
York, and valuable aid to this end from private collections is promised,
notably from tlie library of Dr. S. S. Purple, which is remaT-kably com-
plete in American medical periodicals and in early Americ.m medical
literatAire. A large, well appointed, and well sustained medical library
is much needed in the city of New York, and it is to be hoped that the
eftbrt referred to will be crowned with success. The library at present
numbers 3,000 volumes.^
MEDICAL LIBRARIES IN PHILADELPHIA.
The medical libraries of Philadelphia are large and valuable, and an
'This library was founded by the widow of the eihinent surgeon, Valentine Mott,
M. D., and is free for consultation and study to medical students and members of the
profession. Additions to the collection are made annually by Mrs. Mott and her son;
the latter manages its affairs. It has no permanent fund for its increase.— Editors.
^ The Medico-Legal Society of New York, organized in November, 1872, began in
1873 the formation of a special library. The following is taken fiom a ciicular prb-
lished by the president of the society in October, 1875 :
"The Medico-Legal Society of New York has voluntarily assumed the labor of
organizing and maintaining a complete library of all accessible works upon medical
jurisprudence — especially in the English, French, and German tongues.
"There is not at the present time any notable collection of such works in the United
States. The great law libraries in the city and State of New York, and indeed in the
United States, have only a few standard works of this character, and there is no reason
to suppose any change is likely to occur presently in this regard. The medical libraries
of the nation are nearly as poor as are the law libraries in works upon medical juris-
prudence.
" The society, by a general resolution unanimously adopted, voluntarily assumed the
174 Public Libraries in tJie United States.
interesting account of tbeir history and condition is given by Dr. Rich-
ard Diinglison.'
The library of the College of Physicians has received large additions
within the last few years, and is now the most valuable working collec-
tion in the country, with the exception of that in Washington. It
numbers more than 19,000 volumes, re(!eives about 80 current journals,
and is rich in the early medical literature of this country. It is a ref-
erence and consultation library to the public, and loans books to the
members of the college. It is much to be regretted that it has no printed
catalogue nor a catalogue of subjects in any form. It has about 5,000
volumes of medical journals.
The Library of the Pennsylvania Hospital, numbering 12,500 volumes,
is the oldest medical collection in this country, having been begun in
1763. The last printed catalogue, issued in 1857, is a classed catalogue
with an index of authors, on the plan of the catalogue of the Library of
the Medical Society of Edinburgh, and is a valual)le work for reference,
which should be in every public medical library. A supplement to it
was issued in 1867.
According to Dr. Dnnglison, there is a remarkable absence of dupli-
cation between this collection and that of the College of Physicians, and
together they well represent the early medical literature of this country,
especially of Philadelphia imprints.
Since the Medical Department of the University of Pennsslvania has
occupied its new buildings in West Philadelphia, a valuable foundation
for a medical library, consisting of about 3,000 volumes, has been pre-
sented to it by Dr. Alfred Stille, provost of the university.^
MEDICAL LIBRARIES IN CINCINNATL
In Cincinnati there is a small but valuable collection of medical books
at the City Hospital. The Mussey Medical and Scientific Library coii-
obligation on the part of each of its members, of contributing one volume per annum
to this library. A membership, which has grown from a small list to upwards of four
hundred iu three years, and which bids fair to be the strongest, numerically, of any of
the kindred societies, makes this means alone likely, iu time, to furuish a collection of
great value. Liberal contributions of money have also been made by individual mem-
bers, which have been invested iu volumes, obtained by correspondence with all the
dealers and most of the librarians of such works throughout the world.
"A catalogue of the names of all works ever published on these subjects is in course
of preparation by mt-mbers of the societj', and is now far advanced towards comple-
tion."
Tiie annual reports of the society show that up to November, 187.5, the contributions
to the library bad been- :i'JO bound volumes, 121 pamphlets, besides $498 for the pur-
chase of books. — Editoks.
Thiladelphia Medical Times. Reprinted, 4G pp. 8"=. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott
& Co., 1871.
2 This library is thus characterized by the generous donor :
"The collection comprises upwards of 3,000 volumes, including a considerable num-
ber of pamphlets. The bulk of the library consists of American, English, French, and
German periodicals. The other works are in English, French, and German, and are
chiefly medical as distinguished from surgical." — Editors.
Medical Libraries. 175
tains about 4,000 volumes aud 2,000 pamphlets, aud is at present a
special deposit in the Cincinnati Public Library,
MEDICAL LIBRARY IN WASHINGTON.
The Library of the Surgeon-General's Office is deposited in the Army
Medical Museum at Washington, but may be considered as the medi-
cal section of the Congressional, or National Library, and is managed
and catalogued in substantially the same manner as that collection.
It now numbers about 40,000 volumes and 40,000 pamphlets, or, to state
it in another form, about 70,000 titles. The library is intended to cover
the entire field of medical and surgical literature, and is now an excel-
lent foundation for a national medical library that shall be worthy of the
name, and put the writers and teachers of this country on an equality
with those of Europe so far as accessibility to the literature of the subject
is concerned.
It has been formed within the last twelve years, and is of course too
young to contain many of the incunabula or the books noted as rare and
very rare, which are the delight of the bibliomaniac; nor, indeed, lias
any special eiibrt been made to obtain such. Yet there are few of the
ancient authors whose works it does not possess, although not always
in the most desirable editions. It is comparatively full in American,
English, French, and German medical literature of the present century,
and in works relating to surgery, pathological anatomy, and hygiene-
Of the early medical literature of this country, that is, prior to 1800, it
has but little. It possesses a few valuable manuscripts, the oldest of which
is a fine copy of the Lilium MediciniE of Bernard de Gordon, dated 1349.'
CATALOGUING AND INDEXING.
For the benefit of those who are not familiar with the practical work-
ings of a large library, and who, therefore, do not appreciate the amount
^ There are libraries belonging to several schools in which the Eclectic and Homeo-
pathic theories of medicine are taught, the only one of the former reported being that
of Bennett Medical College at Chicago, containing 500 volumes ; and the largest of the
latter class that of the Hahnemann Medical College at Philadelphia, which numbers
2,000 volumes. The American i)eriodical literature of neither of these schools is exten-
sive. The following statement is from the pen of the dean of the faculty of the Eclectic
Medical Institute at Cincinnati, also editor of the Eclectic Medical Journal. He thus
sketches the history of the library of the institute :
"Beginning in 184.'), it was deemed au important object to secure a good medical
library of books, both new and old, aud as a nucleus of such, a private library was
purchased, at a cost of .sl,5G0. It was a singular collection of books, both old and rare,
and yet, with a few exceptions, it was wholly worthless for the i>ses of the medical
student. The antiquary who desired to unearth old theories and crude methods of
treatment would have been delighted with it. To this were added, from time to time,
■works of the present generation until, in 1853, some 3,000 volumes had been
collected, when, the library room being required for enlargement of the college halls,
the books were stored in a small room, aud the college was without a library for five
years. In 1858 changes iu the building were again made, and the books were dusted,
some of them rebound, numbered, and catalogued, and made ready for use. But still the
students were not inclined to use them, even with the aid of a nicely carpeted, lighted,
and heated reading room, aud, after two winters of disuse, the dust was allowed to
176 Public Libraries in the United States.
of time and labor involved, the following account is given. It will give
no information to the skilled librarian, who will see at once many de-
fects in the mode of recording — due in this case to the lack of cler-
ical force.
The working catalogue of this library is a card catalogue of the usual
form ; that is, each separate work, whether it be a pamphlet of two
leaves or a cyclopaedia of fifty volumes, is catalogued on a slip of stout
paper about 7 by 5 inches, giving under the name of the author the ex-
act title of the work, the place and date of publication and the collation,
that is, the number of pages or leaves, the size or form of the book, and
the number of plates or tables. These cards are arranged in drawers,
according to names of authors in dictionary order, anonymous works
forming a separate class.
From these cards was printed the catalogue of authors, which was
completed in 1873, and makes two volumes, royal octavo, of about 1,200
pages each, with a supplementary volume containing the anonymous
works, reports, periodicals, and transactions. The cards from which this
was printed were then distributed according to subjects, the subjects
being arranged in dictionary order. This forms the subject catalogue.
As new books were added a second card catalogue was carried on for
them, which is known as the supplementary catalogue.
The subject catalogue above referred to has been very greatly ex-
tended by a process of indexing original papers in medical periodicals
and transactions. The preparation of this index was begun January 1,
1874, since -which date every number of current foreign medical jour-
nals and transactions has been indexed as soon as received. Wheu a
number of tlie London Lancet, for instance, is received, the librarian
indicates in it by a slight pencil check the articles which should be in-
dexed. The journal is then handed to a clerk who indexes each article
checked upon one of the catalogue caids. The top line is lett blank for
the subject. Next is given the name of the author, the title of the ar-
ticle, literally transcribed, or if there be no title, one is made (or it, and
accumulate ou the books, aud they I'dsteil iu peace uutil the tire of 1870, wheu they
were fortuuately cousuuied.
"While thus somewhat uufortuuate iu our j^eueral library, we have to record
marked beuetit from a coUectiou of books of a differeufc character. In a medical col-
lege there are often spare moments between lectures that studeuts might improve, if
books were at hand ; and quite frecjueutly study would be much facilitated if refer-
ence could be made to a standard authority, eveu for a moment. Often some im-
portant fact will have escaped the learner's mind, which, could he recall it, would
make an eutire subject plain and enable him to meet a coming examination. A mo-
ment's reference to an authority between lectures is sufficient, while without it there
might be complete failui'e. Frequently an eutire train of thought is arrested by the
want of a single fact which is an initial point ; the struggle of the mind to recall this
lact is frequently sufficient to incapacitate it for the day.
''A reading room furnished with several sets of the latest text books for reference
was provided, aud with most satisfactory results. The books were in constant use.
"I believe that these working libraries ar'o to be commended in all higher schools." —
Editoks.
Medical Libraries.
177
finally the abbreviateil title of the journal, the year, the nurabar of the
volume, and the pagination. This made of indexing is on the phm pnr-
sned in the Catalogne of S^iientiflc Papers, 1800-1863, compiled and
published in six quarto volumes by the Royal Society of London. The
number of the journal, with the cards thus prepared, is returned 'to the
librarian, who indicates in pencil the subject under which each card
should be distributed, and the cards go to the subject catalogue. The
journal receives a red stamp showing that it has been indexed, is
checked off on the register of periodicals received, and goes to the tiles.
At first only foreign journals were thus indexed, it being known that
Dr. J. M. Toner, of Washington, was preparing an index of American
journals, which it is his intention to make comi)lete to the year 1876.
Upon inquiry, however, the work of Dr. Toner was found to be on a very
different plan, as it includes all articles, whetiier original or copied,
while on the other hand the titles of articles are much abbreviated.
It has therefore been thought best to index all journals, American and
foreign, beginning with January 1, 1875. At the same time as much aa
possible is being done to index preceding volumes of important journals
and transactions, of which about 1,000 volumes were indexed during the
past year. This work will be continued as rapidly as possible. The fol-
lowing statistics show the total number of what may be called regular
medical journals which have been established since the first, namely,
Les Xouvelles Decouvertes sur toutes les parties de la Medecine, Paris,
1670, as well as the time and labor which the making of such an index
will require:
British A merica
United States
Mexico
West ludies and South America
Beljiium
France and Alfceria
Germany and Austria
Great Britain ,
Greece
Holland
Italy
Japan
IJussia
Spain and Portugal
Sweden. Norwaj-, and Denmark
Switzerland
Syria
T urkey
Total
a
E
"A
50
1,320
11
56
343
2,(58-1
3, 280
1,327
13
200
C71
- P
5 '"
209
2 1
7 I
10
49
1,259
10
If)
309
1, 846 j
2,504 i
1,129 1
97 1
527
87 j
260
84
IS 1
8,214 j
I
2C4
IL'E
178 Fuhlic Libraries in the United States.
Froni tliis table it will beseen that the library now contains about 75 per
cent, of all that has been published in medical journals. It would not
probably be desirable to extend an index of these farther back than 1801),
as the, works of Ploucquet andlieuss fairly cover all medical periodical
literature of any importance prior to that date. A few of the journals
will be very difficult, if not im[)0ssible, to obtain ; but these will be for
the most part of little iiractical importance. Several medical officers of
the Army, whose stations made it possible to send sets of journals to
them without too much inconvenience, have assisted in the work, and
if this aid can be continued, it is hoped that the index will be completed
in about two years. There is little doubt that it will then be printed,
and it will form a valuable contribution to medical bibliography.
Such an index is proposed jn the preface to the Catalogue Kaisonne
of the Medical Society of Edinburgh, published in 183G, but Professor
Maclagan states that nothing has been done in this direction. ^
The important part of a medical library, that which will give it char-
acter and value, and for deficiency in which nothing can compensate, is
its file of medical journals and transactions. The difficulty of obtaining
and preserving these is in i)roportion to the importance of the matter.
The majority of them are essentially ephemeral iu character; small
editions are published ; they are rarely preserved with care, and even
when attempts are made to preserve them by binding, it is often, and
indeed usually, without sufficient attention to the collation, so that in
examining files of old journals it will be found that at least one-half
lack a leaf, a signature, or a number. This fact causes much trouble
and disappointment to the librarian, and must always be kept in view
in the collection of this class of'literature. In the attempt to make a
complete collection of American medical journals for this library, it has
been repeatedly found that what purported to be the volume or number
wanting to complete a file was defective. It is probable that there is
not a complete collection in existence at any one point, although there
are two public and at Ij^ast three private collections in this country
which are very full, those of the library of the Surgeon General's
Office; of the College of Physicians, of Philadelphia; of Dr. Toner, of
Washington; of Dr. Hays, of Phdadelphia, and of Dr. Purple, of New
York.
The rarest American medical journals are probably some of those
printed in the West and South; for instance, the Oliio Medical Reposi-
tory (1820-27) and the Confederate States Medical and Surgical Jour-
nal (1864-'63).
Another class of medical literature which is important to the libra-
rian, and the value of which is usually underestimated, consists of med-
ical theses and inaugural dissertations. To obtain complete series of
these is even more difficult than to get journals, for the reason that they
are more ephemeral, and because it is scarcely possible to ascertain what
' Edinburgh Medical Journal, January, 1873, p. 585.
Iledical Libraries. 179
have been published, or when the series may be considered complete.
For a few schools, lists hav^e been published of the theses presented by
their graduates, such as Paris and Edinburgh, but even for Edinburgh,
the only catalogue of the theses which the writer has been able to ob-
tain, <Ioes not show when the regular printijig of all theses ceased. (3dl-
lisen has been led into error in this way in his otherwise very complete
Bibliographical Lexicon, in which he gives the titles of many theses
which were never pritited, notably of the Universities of Pennsylvania
and Transylvania. The value of these theses is fourfold. As material
for the history of medicine they may be taken to represent the theories
and teaching of the school ; they often contain reports of cases, or ac-
counts of investigations made by the student under the direction of a
professor, which are of much value, and they are necessary to medical
biography, the more so as in most of the German universities a sketch
of the life of the candidate is appended to the thesis. In addition to
this, prior to the era of medical journ;\lism, it was the custom for the
president or one of the professors to add an introduction of ten or twelve
pages to the dissertatioji, treating on some subject usually having no
direct relation to the thesis, and forming the sort of paper which would
now be sent to a medical journal. The number of these theses in exist-
ence is very great ; there are in the Library of the Surgeon-General's
Office about 40,000.
A few words of advice to those who may be desirous of forming a
public medical library in connection with a medical school may be of
some use ; at all events, they are the result of practical experience. The
first thing is to obtain works of medical bibliography, and a list of a few
■which will be found the most useful is appended. In addition to these
it will be necessary to make arrangements to obtain regularly as pub-
lished the catalogues of medical books issued or furnished by the fol-
lowing booksellers :
In Boston, Schoenhof «& MoeUer, James Campbell; in New York City,
Win. Wood & Co., L. W. Schmidt, B. Westermann & Co., E. Steiger,
Stechert & Wolff, F. W. Christern; in Philadelphia, H. C. Lea, Lindsay
& Blakistou.
The next thing is to take steps to obtain the current medical periodicals
ascompletely as possible, and also the current ephemeral pamphlets, such
as reports of hospitals and asylums, boards of health and health offi-
cers, transactions of medical societies, addresses, etc. These things, as
a rule, cannot be purchased, and whde they may usually be had for the
asking at the time of their publication, it will be found very difficult, if
not impossible, to g^-t them after a few years, or it may be only a few
months, have elapsed.
With regard to the purchase of books, so much depends on the amount
of funds available that no general advice can be given Ths majority of
large works, of which there is little danger that the supply will be ex-
hausted for several years, should not as a rule be purchased at the time
180 Public Libraries in the United States.
of their publication, unless tliey are wanted for immediate use. In a
year or two tbey can be obtained at a much reduced price. It will ottea
be good economy to buy a lot of books in bulk, even although a number
of duplicates be thus obtained, aiul this is especially the case at the
commencement of the formation of a collection. On a small scale the
same rule applies to the purchase of bound volumes of pamphlets. All
duplicates should be preserved for jjurposes of ex(;hange. It may seem
liardly worth the trouble to preserve what most physicians would throw
at once into the waste-basket, but unless this is done the library will
never be a success. There need be no special haste about the disposal
of duplicates, as they increase in value with age.
PAMPHLETS.
The pamphlets in the Library of the Surgeon- Gen eral's Office have
been disposed of in three ways : First, there are TtiO volumes of bound
pamphletvS, mostly purchased in that condition, which are for the
most part classified according to subjects; these volumes are num-
bered consecutively. Second, about 15,000 pamphlets are bound in
separate volumes. These are numbered as single voluujes, and include
those which are considered rare or especially valuable. The reuiainder
of the pamphlets, including the majority of the inaugural dissertations
of the German universities, are kept in file-boxes. These boxes are
made of walnut, and the pamphlets stand in them with their title-
pages looking toward the back of the shelf, the boxes being of widths
suitable for octavos, quartos, etc. The box has no top, and the rear end
slides'in and out, and can be fixed at any point. Each box will hold
about 100 pamphlets.
The boxes are arranged on shelves suited to their height, thus pre-
venting the admission of dust. The front of the box has a ring, by
which it can be pulled out, and presents an ample surface for labeling
its contents. By loosening the rear end, which can be done by a touch,
and withdrawing it, the title of the work is before the examiner, and a
pamphlet can be added or withdrawn without disturbing the others.
When a pamphlet is required for use it is bound temporarily in stout
covers, the backs of which are pressed together by a strong spring.
These covers have an enameled card on the side, on which is written in
pencil the title of the' pamphlet within. This can be readily erased to
make room for the next.
The theses of the schools of Paris, Montpellier, and Strasbourg are
bound in volumes, following the usual arrangement for those schools.
With regard to binding, it is believed that the advice of the Libra-
rian of Congress is the best that can be given: "Bind in half tur-
key, and in most cases let the color be a briglit red." Binding in
calf should not be used, except to match what has already been so bound.
The binding in of covers and advertisements is an important point, and
gives increased value to a volutne so bound ; indeed, it is sometimes im-
possible to collate serial publications without the assistance of the covers.
Medical Libraries. 181
Following is a list of works which will be foiiad especially useful
for relerence iu medical bibliograpbic.il work, and which should be iu
every medical library. For additional titles cousult Pauly, infra, pp. L
to 15.
Allibone, S. a. a critical dictionary of English literature a:id JBrit-
ish and American authors. 3 v. ItDy. 8". Phila., 18!33- 71.
Atkin.sox, J. MeLlical bibliography. 8". L5ndon, 1831.
BuuNET, J. C. Manuel du libraire et de I'amateur de livres. 5me ed.
6 V. Roy. 8°. Paris, 18(3U-''65.
Callisen, a. C. p. Medicinisches Si;hriftsteller Lexicon der jetzt
lebeudeu Arzte, Wundiirzte, Gebnrtshelfer, Apotheker, und Natur-
forscher aller gebildeten Volker. '33 v. 8". Copenhagen, 1830-4:5.
Haller, a. v. Bibliotbeca anatomica. 2 v. 4". Tiguri, 177J:-''77.
— Bibliotbeca chirurgica. 2 v. 4°. Berna^., 1774-75.
— Bibliotbeca medicinie practic<e. 4 v. 4°. Basilise et Bernre, 177G-'8S.
Pauly, A. Bibliograpbie des sciences me.licales. 8°. Paris, 1872-74.
PloucqueTj G. G. Literatura uiedica digesta; sive, liepertoriura
mtMlicinae practicoe, cbirurgitTe atque rei obstetricie. 4. v. 4°. Tubin-
gae, 1808-9.
Roy, C. H. a. Catalogus bibliothecne medicte. 5 v. 8°. Amst., 1830.
Watt, K. Bibliotbeca Britauuica; or a general index to British and
loreigu literature. 4 v. 4°. Elinbiirgb, 1824. ^
Catalogue raisoune of the Medical Library of tbe Pennsylvania Hos-
pital, by Emil. Fischer, xxvi, 750 pp. 8". Pbiladelpbia, 1857.
Catalogue of tbe library of the New York Hospital, arranged alpha-
betically and analytically. 194 pp. S°. New York, 1845. [With
supplements to the same published in 181)1, 18G5, and 1SG7.]
Catalogue of tbe library of the Surgeon-General's Oliice, United States
Army, with an alphabetical index of subjects. 2 p. 1., 451 pp. Roy.
8". Washington, D. C, 1872.
Catalogue of the library of tbe Surgeoa-GeneraPs OjBce, United States
Army. 3 v. Roy. 8°. Washington, 1873-'74.
Classed catalogue of the library of tbe Koyal College of Surgeons of
London. Ixii, 1171 pp. 8°. Landon, 1813.
Catalogue of the Royal Medical and Cbirurgical Society of London.
vii, 7G2 pp. 8°. LDudon, 1856.
Index to the above, vii, 293 pp. 8". London, 18«0.
Bibliotheque imperiale, departement des imprimes. Catalogue des
sciences medicales. Tols. 1 and 2. iii, 791 pp., 11. j 778 pp , 1 1.
Imp. 4°. Paris, 1857 and 1873.
RoziER, Victor. Essai d'une bibliograpbie uuiverselle de la medecine,
de la chirurgie, et de la pharmacie militaires. 234 pp. 8". Paris,
18G2.
DiCTiONNAiRE des sciences medicales; biograpbie medicale. [Par A.
J. L. Jo'urdan.j 7 v. 8'. i\iris, C. L. F. Panckoucke, 1820-25.
182
Public Libraries in the United States.
Eeuss, J. D. Repertorium commentationum a societatibus litterariis
editarura. Tomes X-XY. Scientia et ars inedica et chirurgica. 6 v.
4°. Gottiiigai, lS13-'20.
Englemann, Wm. Bibliotheca medico chirurgica et anatomico-physio-
logica. Alphabetisches Verzeicbniss der mediciuischen .... Biicher
welche vom Jahre 1750 bis 1847 in Deutscbland erschienen siud. 734
pp. 8". Supplement Heft 1848-'67. 350 pp. 8". Leipzig, 1848-'G8.
Catalogue of scientific papers, (1800-18G3.) Compiled and published
by the Koyal Society of London. 6 v. 4°. London, 1867-72.
Table of ilie principal medical libraries in the United States.
[For further inforiuation respecting the following and other medical libraries in the United States
see general table of statistics elsewhere in this report.]
Connecticut New Haven..
Dist. of Columbia.. Washington
Georgia Augusta
Savannah
Illinois Chicago
Kentucky Lexington '. . .
Lonisville
Louisiana New Orleans
Maine Biunswick. . .
Massachusetts Boston
Boston
Salem
"Worcester . . .
New York Albany
New York . . .
New York . . .
New York . . .
New York . . .
Syracuse
Utica
Ohio Cincinnati . . .
Cincinnati ..
Cleveland, ..
Pennsylvania Pliiladelphia.
Philadelphia
Philadelphia
Philadelphia
Philadelphia
-Ehode Island .. Providence ..
Medical Institution of Yale College
Surgeon-General's Office, United States Army ...
Medical College of Georgia
Savannah Medical College
Chicago College of Pharmacy
Transylvania Mediciil College of Kentucky University
University of Louisville, Medical Department
University of Louisiana, Medical Department
Medical School of Maine ,
Harvard University Medical School ,
Medical Library Association of Boston
Treadwell Library, Massachusetts General Hospital
Essex South District Medical Society
Worcester District Medical Society
Albany Medical College
Academy of Medicine
Medical Library and Journal Association
Mott Memorial Free Medical and Surgical Library.
New York Hospital
College of Physicians and Surgeons .,
New York State Lunatic Asylum
Cincinnati Hospital
Medical College of Ohio
Cleveland Medical College
College of Physicians.
Hahnemann Medical College
Pennsylvania Hospital
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy
University of Pennsylvania, Medical Department ..
Rhode Island Hospital
1837
1834
1820
1782
1875
1857
1805
1798
1839
1846
1864
1867
1796
1872
1814
1870
1819
1843
1783
1867
1763
1821
1765
2,200
aid, 000
5,000
4,000
2,500
5,383
4,000
2,000
4,000
3,550
2,500
3, 542
2,000
4,000
4,801)
3,000
3,500
4,7P0
10, OOO
2,000
4,358
2,119
5,000
2,000
18, 753
2,000
12, 500
2,350
3,000
2,OOo
a Thi; library contains, in
to medicine and surgery.
.ilditioa to the bouud volumes, a collection of 40,000 phamphlets relating
CHAPTER VII.
SCIENTIFIC LIBRARIES IN THE UNITED STATES.
BY PROF. THEODORE GILT^, M.D., PH.D.,
Cf the ^laith.sonian Institution.
IXTRODUCTION' — FaCIVITIES FOR SCIENTIFIC INVKSTIGATIOX IX THE UNITED STATES —
Eecokds ov pkoguess —Physics — Genkual Mathematics — CHEMisxiiY — Zo5l-
oG Y — Anatomy — Anthuupology — Botany — Geology.
INTRODUCTION.
la every general library, as a matter of course, are works on science,
and usually a section devoted to science or its different subdivisions.
Very few, however, have collections that are of much importance ; and
even in libraries of quite largo size (e. </., over 50,000 volumes) the stu-
dent may apply in vain for many works that are the standard manuals
in their departments. The rich literature involved in the publications
of learned societies and other scientific periodicals also is almost wholly
unrepresented. Even as a rule, judging from personal knowledge and
the examination of a large number of catalogues, the scientific works in
general libraries are, or at least have been, mostly school books, pre-
pared in many cases by men unrecognized as scientific experts, and
often far behind the dates of their title pages in information as to the
status of the science. This fault has to some extent been rectified
since the publication and popularity of the works of Huxle^', Tyndall,
Helmholtz, and a few others, but is still in a large degree perceptible.
Among those general libraries in which more or less attention has been
paid to the selection and acquisition of scientific works may be espe-
cially mentioned the Library of Congress at Washington, (with which
the Library of the Smithsonian Listitution is incorporated,) the Boston
Public Library, the Astor Library of New York, and the Peabody Insti-
tute of Baltimore.^ Each of these is, however, deficient in many staiul-
ard works, and an active investigator who should wish to become ac-
quainted with the literature of any subject would soon be arrested in his
researches if obliged to depend on any one of them. The libraries of a
few learned societies are, then, the chief sources of information, and
to these the student must necessarily resort, if engaged in extensive
' These several libraries are especially mentioned because their contents are best
known to the writer, and in any case they are pre-eminent in wealth of scientific liter-
ature.
183
184 Public Libraries in the United States,
bibliographical investigiitions. But the societies which can afford the
req;iisite facilities are extremely few, ami the geaeral libraries just al-
luded to are far richer than mjst of the societies devoted to scientific
subjects are iu their owq branches. In fact, there are considerably less
than a dozen which demand special notice. The objects of this article
may be best subserved by a notice of the libraries of the several cities,
beginning with and then diverging from Washington.
SCIENTIFIC LIBRARIES IN WASHINGTON.
Taken altogether, Washington probably affords almost if not quite as
many facilities for the scientific student as does any other city on the
continent.
First is the General Library of Congress, which, including the collec-
tion of books deposited by the Smithsonian Institution, is the largest
in the country, and its efficient and untiring chief has been most assid-
uous iu his endeavors to make it worthy of its position as a national
library. It contains now over 300,000 volumes, and at least 00,000
pamphlets.
Next in wealth, and superior to any in its specialty, is the library of
the Surgeon-General's Office, which is almost exclusively devoted to
works on the different departments of medical art and science and cog-
nate branches, including chemistry. Its ccmipleteuess may be inferred
from the number of books, about 40,000 volumes and 40,000 pamphlets.
Applied science is the specialty of the Patent-Office Library, and the
standard works, at least on the various branches of science and their
technical applications, are tolerably well represented among the 23,000
volumes on the shelves of the library.
A special astronomical library is i)ossessed by the United States Naval
Observatory; it contains about 7,01)1) volumes, and has been for some
years under the direction of Prof. J. E. Nourse.
A library, composed mostly of works on hydrography and geodesy,
and related subjects, has been collected at the United States Ojast Sur-
vey Office; it has about 6,000 volumes.
A collection of works on meteorology and cognate branches has
been formed by the Signal-Service Bureau of the War Department, and
contains about 2,000 bound volumes and 4L0 pamphlets.
Thus, with all these libraries combined, the student of any branch of
science may have tolerable facilities in this city for elaborating any
given subject and reviewing its history, but there are many lamentable
deficiencies. These are probably most evident in the department of
natural history. In every branch of this science there are striking de-
siderata ; for instance, the opus magnum on mammals — Schreber and
Wagner's, and many illustrated works on birds, reptiles, and fishes; in
conchology, Kiister's eilition and continuation of Martini and Chem-
nitz's Systematlsches ConchylienCabinet and Sowerby's Tliesanrus
Conchyliorum ; and some of the most, and too often the most, indis-
Scientific Libraries. 185
pensableworksontheclassesof insects, crustaceans, worms, ecliinoderms,
and polyps, as well as a nainber of classic works on plants, arc nowhere
to be seen in the city. In fact, many of those works which are true text
books for the scientific naturalist cmnot be here found, and conse-
quently the studentanust eitlier suspend his investigations (as several
have done) and ultimately, perhaps, give them up in despair altogethei-,
or inflict on the seientitic world works whose imperfections redound to
the discredit of himself as well as of the science of the country. A
few years ago the case was far worse, and no branch of zoology,
botany, or geology could be prosecuted with thoroughness in the city.
Even the means for obtaining some idea of what had been effected
for the several branches of science in more favored lands, through the
medium of reports on progress, were unavailable, and some of those re-
l)orts are still wanting in all Washington libraries. No work or paper
of magnitude in any department of the natural sciences has been pub-
lished by a resident of Washington without the aid furnished by libra-
ries outside of the city, and even yet none relating to foreign animals
or plants could be prepared without extraneous bibliographical assist-
ance. The discredit neces sarily resulting from this state of affairs is
mostly chargeable to the too meagre appropriations for library purposes,
in which respect there is a remarkable contrast between our Goveru-
meut'and the British, as well as other enlightened nations.
SCIENTIFIC LIBRARIES IN BALTIMORE.
Baltimore has no general first class library as yet, nor any special
one of notable importance. It is, however, the seat of a rapidly grow-
ing and well administered library, (that of the Peabody Institute,)
containing now about 58,01)0 volumes, which in proportion to its size is
well provided with works in different branches of science and especially
on the natural sciences. For this selection it is chiefly indebted to the
scientific proclivities and talents of its first and present librarians, Dr.
J. C. Morris and Mr. Philrp Uhler. In it are to be found some important
works which are in none of the libraries of Washington.
SCIENTIFIC LIBRARIES IN PHILADELPHIA.
Philadelphia has several well equipped scientific libraries, chief of
which are those of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and
of the American Philosophical Society.
The academy's library has about 30,000 volumes and 3^5,000 pam-
phlets, chiefly relating to the several branches of natural history. It is
uncpiestionably, as a whole, the most con p'ete library' in its special de-
partment in the United States, and has very few rivals anywhere. The
collect on o periodicals is very good — if not quite as good as that be-
longing to the Smithsonian Institution deposited in the Congressional
Library — and all the classes of the several kingdoms of nature are well
represented on its shelves. Especially worth}' of note are the sections
186 Public Libraries in the United States.
of oruithology and couchology; these are almost, if not quite, unsur-
passed in extent and completeness. The costly illustrated works which
have been published in such profusion on those groups, and the rare
opuscules and pamphlets, issued from time to time by amateurs and col-
lectors, have been alike obtained. Extremely few works that would be
likely to be ever called for are wanting, and it has been claimed that
only two conchological publications are lacking. Although this is a
rather extravagant claim, every student who has availed himself of the re-
sources of the library will be prepared to admit its surpassing richness.
The library of the American Philosophical Society, although much
inferior in completeness to that of the Academy of Natural Sciences, is
still good, containing about 2l),0DD bound volumes and 15,000 pamphlets.
Among these are many of rarity and value. Every branch of science is
tolerably well represented by the contents of its rooms, but in no de-
partment is there a full development of the literature of the subject.
Among other special libraries in Philadelphia, those of the Franklin
Institute and the Entomological Society are noteworthy. These, to
some extent, supplement those already mentioned, but neither is by
any means complete.
SCIENTIFIC LIBRARIES IN NEW YORK.
New York is less rich in bibliographical facilities for the scientific stu-
dent than either Washington or Philadelphia, at least so far as public
libraries are concerned. The Astor Library, those of the scientific schools,
(Columbia College in the city and the Stevens Institute of Hoboken,)
that of the New York Academy of Sciences, (formerly the Lyceum
of Natural History, in New York,) and that of the New York Museum
of Natural Historj", collectively furnish considerable bibliographical
resources for the literary scientist. The Museum of Natural Historj^
is gradually amassing a library which promises to be of considerable
importance at a not distant future. It has acquired, through the lib-
erality of frieu>(is, two collections which are rich in their specialties,
the works on mollusks assembled by Dr. John Jay during a life of de-
votion to /[jonchology, and those relating to fishes, obtained at great ex-
pense and with rare knowledge by M-r. J. Carson Brevoort. The first,
purchased for the museum by Miss Wolfe, is perhaps only second (except,
possibly, as to the quite recent literature) to the corresponding section
in the library of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia ; the
second, obtained for the library through the liberality of Mr. Robert
Stuart, is unequaled in the country, and there are extremely few
ichthyological treatises which are not contained therein ; it is especially
rich in inaugural theses and authors' extras of articles originally pub-
lished in periodicals. The other departments of the library are compar-
atively poor.
SCIENTIFIC LIBRARIES IN NEW HAVEN.
In New Haven there is no first class public library but that of Yale
College. The many eminent scientists connected with the college and
Scientific Libra) ies. 187
tbe Connecticut Academy of Sciences (among whom may be especially
mentioned Professors J. D. Dana and O. C. Marsh) have severally ac-
quired libraries which collectively furnish the means for prosecuting
bibliographical studies in great detail in almost every department of
science.
SCIENTIFIC LIBRARIES IN BOSTON, CAMBRIDGE. AND SALEM.
Boston and Cambridge are well provided with public or serai-public
repositories for scientific bibliographical investigations. In Boston are
three noticeable libraries. The Boston Public Library takes special care
in the selection of scientific works, and ranks next to the Library of
Congress in the number of volumes, (having 297,615 volumes March
1, 1876, and about 181,000 pamphlets.) The American Academy of
Arts and Sciences, during the almost century of its existence, (it was
founded in 178Q,) has accumulated a collection of about 16,000 volumes
and 2,000 pamphlets, and the several branches of science have been
cared for. The Boston Society of Natural History has had for some
time considerable means, (about 113,000 a year,') and its efficient libra-
rians have brought its library up to a tolerable condition for general
investigation, although it does not yet furnish the means for detailed
bibliographical work, at least in most branches, like the Academy of
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. In Cambridge the means for literary
scientific researches are supplied by the good college libraries, supple-
mented by the private collections of the professors. No exact data are
at hand respecting the extent of the collections of works on the mathe-
matical sciences. The natural sciences are known to be quite well repre-
sented by works collected by the late Professor Agassiz and his son for
their own use, and given to or deposited in the library of the museum of
comparative zoology.
The neighboring city of Salem has a society library (that of the Essex
Institute) which, although small, (comprising 30,655 volumes and 105,408
pamphlets,) is, in proportion to its size, quite rich in scientific publica-
tions, obtained partly in exchange for its own publications and partly
through the customitry means of acquisition.
Those thus described are believed to be the only places or public
society libraries in the country which could furnish the means for any-
thing like exhaustive studies of the literature of any given scientific
subject. There are, however, in a number of other places, public or
semi-public libraries, which, to a greater or less extent, are enabled to
administer to the needs of the student of a local fauna or specific
subject. Such are especially Albany, with its State Library and the
Albany Institute; St. Louis and San Francisco, with their Academies of
Sciences; Chicago, with its Public Library as well as the Cliicago
Academy of Sciences; Buffalo, with the Buffalo Society of Natural
Sciences ; Charleston, with the Elliott Society of Natural History ; and
'A small poitiou of this sum is applicable for library purposes.
1-88 Public Libraries in the United States.
New Orleans, with the New Orleans Academy of Scieace. The libraries
in these several cities, however, so far as can be inferred from published
reports and hearsay, are very incomplete and partial in their scientific
departments. In tine, the experience of the author in a number of cases
has been that in no instance could any bibliographical study on an
extensive scientific subject be prosecuted to a satisfactory concl-ision
in any one city, although the means for so doing are best i)rovided
in Philadelphia; and in the present state of our libraries a visit to
that place is necessary before concluding any such investigation. Next
to Philadelphia, there is no very decided choice, in some respects
Washington offering the most facilities, and in others Boston. An
outlay of less than $5,000, to be expended under a competent scientific
bibliographer, would, however, give either the decided predominance
in every department of scientific literature. Of the four principal cities,
so far as the experience of the author has gone, the convenient resources
of New York for research are the least effective.
EECORDS OF PROGRESS.
Among the most important and really indispensable works of refer-
ence for the scientific investigator, and indeed for any student who de-
sires to become familiar with the progress of science in its several
branches, are the annual volumes in which are recorded the various
contributions to the literature of science during the successive years.
Yet, strangely enough, they are rarely met with in our libraries, and
the existence of such annual epitomes of scientific literature is known
only in part, and sometimes absolutely unknown, to our librarians.
After visits to all the libraries in the city of Washington, the author is
able to present only the present quite imperfect list of these valuable
publications. Several of the series are entirely unrepresented in the
libraries, and others only by fragments or odd volumes. In default of
these annual reports, the labors of the investigator are not only much
increased by the necessity of examining in detail all the periodicals in
which by any chance papers might be published; but the chances even
then would be great that some article of importance might be over-
looked. It is true that in previous articles on the same subject refer-
ences may be given to the previous literature, but there is often no
means of ascertaining to what extent bibliographical researches have
been undertaken, and the previous investigator may have been more
unfortunately situated with regard to means of investigation than the
new one. A sine qua non, therefore, not only of a professed scientific
library, but of every library that professes to administer to the needs of
other than the elementary student, should be a complete collection of
the annual records of scientific literature for each department of science.
The cost is quite small, and if the series were present in at least the
more important libraries of the land, fewer volumes marked by the
almost absolute ignorance on the part of their compilers of the latest
developments of science would be issued than at present. It is to be
Scientific Libraries. 189
hoped tliat the followin<; may be of use in giving some idea of the
character, scope, and extent of the series in question. The most
serious detect in most of these is the lateness of issue, some being
in iiublication several years behind the periods for which they are issued.
Wliile this is, of course, to be regretted, the length of time taken allows
more for the elaborate and exhaustive collection of the literature of the
respective years, and the present need of the student will be subserved
to a great extent by tlie catalogues enumerated under the first liead,
which are issued with .comparative promptitude, and give the titles of
the academical publications as they severally appear.
GENERAL.
BIBLIOTHECA Histniico-Natiiriili<, Physico-Naturalis, Pbysico-Cheinica et Matbenia-
tica; <)<ier.sy.ste:!iatisch geordiietn tlbersiclit (ler in Deutschland nnd fleni Aiislaudeauf
dein Gebiete der {jesanimten Natiirwi.sseiiscliafteii und der Matbeniatik iieii erscliien-
eiien Biicher, heransgegeben von Dr. H. Mefzger, Profet^sor an der Foistacadeniie zu
Miiiideii. Vieriuidzwaiizigster Jabgaiig. 2 Hel'te. Verlag voii Yaudeiiboeck ifc
Kiiprecbtj.iii Guttingeii. \_\H1A-Ib. 8°.]
Also issued by the booksellers B. Westermann & Co., with the follow-
ing additional title printed on the cover :
Bibliotheca Historico-Natnralis, Pbysico-Cberaica ot Matbematica. A classified cata-
logue of all books on natural history, cbeinistry and mathematics published in Ger-
many, England, France, Netherlands etc. etc. 1874. [2 parts.] Orders may be di-
rected to B. Westermann & Co., foreign booksellers, 524 Broadway, New York.
This publication, which is distributed gratuitously by the publishers,
purports to give, in a classified manner, the works published from year
to year in the different departments of natural and mathematical sci-
ences. Experience shows that it is quite a useful publication, which
should be in every scientific library, but it is of comparatively little per-
manent value; many titles are overlooked, and the titles given are
ofteti imperfect. The periodical is issued in two half-jyearlj- parts.
EEPERTORIUMder Naturwissensciiaftcn. MonatlicheUbersicbtder neuesren Arbeiten
auf deui Gebiete der Naturwisseuschaften. Herausgegeben von der Redaction des Na-
turforscHer. I. Jabrgang. [Berlin. Ferd. Diiramlers Verlagsbuchbandlnng, 1875.]
[Quarto, issued in monthly parts of 4 leaves each, with two columns, numbered on
each i)age, at 4 marks a year.] •
In this new periodical are recorded the titles (and titles onl\) of the
articles published in the prominent transactions and proceedings of sci-
entific societies as well as in Lite sc ientific magazines of all parts of the
world. It, therefore, furnishes an excellent synopsis for the investigator,
and to a considerable extent relieves him of the necessity of looking
through numerous publications when in search of specitio inlormatiou.
MATHEMATICS.
JAHRBUCH liber die Fortschritte der Matbematik im Verein mit anderen Mathemati-
keru herausgegebeu von Carl Ohrtmann, Felix Miiller, Albert \Vangerin. Fliufter
Baud. Jabrgang. 1873.— Berlin, Druck und Verlag von GeorgEeimer. 1876. [8".]
This publication is devoted to the synopsis of the contents of works.
190 Public Libraries in the United States.
etc., ill pure mathematics. These are analyzed under the following
heads :
Erster Abschnift. ■ Geschichte anrl Philosophie. — History and philosophy.
Capitol 1. (Jeschichte. — History.
Capitel 2. riiilosophie. — Philosophy.
Zweiter Abschnitt. Algebra. — Algebra.
Capitel 1. Gleichnngeii. — Equations.
Capitel 2. Tbeorie tier Forinen. — Theory of forms.
Capitel 3. Elimination unci Substitution, D^termiuanten, luvarianten, Covarian-
ten, symmetrische Functionen.
Drifter Abschnitt. Zahlentheorie. — Theory of numbers.
Capitel I. Allgemeiues. — General.
Capitel 2. Theorie der Formen. — Theory of forms.
Capitel 3. Kettenbriiche. — Continued Fractions.
Vierter Abschnitt. Wahrscheinlicbkeitsrechuung und Combioationslohre. — Doctrine
of probabilities and theory of combinations.
Fiinfter Abschnitt. Eeihen. — Series.
Capitel 1. AUgmeines.— General.
Capitel 2. Besondere Reihen. — Special series.
Sechster Abschnitt. Ditfereotial- und Integralrechnung. — Differential and integral cal-
culus.
Capitel I. Allgemeines (Lehrbiicher etc.) — General (text books, etc.)
Capitel 2. Diiiferentialrechnnng (Differentiale, Functionen von Differentialen,
Maxima und Minima). — Differential calculus (differentials, functions of differ-
entials, maxima and minima).
Capitel 3. Integralrechuuug. — Integral calculus.
Capitel 4. Bestimmte Integrale. — Definite integrals.
Capitel 5. Gewohnliche Diffdrentialgleicbungr^-n. — Common differential equations.
Capitel 6. Partielle Differentialgleichungen. — Partial differential equations.
Capitel 7. Variatioiisrechnung. — Calculus of Variations.
Siebenter Abschnitt. Functionentheorie. — Theory of functions.
('apitel 1. Allgemeines. — General.
Capitel 2. Besondere Functionen. — Special functions.
Achter Abschnitt. Reine, elemeutare und synthetische Geometric.— Pare elementary
and synthetic geometry.
Capitel 1. Principien der Geschichte.— Principles of history.
Capitel 2. Continuitatsbetrachtungen. — Analysis situs.
Capirel 3. Elemeutare Geometrie. (Planimetrie, Trigonometric, Stereometric.) —
Elementary geometry (planimetry, trigonometry, stereometry).
Capitel 4. Darstellende Geometric. — Descriptive geometry.
Capitel 5. Neuere synthetische Grfometrie. — New synthetic geometry.
A. Ebene Gebilde. — Plane forms.
B. Riiumliche Gebilde. — Spherical forms.
C. Geonietrie der Anzahl. — Geometry of numbers.
Neanter Abschnitt, Analytische Giometrie. — -Analytical geometry.
Capitel I. Coordinaten. — Co-ordinates.
Capitel 2. Analytische Geometrie der Ebene. — Analytical Geometry of planes.
A. Allgemeine Theorie der ebeuen Curven. — General theory of plane curves.
B. Theorie der algebraischeu Curven. — Theory of algebraic curves.
C. Gerade Litiie und Kegelschnitte.— Straight lines and conic sections.
D. Andere specielle Curven. — Ofhor special curves.
Capitel 3. Analytische Geometric des Riumes.— Analytical geometry of space.
A. Allgemeine Theorie der Fliicheu uud Raumcurveu.— General theory of surfaces
and spherical curves.
Scientific Libraries. 191
B. Theorie der algebraischen Fliichen und Raumcurven. — Theory of algebraic
siiifaces and spherical curves.
C. Raiinigebilde ersten, zweiteu, dritten Grades. — Bodies of the first, second, and
third grades.
D. Andere specielle Ranmgebilde. — Other special bodies.
Capitel 4. Liniengeonietrie. — Linear geometry.
Capitel 5. Verwandtschaft, eindeutige Trausformationen, Abbildiiugeu. — Affinity,
simple transformations, figures.
The preceding is simply a reproduction of the table of contents of the
first two parts of the fifth vohime. The third (and last) part has not yet
come to hand, and the first four volumes are at present inaccessible and
cannot be found.
PHYSICS.
FORTSCHRITTE (Die) derPhysik im Jahre 1870. Dargestellt von der Pbysikalischen
Gesellsjhafc zu Berlin. XX.VI. Jahrgang. Redigirt von Prof. Dr. B. Schwalbe. Ber-
lin. Drtick und Verlag von Georg Reimer. 18 75, [8", Ixiv, 10'21 pp.]
The progress of physics in each year has, for more than a quarter of
a century, been recorded under the auspices of the Physical Society
of Berlin. The memoirs epitomized have been considered in the last
complete volume (the record forlSTO) under the following heads :
Erater Ahschnitt. Aligeineine Physik. — General physics.
1. Maass und Messen.— Measure and measuring.
2. Dichfigkeit. — Density.
3. Molekularphysik. — Molecular pbysics.
4. Mechanik. — Mechanics.
T). Hydrodynamik. — Hydrodynamics.
6. Aiirodynamik. — Aerodynamics.
7. Cohesion uud Adhiisioii. — Cohesion and adhesion.
Zweiter Abuchnilt. Akustik. — Acoustics.
8. Physikalische Akustik. — Physical acoustics.
9. Physiologisclie Akustik. — Physiological acoustics.
Dritter Abschnitt. Optik. — Oi)tics.
10. Theorie des Lichts. — Theory of light.
11. Fortptiaczung, Spiegeluug uud Brechung des Lichts. — Velocity, reflection, and
refraction of light.
12. Objektive Farhen, Spektrum, Absorption. — Objective colors, spectrum, absorp-
tion.
13. Photom etrie. — Photometry.
14. Phosphorescenz und Flnorescenz. — Phosphorescence and fluorescence.
15. luterferenz, Polarisation, D )pi)elhrochiiiig, iCrystalloptik. — larerference, polar-
ization, double refraction, and crystaloptics.
16. Cliemische Wirknngeii des Licht-^, Photographie.— Chemical actio-.i of light,
photography.
17. Physiologisclie Optik. — Physiological optics.
18. 0,)tische Apparate. — Optical apparatus.
y^iertvr Abschnitt. W^irmelehre. — Thennics.
ID. Theorie der Wiirme. — Theory of heat.
20. Tl)i;rmometrie uud Ausdehnuug. — Thermometry and expansion.
21. Quelleu der Wiirme.— Sources of heat.
22. Auderung des Aggregatz'jstandes. — Change of molecular structure.
192 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
23. Specifische Wiiriiie. — Specific heat.
•24. Verbreitunjr der VViiriue. — Distribution of heat.
Fiinfler Ah-tckidlt. Elektricitatslehre.— Electricity.
25. Aii>;eim'iiie Tlieorie der Electricitiic uud des Magnetismas.— Gsueral theory of
electricity and of uiaifnetisrri.
2B. Elecfriciliitserrej^any. — Iiiductioa of electricity.
27. Elektrostatik. — Electrostatics.
2rt. Batterieeiitladiiiig. — Discharge of batteries.
29. Galvanische Ki^tteii.— Galvanic chains.
30. Galvanische Messapparate. — Gilvanoinetric appai'atus.
31. Treorie der Kette. — Theory of the chain.
32. Elektrochemie. — Electro-chemistry.
33. TluMinDelektricitiit. — Thermo-electrii;iry.
34. Elektrische Wartneerzeujriin>^. — Heat produced by electricity.
35. P^lektrisches Licht. — Electric light.
36. iMa;j;netisiuas. — Magnetism.
37. Elektiomagiietisiniis. — Electro-magnetism.
3'<. Eicktrodynaniik, Indnctiou. — Electro-dyuaiuics, induction.
39. ElektrophvsiolDgie. — Electro-physiology.
40. Aiiw.'iidiingen disr ElectricitaC. — Applied electricity.
SechstT Abiihnilt. Physik der Erde. — Piiysics of the globe.
41. Meteorologische Optik. — Meteorological optics.
42. Meteorologie. — Meteorology.
43. Erdmagnt'tisinus. — Terrestrial magnetism.
44. Atm;)Si)h;i,i-isclie Elektriciiiit. — AtniDsplieric electricity.
45. rhy.->ikalische Geographic.— Physical get)graphy.
CUEMISTRY.
JAHRESBEKICHT iiUer die Fortsohritteder reinen, pharmacentishen nnd technischen.
Cheniie, Physik. Mineialogie nnd Geologic. Bei icht iiber die Fortschiitte der Chemie
nnd vcrwandter Tht-ile anderer Wissenschaften. — Fiir liiid. — Giesseu. J. Kick-
er'sfhc liuchhandlnng. 1872. [8».]
The It-ports for 1857 to 18(39 have also a second title-pa^e, viz :
.Tahreshi'i'iijht iibLsr die Fortschritte der Chemie und verwandter Theile anderer
"NVissenschatten.
[Fiir l-^r)7-18t)0.] Von Hermann Kopp nnd Heinrich Will. 1858-62.
[Filr 18!Jl-18ii2.] Unter Mitwirknng von Tii. Engelbach, W. Hallwachs, A.
Kno[>; hcransgegt-ben von Hermann Koi)p uiid Heinrich Wills. 1863.
[Fiir 18j-;-18ii7.] Unt r Mitwirknng von C. Bohn [1863-65]. Th. Engelbach
[18ii3-67], A. Knop, [1863], Al. Naumann [1867] , K. Zoppritz [1867], herausge-
geben von llcmrich Will. 1864-69.
[Fiir 18,;8.] Unter Mitwirknng von Th. Engelbach, A1. Naumann, W. Stiidelher-
aniigrg(',l)en von Adidph Strecker. 1870. J. Ricker'sche Buchhandluug. . . . 1872.
[Fiir 186J.] Unier Mitwirknng von A. Laubenheimer, Al. Naumann, F. Nies, F.
Rose ; lierausgegcbeu von Adolph Strecker. — Fiir 1869 — Giesseu. J. Ricker'sche
Buchhandluug. 1872. [Suppl. title, xxxvii, 1372 pp.]
The literature of clieiuistry in the last completed volume at hand
(publisheil 187:i) is epitomized under the following heads :
JUqemciup inxl nhii'H-'i'hr.hp. Chpmie. — Qeueral and physical chemistry.
Krystallkunde. — Crystallography.
Scienti/ic Libraries. 193
Allgemeine theoretisch-chemische Untersucliungen. — General theoretic cliemical in-
vestigations.
Thermisch-chemische Untersuchungen.— Thermo-chemical investigations.
Electrisch-chemische Untersuchungen. — Electro-chemical investio-ations.
Magnetisch-chemische Untersuchungen. — Magneto-chemical investigations.
Optisch-chemische Untersuchungen. — Optico-chemical investigations.
Unorganische Chemie. — Inorganic chemistry.
Sauerstoff. — Oxygen.
Schwefel. — Sulphur.
Selen. — Selenium.
Chlor. — Chlorine.
Jod. — Iodine.
Fluor. — Fluorine.
Stickstoff. — Nitrogen.
Phosphor. — Phosphorus.
Bor. — Borax.
KohlenstofF. — Carbon.
Silicium. — Silicon.
Metalle, Allgemeines. — Metals, general.
Kalium. — Potassium.
Natrium. — Sodium.
Lithium. — Lithium.
Baryum. — Barium.
Strontium. — Strontium.
Calcium. — Calcium.
Beryllium. — Beryllium (.cerite metals).
Mangan. — Manganese (Jargonium).
Eisen. — Iron (ferrum).
Chrom. — Chromium.
Kobalt und Nickel. — Cobalt and nickel.
Zink. — Zinc.
Iridium. — Iridium.
Cadmium. — Cadmium.
Kupfer. — Copper (cuprum''.
Blei. — Lead (plumbum).
Zinn.— Tin (stannum).
Titan. — Titanium.
Bismuth. — Bismuth.
Antimon. — Antimony (stibium).
Uran. — Uranium.
Molybdiin. — Molybdenum.
Tantal und Niob. — Tantalium and niobium.
Vanadium. — Vanadium.
Quecksilber. — Mercury (hydrargyrum).
Silber. — Silver (argentum).
Gold.— Gold (aurum).
Platinmetalle.— Platinum.
Organische Chemie. — Organic chemistry.
Allgemeines. — General.
Cyanverbindungen. — Cyanides.
Kohlenwasserstoffe, Alkohole aud deren Substitutiousproducte.— Hydrocarbons
alcohols, and substitute products.
Aromatische Kohlenwasserstoffe und Verbindungen.— Aromatic hydrocarbons and
their compounds.
Aldehyde.— Aldehydes.
13 E
194 Fiiblic Libraries in tJie United States.
Acetone. — Acetones.
Siinren. — Acids.
Amide und Nitride.— Amides and Nitrides.
Organische Basen. — Organic bases.
Kohlenhydrate und Ahnliches.— Carbon hydrates and similar compounds.
Eigenthiimliche Pilanzenstofife und Pflanzeuanalysea.— Peculiar products and
analyses of plants.
Pflanzenchemie und Pflanzenanalyseu.— Vegetable chemistry and analyses of
plants.
Eiweisskorper. — Albumines.
Thierchemie. — Animal chemistry.
Analytische C/iemJe.— Analytical chemistry.
AUgemeines. — General.
Erkennung und Bestimmung unorganischer Sabstanzen. — Recognition and deter-
mination of inorganic substances.
Erkennung und Bestimmung organischer Substanzen.— Eecognition and deter-
mination of organic substances.
Apparate. — Apparatus.
Technische C7iem?e.— Technical chemistry.
Metalle, Legirungen. — Metals, alloys.
Metalloide, Siiiiren, Alkalien, Salze.— Metalloids, acids, alkalies, salts.
Schiesspulver, Spreng- und Ziindmaterialien.— Gunpowder, material for blasting
and percussion.
Mortel, Cement, Thon, Glas.— Mortar, cement, clay, glass.
Agricaltiirchemie. — Agricultural chemistry.
Nahrungsmittel. — Food.
Brennstoffe. — Fuel.
Leuchtstoffe. — Illuminators.
Pflauzen- und Thierfaser.— Animal and vegetable fiber.
Fiirberei .—Dyeing.
Mineralog ie.—M'meialogy.
AUgemeines. — General.
Metalloide.— Metalloids.
Metalle. — Metals.
Tellnride.— Tellurides.
Arsenide. — Arsenides.
Antimonide. — Antimouides.
Snlfuride. — Sulphides.
Oxyde.— Oxides.
Oxydhydrate. — Oxyhydrates.
Oxydoxydulhydrate. — Protoxyhydrates.
Silicate. — Silicates.
Silicate mit Basen R 0. — Silicates with bases R O.
Silicate mit Basen R2 O3.— Silicates with bases Riz O:?.
Silicate mit Basen R 0 und R2 O3.— Silicates with bases R O and R.^ O3.
Wasserhaltige Silicate. — Hydrosilicates.
Silicate mit Titanaten, Boraten u. s. w.— Silicates with titanites, borates, &c.
Titanate.— Titanites.
Tantalate und Niobate. — Tantalates and niobates.
Molybdate.— Molybdates.
Vanadinate. — Vanadiuates.
Wolframiate.— Wolframiatea.
Phosphate.— Phosphates.
Arseniate. — Arseuiates.
Nitrate.— Nitrates.
Scientific Libraries. 195
Borate.— Borates.
Sulfate.— Sulphates.
Sulfate mit Carbonaten. — Sulphates with carbonates.
Carbonate.— Carbonates.
Fluoride. — Fluorides.
Chloride. — Chlorides.
Orgauoide. — Organoids.
Unbekannte Mineralien. — Unknown minerals.
Versteinerungsmittel. — Materials for petrifaction.
Pseudomorphosen. — Pseudomorphs.
Paragenesis. — Paragenesis.
Chemische Geologie. — Chemical geology.
Allgeraeines. — General.
Wasseruntersuchungen. — Examination of W"aters.
Meteoriten. — Meteorites.
JAHRESBERICHT liber die Fortschritte auf dem Gesammtgebiete der Agricultivr-
Chemie. Begriindet von Dr. Eobert Hoffmann. Fortgesetzt von Dr. Eduard Peters.
Weiter fortgefiihrt von Dr. Th. Dietrich, Prof Dr. H. Hellriegel, Dr. J. Fittbogen,
Prof. Dr. R. Ulbricht, . . . Elfter uud zwolfter Jahrgang : die Jahre 1868 und 1869.
Mit einem vollstilndigen Sach- und Namen-Register. —Berlin. Verlag von Julius
Springer. 1871.
This is a record of the progress of agricultural chemistry, the first
volume of which (for 1858-1859) was published in 18G0. It was originally
and for the first ten years of its issue published in annual volumes 5
from 18G0 to 1865 under the editorship of Dr. Robert Hoffmann, and from
1866 to 18G8 under that of Dr. Eduard Peters, but the last volume
accessible to the present bibliographer contains a summary for the
biennial period 1868 and 1869.
JAHRESBERICHT iiber die Fortschritte der Pharniacognosie, Pharmacie und Toxi-
cologie. Herausgegeben von Med.-Rath Dr, Wiggers uud Dr. A. Huseraanu, . . .
Neue Folge des mit Ende 1865 abgeschlossenen Canstatt'schen pharmac. Jahres-
berichts, l[-7] Jahrgang, 1866[-1872J. 26[-zweinnddreissigster] der ganzen Reihe
Jahrgang.— Gottingen. Vandenhoeck &, Ruprecht's Verlag. 1867-[187.3]. [Jahres'
bericht fiir 1872-1873, 660 pp.]
This series interests not only the pharmacist, but also the vegetable
physiologist and anatomist, as well as to some extent the systematist
and likewise the zoologist, the articles on the poisons and poison glands
of venomous animals being epitomized. The literature is systematically
recorded under three primary heads, viz :
I. Pharmacognosie.
II. Pharmacie.
III. Toxicologic.
JAHRESBERICHT ilber die Fortschritte der Thierchemie. Herausgegeben von Dr.
Richard Maly. . . . Dritter Band, fiir das Jahr 1871. Wien, 1875 ? Wilhelm
Braumiiller, k.-k. Hof- und Universitatsbuchhiindler.
The reports of progress in animal chemistry of course concern the
zoologist as well as the chemist. The literature is discussed under the
following heads :
196 Public Libraries in the United States.
Capitel I. Eiweissartige Substanzen. — Albuminous substances.
II. Albuminoide (dera Eiweiss nahesteheude Stoffd).— Albuminoids (sub-
stances resembling albumen).
III. Kohlenhydrate. — Carbonbydrates.
IV. Fette.— Fats.
V. Andere Substanzen des Thierkorpers. — Other substances of the animal
body.
VI. Blut.— Blood.
VII. Milch.- Milk.
VIII. Harn. — Urine.
IX. Speichel, Magen- und Darmverdauung u. s. w. — Saliva, gastric and in-
testinal digestion, etc.
X. Leber und Galle. — Liver and gall.
XI. Muskeln. — Muscles.
XII, Knochen. — Bones.
XIII. Eier. — Eggs.
XIV. Gesammtstoffwechsel. — Nutrition.
XV. Fermente (Giihrung), Faulniss u. s. w. — Ferments (fermentation), de-
composition, etc.
XVI. Pathologisches (Fieber, Eiter u. s. w.).— Pathological (fever, pus, etc.)
ZOOLOGY.
To the general record of progress in zoology are devoted two general
reports and several on limited and special branches, e. g. authropolog3-,
anatomy, etc. The general reports (one German and one English)
should both be consulted, for although most of the memoirs are noticed
in both, quite a large number are referred to only in one or the other.
Each, too, has its special points of excellence. In some departments the
German periodical is fuller and more satisfactory in its notices, and in
others the English. TheEaglish work, however, exhibits one element
of decided superiority to the German, and that is the more uniform repro-
duction of the complete original titles of the articles reviewed. Both are
quite full in their synoptical notices, and of late years, not only the
numerous monographic works, but also the zoological contents of between
200 and 250 periodicals, (in the Zoological Record for 1874, 238 are
enumerated,) altogether aggregating between 30,000 and 40,000 pages,
have been catalogued or epitomized. In both series, the literature of
the several branches is reviewed by experts in such branches, and dis-
cussed in a rigidly systematic order.
ARCHIV fur Naturgeschichte.
[I-VL] In Verbindung rait mehreren Gelchrten herausgegebeu vou Dr. Ar. Fr.
Aug. Wiegmann, ausserord. Professor an der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitiit zu
Berlin. — Erster [-Sechster] Jahrgang. Zvveiter Band. [IV-VI. Bericht iiber die
Leistungen ira Gebiete der Naturgeschichte wahrend der Jahre 1837-1839.] Ber-
lin, 1838 [-1840]. In der Nicolai'scheu Buchhandluug.
[VII-XIV.] Gegriflidet von A. F. A. Wiegmann. La Verbindung mit Prof. Dr.
Grisebach in Gottingen, Prof, von Siebold in Freiburg, Dr. Troschel in Berlin,
Prof. A. Waguer in Miiuchen und Prof. Rud. Wagner in Gottingen. Herausge-
Scientific Libraries. 197
gebea von Dr. W. F. Erichsou, Professor an der Frieclrich-Wilhelms-Universitat zu
Berlin. Siebenter [-Vierzehuter] Jahrgang. Z we iter Band. Berlin, 1841 [-1848],
in der Nicolai'schen Biichhandlung. [8<^.]
[XV-XXI.] Gegriiudet von A. F. A. Wiegmann. Fortgesetzt von W. F.
Erichsoa. In Verbindiing rait [mehreren] herausgegebsn von Dr. F. H. Troscbel,
Professor an der Friedricb-Wilhelms-Universitat zu Bonn. FUnfzehnter [-Einund-
zwanzigster] Jabrgang. Zweiter Band. Berlin, 1849, Verlag der Nicolai'schen
Bitchhandlung. [8°.]
[XXII-XLL] Gegriindet von A. F. A. Wiegmann. Fortgesetzt von W. F.
Erichson. In Verbindung mit Prof. Dr. Leuckarfc in Leipzig beransgegeben von
Dr. F. H. Troscbel, Professor an der Friedricb-Wilhelms-Universitat zu Bonn. —
Zweiundzwanzigster [-ICinundvierzigster] Jabrgang. Zweiter Band. — [XXII-
XXIII. "Verlag der Nicolai'schen Bucbhandlung" und XXIV-XLI] Berlin,
Nicolai'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. . . . 1857 [-1875].
This periodical is issued in numbers forming two volumes for each
year, the first containing original memoirs, and the second the reports
on the progress of the several branches of zoology. The dates on the
title-pages are quite misleading, inasmuch as they indicate the year
succeeding the period of progress recorded, but in reality the volumes
of the record are sometimes not concluded for several years after. Thus,
of the record for 1873 only the first of three parts has been received in
Washington, and that only in September, 1875, although the completed
volume, if former practice is followed, will bear the date 1874.
Two volumes of the Archiv are published each year, the first of
■which is restricted to original articles, and the second alone contains the
record of progress.
Bericht iiber die Leistungen in der Naturgescbicbte der Vogel wabrend des Jabres
1874. [Report on the publications on the natural history of birds during the year
1874.] Von August von Pelzeln in Wien.
Bericht iiber die Leistungen in der Naturgescbicbte der Siiugethiere wabrend des Jahres
1874. [Report on the publications on the natural history of mammals during the
year 1874.] Von Troscbel.
Bericht iiber die Leistungen in der Herpetologie wiibrend des Jahres 1874. [Report
on the publications in herpetology during the year 1874.] Von Troscbel.
Bericht iiber die Leistungen in der Ichtbyologie wiibrend des Jabres 1874. [Report on
the publications in ichthyology during the year 1874.] Von Troscbel.
Bericht iiber die Leistungen in der Naturgescbicbte der Mollusken wiihrend des .lahres
1874. [Report on the publications on the natural history of the mollusks during the
year 1874.] Von Troscbel.
Cephalopoda. Brachiopoda.
Cephalopbora. Tunicata.
Lamellibranchiata.
The contributors to the volume for 1839, the last complete one at
hand, on the other groups were as follows :
Bericht iiber die Leistungen in der Naturgescbicbte der lusekten wabrend des Jahres
1869. [Report on the publications on the natural history of insects during the year
1869.] Von Friedricb Brauer in Wien.
Ortboptera. Lepidoptera.
Neuroptera. Apbaniptera.
Coleoptera. Diptera.
Hymenoptera. Hemiptera.
198 Fuhlic Libraries in the United States.
Bericht iiber die wissenschaftlichen Leistuugen in der Naturgescbichfce der niederen
Tbi,ere wahrend der Jahie 1868 und 1869. Zweite Hiilfte. [Report on tlie scientific
publications on the natural history of the lower animals during the years 1868 and
1869. Second half.] Von Dr. Kud. Leuckart.
Echinodermata. Protozoa.
Coelenterata.
ZOOLOGICAL (The) Record, viz :
[V. 1-6.] The Record of Zoological Literature. 1854. Volume first. Edited
by Albert C. L. G. Guother, M. A., M. D., Ph. D., F. Z. S., etc., etc. Lou-
don : John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row. M.DCCC.LXV. [H'*.]
[v. 7-9.] The Zoological Record for 1870 [1871, 1872, aud 1873], being volnine
seventh [eight, ninth, and tenth] of the Record of Zoological Literature. Edited
by Alfred Newton. M. A., F. R. S. London: John Van Voorst. M.DCCC.LXXI.
[v. 10.] The Zoological Record for 1873 ; being volume tenth of the Record of
Zoological Literature. Edited by Edward Caldwell Rye, F. Z. S., librarian to
the Royal Geographical Society. Esplorate solum : sic fit via certior ultr&.
London : John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row. M.DCCCLXXV. [8». xxiv,
543 pp.]
lu the last cited Tolume the literature is discussed Iq the order aud
\>j the authors indicated below.
This record is published in annual volumes, bound in cloth, at the rate
of a guinea a volume.
Mammalia. By Edward Richard Alston, F. Z. S.
J res. By R. B. Sharpe, F. L. S., F. Z. S., &c.
lieptiUa. By A. W. E. O'Shaughuessy.
Fisces. By A. W.E. O'Shaughuessy.
Mollusca. By Prof. Eduard von Martens, M. D., C. M. Z. S.
MoUuscoida. By Prof. Eduard vou Martens, M. D., C. M. Z. S.
Crustacea. By Prof. Eduard von Martens, M. D., C. M. Z. S.
Arachnida. By the Rev. O. P. Cambridge, M. A., C. M. Z. S.
Mijriopoda. By the Rev. O. P. Cambridge, M. A., C. M. Z. S.
Insecia. The general subject, by E. C. Rye, F. Z. S.
Coleoptera. By E. C Rye, F. Z. S.
Hymenoptera. By E. C. Rye, F. Z. S.
Lepidoptera. By W. F. Kirby, M. E. S., &c.
Diptera. By E. C. Rye, F. Z.'s.
Neuroptera. By R. McLachlan, F. L. S.
Orthoptera. By R. McLachlan, F. L. S.
Rhynchota. By E. C. Rye, F. Z. S.
Vermes. By C. F. LUtken, Ph. D., F..R. D. A., &c.
Echinodermata. By C. F. Liitkeu, Ph.D., F. R. D. A., &g.
Coelenterata. By C. F. Liitkeu, Ph.D., F. R. D. A., &c.
Protozoa. By C. F. Liitkeu, Ph. D., F. R. D. A., &c.
ANATOMY.
BERICHT Uber die Fortschritte der Anatomiennd Physiologieim Jahre 1857[-1871].
Herausgegeben vou Dr. J. Henle [1860— Dr. W. Keferstein] und Dr. G. Meissner,
. . . [1857-1868. Als besondere Abtheilung der Zeitschrift fiir rationelle Medicin.]
. . . Leipzig uud Heidelberg. C. F. Wiater'sche Verlagsbuchhaudlung, 1858[-1872].
This series, which.was so long the most complete review of anatomical
literature for the successive years, was, unfortunately for the convenience
Scientific Libraries. 199
of investigators, brought to a formal close with the Bericht for 1871
(" Mit diesem Bande schliessen wir die Reihe unseter Jahresberichte.
Henle. Meissner"). It gives uot only a quite full resume of the papers
published from year to year relative to human anatomy, but also those
on comparative anatomy when involving the consideration even second-
arily of the human organization ; it further, uuder the head of aids to
investigation (Hiilfsmittel), gives useful lists at least of works and
articles on the microscope and microscopical manipulation.
The contents of the last published volume are arranged under the
following heads:
Bericht iiber die Fortschritte der Anatomie im Jabre 1871. [Report on the progreas
of anatomy in the year 1871.] Von Dr. J. Henle.
AUgemeine Anatomie.— General anatomy.
Handbiicher. — Manuals.
Hiilfsmittel. — Auxiliaries.
AUgemeine Histologie. — General histology.
I. Gewebe mit kugligen Elementartheilen. — Tissues with spherical elementary
particles.
II. Gewebe mit faserigen Elementartheilen. — Tissues with fibrous elementary
particles.
III. Compacte Gewebe. — Compact tissues.
IV. Zusammengesetzte Gewebe. — Complicated tissues.
Systematische Anatomie. — Systematic anatomy.
Bericht iiber die Fortschritte der Physiologic im Jahre 1871. [Report on the pro-
gress of physiology in the year 1871.] Von Dr. G. Meissner.
Hand- und Lehrbiicber. — Manuals and elementary works.
Erster Theil. Erniihrung. — Nutrition.
Zweiter Theil. Bewegung, Empfindung, psychische Thiitigkeit. — Motion, sensa-
tion, psychical function.
Autoren-Register. — Index of authors.
JAHRESBERICHT iiber die Leistungen und Fortschritte in der gesammten Medicin.
(v. 1, Fortsetzuug von Canstatt's Jahresbericht.) Unter Mitwirkung zahlreicber
Gelehrten herausgegeben von Rud. Virchow und Aug. Hirsch. Unter Special-Re-
daktion von [Dr. E. Gurlt und] Aug. Hirsch. — [I.-XL] Jahrgang. Bericht fiir das
Jahr[1866-]1874. Erster Band [-Zweiter Baud]. Berlin, [1867-]1875. Verlagvon
August Hirschwald.
In this series is incorporated a very full epitome of the researches in
human anatomy and physiology for each year; in the last volume 278 of
the large pages being exclusively devoted to the record of progress in
those branches by the following gentlemen, viz :
Descriptive Anatomie, Prof. Rildiuger, Miinchen.
Histologie, Prof. Waldeyer, Strassburg.
Entwickelungsgeschichte, Prof. Waldeyer, Strassburg.
Physiologische Chemie, Prof. Salkowski, Berlin.
Physiologic — I : AUgemeine Phy8iologie,allgemeineMuskel-uud Nerven-Physiologie,
Physik der Sinne, Stimme und Sprache, thierische Wiirme, Athmung, Prof. Rosenthal,
Erlangen.
Physiologic — II: Haemodynaraik und specielle Nerven-Physiologie, Prof. v. Witticb,
Konigsberg, tind Prof Goltz, Strassburg.
200 Public Libraries in the United States.
These reports on anatomy and physiology appear to be published in a
limited (perhaps author's) edition, separate from the rest, under the
title Jahresbericht iiber die Leistungeu und Fortschritte in der Anato-
mie und Physiologic. Unter Mitwirkung zahlreicher Gelehrten heraus-
gegebem von Rud. Virchow und Aug. Hirsch. (See Bibliotheca histori-
co-uaturalis, physico-chemica et mathematica, XXIV. Jahrgang, 109.)
JAHRESBERICHT iiber die Leistnngen und Fortschritte iin Gebiete der Ophthalmo-
logie, herausgegebeu im Verein mit niehreren Fachgeuosseu und redigirt von Dr.
Albrecht Nagel. . . . [Erster-] Z welter Jalirgang. Bericht fiir das Jahr [1870 und]
1871. Tiibiugeu, [1872-]1873. Verlag der H. Laupp'schen Buchhandlung.
In these reports is recorded the current literature relative to the eye,
morphological and physiological as well as pathological, and conse-
quently they will prove to be of service in directing the zoologist as
well as physicist in his investigations. The mode of treatment is exem-
plified iu the abstract of the table of contents of the second Jahres-
bericht.
Ophthalmologische Bibliographie des Jahres 1871, zusammengestellt von Prof. A.
Nagel.
Anatomie des Auges ; Referent, Prof. G. Schwalbe.
Eutwickelungsgeschichte des Auges; Referent, Prof. W. Waldeyer.
Phyelologie des Auges; Referent, Prof. A. Nagel.
Patbologie und Therapie der Augenkrankhelten. [By various.]
Naraen-Register.
Sachen-Register.
ANTHROPOLOGY.
ARCHIV fiir Anthropologie. Zeitschrift fiir Naturgeschicbte und Urgeschichte des
Menschen.
[I-III.] Herausgegeben von C. E. v. Baer in St. Petersburg, E. Ddsor in Neuen-
burg, A. Ecker in Freiburg, W. His in Basel, L. Lindenscbtnit in Mainz, G.
Lucae in Frankfurt am M., L. Riitimeyer iu Basel, H. Schaaff hausen in Bonn, C.
Vogt in Genf und H. Welcker in Halle. Uuter der Redaction von A. Ecker und
L. Lindenscbmit. Erster Band [-Dritter Band]. Mlt zablreicben in den Text
eingedruckten Holzsticben und lithographirten Tafeln. Braunschweig, Druck
und Verlag von Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn. 1866[-1868].
[IV-VII.] Organ der deutscheu Gesellschaft fUr Anthropologie, Ethnologie und
Urgeschichte. Herausgegeben von C. E. v. Baer in St. Petersburg, E. Desor in
Neuenburg, A. Ecker in Freiburg, F. v. Hellwald in Wien, W. His in Basel,
L. Lindenscbmit in Mainz, G. Lucae in Frankfurt am M., L. Riitimeyer in Basel,
H. Schaaifhausen in Bonn, C. Semper in Wiirzburg, R. Virchow iu Berlin, C.
Vogt in Genf und H. Welcker in Halle. Redaction: A. Ecker, L. Lindenscbmit,
und der Generalsecretair der deutscheu anthropologischen Gesellschaft. [Vierter
Band] -Siebenter Band. Mit in den Text eingedruckten Holzsticben und litho-
graphirten Tafeln. Braunschweig, Druck und Verlag von Friedrich Vieweg und
Sohn. [1870-] 1874.
To this periodical, in addition to critical notices in the body of each
volume, is attached a full and well considered notice of the literature of
anthropology for the successive years (Verzeichniss der anthropologi-
schen Literatur), in which the. contributions to the various branches
Scientific Libraries. 201
of the science are arranged under their authors' names in alphabetical
order.
BOTANY.
BDTANISCHER Jaliresbericht. Systetnatisch georrlnetes Repertoriiira derbotaiiischftu
Literatur aller Lander. Uater Mitwirkuuj^ von Prof. Dr. Aschersoa ia BarlLa, Dr.
Askenasy in Heidelberg, Dr. Batalin in St. Petersburg, Dr. Engler in Miinchen, Prof.
Dr. FJiickiger in Strassburg, Dr. Focke in Bremen, Dr. Geyler in Frankfurt am M.,
Prof. Dr. Just in Carlsruhe, Dr. Kalender in Koln, Prof. Dr. Kauitz in Clansenburg,
Prof. Dr. Kuy in Berlin, Dr. Kulin in Berlin, Dr. Levier in Florenz, Dr. L )ew in Berlin,
Dr. Lojka in Pestb, Dr. A. Mayer, Dr. H. Miiller (Tliurgau), O'jerlehrer Dr. H. MLiller
in Lippstadt, Dr. Peyritsch in Wien, Prof. Dr. Pfitzer in Heidelberg, Dr. J. Schroter in
Rastatt, Dr. Sorauer in Proskau, Prof. Dr. Strasburger in Jena, Dr. H. de Vries in
Amsterdam, Prof. Dr. A. Vogl in Wien, Dr. E. Wanning in Kopeuhagen, her*iU9gege-
ben von Dr. Leopold Just, Professor am Polytechuikum in Carlsruhe. Erster Jahr-
gang (1873). Berlin, 1875. Gebriider Borntraeger (Ei. Eggers).
N"o volume of this has been seen by the writer; bat, according to Dr.
Farlow, the following authors have contributed on the respective sub-
jects indicated:
Physikalische Pliysiologie. HoUandisclie Literatur. Dr. H. de Vries.
Technische Botanik. Prof. Dr. A. Vogl.
Ungarische Literatur. Prof. Dr. Kaaitz.
Gefiisskryptogam. Dr. Kuhn.
Morphologie der Coniferen und Gaetaceen. Prof. Dr. Strasburger.
Hybridation. Entstehung neuer Arten. Dr. Focke.
Moose. Dr. H. Miiller (Thurgau).
Pharraaceutische Botanik. Prof. Dr. Fliickiger.
Morphologie der Zelle. — Bacillariaceen. . Prof. Dr. Pfitzer.
Morphologie der Gewebe. Dr. Loew.
Flechten. Dr. Lojka.
Eussische Literatur. Dr. Batalin.
Italienische Literatur. Dr. Levier.
Befruchtung und Ausstreuungs-Einrichtungen. — Verbreitungsmittel der Pflan-
zen. Oberlehrer Dr. H. Miiller (Lippstadt).
Systematische Monographieen und aussereuropaische Floren. Dr. Engler.
Algen. Dr. Askenasy.
Morphologie der Monocotylen und Dicotylen. Dr. E. Wanning.
Pflanzenkraukheiten. Dr. Sorauer.
Pflanzeugeographie uud europiiische Floren. Prof. Dr. Ascherson.
Paliiontologische Botanik. Dr. Geyler.
Chemische Physiologie. Prof. Dr. Just.
Pilze. Dr. J. Schroeter.
Bildungsabweichungen. Dr. Peyritsch.
Schadigung der Pflanzen durch Insekten. Dr. Kalender.
Ernahrung niederer Organismen. Dr. A. Mayer.
EEPERTORIUM annuum literaturae botanicae periodicaecuravit J.A.van Bemmelen,
custos bibliothecae Societatis Teylerianae. — Tomus primus. — MDCCCLXXII. — Har-
lemi, Erven Loosjes, 1873. [8". Title, xvi, 223 pp.]
In this repertory are enumerated the titles of the botanical contribu-
tions to 101 periodicals of various kinds, as well as the floras and mona-
202 Public Libraries in the United States.
graphic works, so far as they had been Doticed in the periodical works
published in 1872. No indications other than those furnished by tbe
titles themselves are given of the contents of the articles, but references
are given to bibliographical notices in various journals. The work, use-
ful as it is, must be consulted with caution. Thus, under the head
"America Septentrionalis," the author, deceived by the ambiguous name
adopted in the paper cited, has enumerated an article on the shells of
the family Unionidae (Lea, J., Naiades of North America) among the
botanical memoirs relating to this continent. The compiler has adopted
for his enumeration the classification employed by Dr. L. Pfeiflfer in his
Synonymia botanica locupletissima generum, sectionum vel subgene-
rum, Cassellis, 1870.
Morphologia Universalis.
Morpbologia cellalae.
Morphologia telae (contextus cellulosi).
Morphologia partium esternarum.
Morphologia Specialis.
Thallophyta.
Characeae.
Muscoideae.
Cryptogamae vasculares.
Phanerogatnae.
Physiologia.
Vires moleculares in plaiitis.
Functiones chemicae plantariim.
Universales vitae couditione^plantarum.
Mechanica cresceadi.
Motus periodic! et exfcerais stimulis escitati orgiaorum planfcarum.
Sexualitas.
Morphogeaia (Eatstehung der Pflanzenformen).
Monograjyhia.
Plantae cryptogamae.
Thallophyta.
Muscoideae.
Cryptogamae vasculares.
Phauerogamae.
Florae.
Europa.
Terrae arcticae.
Scandinavia.
Dania.
Britannia.
Belgium foederatum.
Austria.
Germania.
Gallia.
Helvetia.
Hispania et Lusitania.
Italia.
Turcia.
Graecia.
Scientific Libraries. 203
Asia.
Archipelagus Malayanus.
Africa.
America septentrionalis.
America centralis et raeridionalis.
Australia Oceania.
Opera argumenti mixU et getieris universalis.
Geot^rapliia plantatum.
Palaeontologia (Generalia).
Plantae sacrorum bibliorum et tie plantis vetenim critici.
Horti botanici et musea varia.
Methodus studii botanici.
Collectio herbariorum.
Microscopium.
Bibliographia.
Vitae botanicorum.
Historia botanices.
Botauica applicata.
GEOLOGY.
Eevue de geologic.
Pour l'ann6e 1860 par M. Delesse, ... et M. Laugel, . . . Extrait des Annales des
mines,. tome xx, 1861. — Paris. Danod, 6diteur, . . . 1861.
Pour I'ann^e 1861 par M. Delesse, . . . et M. Laugel, . . . Ua extrait de cette
revue a 6t^ publie dans les Annales des mines, tome ii, 1862. — Paris. Dunod,
^diteur, . . . 1862.
Pour les ann6es 1862 et 1863 par M. Delesse, ... et M. Laugel, ... Un extrait de
cette revue a 6t6 public dans les Annales des mines, tome vi, 1864. — III. Paris
Dunod, ^diteur, . , . 1865.
Pour les anuses 1864 et 1865[-1871 et 1872]' par M. Delesse, . . . et M. de Lappa-
rent, . . . Un extrait de cette re vue a 6t^ publie dans les Annales des mines, tome viii,
1865[etcJ.— IV[-VIII?] Paris. Dunod, ^.diteur, .. . 1866[-1874].
The volumes of this series, as indicated oq their title-pages, are re-
printed in whole or part from the Annales des mines. The bibliography
of the subject is given in tolerable detail, but the original titles of the
memoirs analyzed are rarely reproduced with extictaess. Tliey are
summarized under the following heads, being nearly those adopted by
Dana in his Manual of Geology : ^
I. Preliminaires.
Ouvrages do g^ologie. — Generalit6s sur le globe.
II. GMogie Uthologique.
fitude des roches et de leur gisement. — Roches proprement dites et roches
m^tallifferes.
III. Geologie historique.
[fitude des terrains au point de vue stratigraphique et pal^oafcologiri[iie. — Lois du
developpement des v^g6taux et des animaux qui vivaient pendant la forma-
tion de ces terrains.
' Only the first six reports (for 1860 to 1867) are in a separate form in the Library
of Congress. The rest are only known to the author from being included in the
volumes of the Annales des mines.
- " La classification qui a 6te suivie dans oette revue est a peu pr^s celle du Minuel
de geologic de M. J. D. Dana, et, comrae les auu6es pr6c6dente3, elle comprendra cinq
parties." Eevue pour 1871 et 1872.
204 Public Libraries in the United States.
IV. Geologic gSograpMque.
Examen des cartes et des descriptions g^ologiques. — Giologie agroaomique.
V. GSologie dynamique.
fitade des agents et des forces quL ont proJuit des changejieats geologiques,
ainsi qae de leur mode d'action.
GEOLOGICAL (Tiie) Record for 1874. An aocaunt of v\^orks on ge:)logy, miQeralogy ,
and palaeontology published during the year. Edited by William Whittaker, B. A.,
F. G. S., of the Geological Survey of England. London : Taylor and Francis, Red
Lion Court, Fleet street. 1875. [8». xvi, 397 pp.]
This record, of which the first aad only volume yet published has
but lately appeared, is designed to catalogae, and to some extent to
summarize, the publications that from year to year appear relative to
geology and the auxiliary branches of science. One hundred and
eighty-six periodicals or reports are recorded as having besn examined
for articles in addition to the monographs; " there are altogether more
than 2,090 entries." The titles of the respective articles are reprodnced
in the languages of the originals. The literatnre is arranged and dis-
cussed under the heads below enumerated.
StratigrapMcal and descriptive geology.
1. British Isles. W. Topley.
2. Europe. G. A. Labour.
3. Arctic Regions. G. A. Lebour.
4. America. G. A. Lebour.
5. Asia. F. Drew.
6. Africa.
7. Australasia. R. Etheridge.
Physical Geology. Prof. A. H. Green.
1. Volcanic phenomena ; metaQiorphism ; underground temperature ; changes
of level; formation of mountains.
2. Denudation ; glacial phenomena.
3. Rock formation.
4. Cosmogony ; miscellaneous.
Applied and economic geology. W. Topley.
Petrology. F. W. Rudler.
Meteorites.
Mineralogy. F. W. Rudler.
Mineral waters.
Pal(eontology.
1. Vertebrata. L. C. Miall.
2. Invertebrata. Prof. H. A. Nicholson.
3. Plants. W. Carruthers.
Maps and sections.
Miscellaneous and general.
Addenda.
Index. By H. B. Woodward.
SPECIAL BIBLIOORAPHICAL AIDS.
All the branches of science, in addition to the annual records of prog- j
ress, have one or more notable bibliographies, which are indispensable
to the student. The most important of these are immediately herein-
Scientific Libraries. 205
after eaameratecl, aad iadicatioas ia most cases given of their rela-
tive completeness and value.
GENERAL SCIENCE.
POGGENDORFF (J. C). Biographisch-literarisches Handworterbncb zur Gescbichte
derexacteu Wissenschaften ; euthaltentl Nachweisungeu iiber Lebeusverbiiltnisse uud
Leistungen von Mathematikern, Astronomen, Pbysikern, Chemikern, Mineralogeu,
Geologen u. 8. w. aller Volker and Zeiten, gesammelt von J. C. Poggeiidorff, Mitglied
der Akademie der Wissenscbaften zu Berlin. [2 vols.] Leipzig, 186:3. Verlag von
Jobann Ambrosius Bartb. [8°.]
Contents.
Erster Band. A-L. [viii, 398 1., witb 1584 columns.]
Zweiter Baud. M-Z. [title, 367 1., witb 1463 columus, 4 pp.].
This is merely a partial catalogue of the writings of the more promi-
nent investigators, mainly of the physical sciences, accompanied, in most
cases, by brief biographical data respecting the authors.
REUSS (Jerom David). Repertorium commentationutn a societatibus litterariis edi-
tarum. — Secundum disciplinarum ordinem digessit J. D. Reuss, in universitate Georgia
Augusta Pbilos. et Histor. litter, professor et sub-bibliothecarius, [etc.]— [See con-
tents.]— Gottingae, apud Henricum Dieterich. [1801-1821. 16 vols. 4o. 46 Tb.
16 Gr.]
Contents.
[Tom. I- VI.] Scientia uaturalis.
Tom. I. Historia nataralis, generalis et z:>Dlogi'X. 1S31. [2 p. 1., iv, 574 pp.]
Tom. 11. B3tanica et mineralogia. 1802. [viii, 604 pp.]
Tom. III. Ctiemia et res metallica. 1803. [viii, 221 pp.]
Tom. IV. Physica. 1805. [viii, 416 pp.]
Tom. V. Astronomia. 1804. [viii, 548 pp.]
Tom. VI. Oeconomia. 1803. [xvi, 476 pp.] [Varia.]
Tom. VII. Matbesis ; Mecbanica; Ilydrostatica ; Hydranlica; Hydrotecbnica ;
Aerostatica; Pneumatica; Tecbnologia; Architectura civilis ; Scieatia navalis ;
Scientia militaris. 1808. [xiv, 514 pp.]
Tom, VIII. Historia. Subsidiahistorica; (Gjographia; Chronologia ; Miuumeuta
veterum populoram ; Inscriptiones ; Numi et res uumaria; Ars diplomatica ;
Heraldica;) Historia, universalis ; Historia generis bumani ; Historia mytbiea ;
Historia specialis ; Asise ; Africae ; Americae ; Eiiropte; Historia ecclesiastica ;
Historia litteraria. 1810. [xii, 674 pp.]
Tom. IX. Pbilologia; Linguae; Scriptores Latini ; Litteras elegantiores ; Poesis ;
Rbetorica; Ars antiqua; Pictura; Musica. 1810. [xii, 230 pp.]
Tom. X-XVI. Scientia et Ars medica et cbirurgica.
[X.] 1. Propaedeutica ; Anatomia et Pliysiologia ; Hygieine; Patbologia sen
Nosologia generalis ; Semeiotica. 1813. [xviii, 420 pp.]
[XL] 2. Materia medica; Pliarmacia. 1816. [xx, 423 pp.]
[XII-XV.] 3. Therapia generalis et specialis.
[XII.] P. L continens A, B, C. 1817. [xii, 354 pp.]
[XIII.] P. II. continens D, E, F, G, H. 1818. [xii, 534 pp.]
tXIV.] P. III. continens I-S. 1820. [xiv, 476.]
[XV.] P. IV. contiuens T-Z. Operationes cbirurgicae ; Medicina foret
sis, legalis et politica. 1820. [xiv, 507.]
206 Public Libraries in the United States.
[XVI.] Ars obstetrica. 1821.
Ars veteriuaria.
A most useful index to the contents of the transactions and other pe-
riodical publications of learned societies, at least up to the end of the
eighteenth century. The primary arrangement is by subjects, the clas-
sification being a rigorous systematic one; but there are indexes of au-
thors to the several parts.
LONDON (Royal Society of). Catalogue of scientific papers. (1800-1863.)— Compilerl
and published by the Royal Society of Loudon.— Vol. I [-Vol. VI]. London :
printed by George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoods, printers to the Queen's
Most Excellent Majesty. For her Majesty's Stationery Office. — 1857 [-1872].
Contents.
Vol. I. 1867 [List of periodicals ; A-Clu.— Ixxix, 960 pp.].
II. 1868 [Coa-Gra.— iv, 1012 pp.].
III. 1869 [Gre-Lez.— V, 1002 pp.].
IV. 1870 [Lhe-Poz.— iv, 1006 pp.].
V. 1871 [Pra-Tiz.— iv, 1000 pp.].
VI. 1872 [Tka-Zyl.— xi, 763 pp.].
This is, to some extent, complementary to the Repertorium comraen-
tationum of Reuss, and is a useful and indeed an almost indispensable
auxiliary for the scientific investigator. All the articles published in
periodical literature (the publications of scientific societies as well as the
scientific magazines) are herein enumerated under the authors' names
in alphabetical order. A supplementary volume, it is understood, is now
in press, which will include the contributions to the periodical literature
published between 18G3 and 1874. It is also contemplated to publish
another series in the same form, combining all the articles according
to subjects. If this intention is completed, a collection will be thus
formed which must necessarily be accessible, either through public
libraries or private means, to every man engaged in active scientific
research.
MATHEMATICS.
SOHNCKE (L. A.). Bibliotheca mathematica.— Verzeichniss der BUchor iiber die
gesammten Zweige der Mathematili, als : Arithmetik, hohere Analysis, construirende
nud analytische Geometric, Mechanik, Astronoraie und Geodiisie, welche in Deutsch-
land und dem Auslande vom Jahre 1830 bis Mitte des Jahres 1854 erschienen sind.
Herausgegebeu von L. A. Sohncke, weil. Prof. d. Mathematik in Halle. — Mit eineni
vollstiindigen Materienregister. — Leipzig. Verlag vou Wilhelm Eugelmann. 1854.
[8°. xviii, 388 pp.]
Quite a mil catalogue of separately published volumes and theses,
enumerated under authors' names in alphabetical order, in five separate
sections, viz : A. Mathematik iin AUgemeiuen und Arithmetik im Beson-
deren (mathematics in general and arithmetic especially), B. Hohere
Analysis (higher analysis), C. Construirende und analytische Geometric
Scientijio Libraries. 207
(descriptiv^e and analytical geometry), D. Mechaaik (mechanics), und
E. Astronoraie uad Geodiisie (astronomy and geodesy). An alpliabeti-
cal index of subjects, under which authors' names are mentioned, with
references to the pages where the titles are giv^en, is added.
WOLFF (Emil Th.). Quellen-Literatur der theoretisch-organischen Chemie oder Ver-
zeichuiss der voni Anfang des letzteu Viertheils des vorigen Jahrhuaderts bis zani
Schluss des Jahres 1844 ausgefuhrtea chemischea Uotersuchuageii iiber die Eigeii-
schaftea und die Constitutioa der orgaaischen Substanzen, ihrer Verbiiidungea uud
Zersetzungsproducte. Mit Rteter Beriicksichtiguug der Literatur der Chemie in ihrer
An wendnngauf Agricultur, Physiologie und Pathologie aiis den wichtigeren deutscheu
und franzosischen Zeitschriften der Chemie und Fharniacie gesammelt, in systema-
lische Ordnung zusainmengestellt und mit ausfdhrlichen Sach- iiad Nainenregistern
versehen von Emil Th. Wolff, Doctor der Philosophie. — Halle, Edouard Anton. 1845.
[8", xii pp., 202 1., with 808 columns,— Price, 2 Th.]
ZUCHOLD (Ernst Amandus). Bibliotheca chemica. — Verzeichuiss der auf dem Ge-
biete der reinen, pharmaceutischen, physiologischen und technischen Chemie in den
Jahren 1840 bis Mitte 1858 in Deutschland und im Auslande erschienenen Schrif-
ten. Von Ernst Amandus Ziichold. Mit einem ausfiihrlichen Sachregister. Gottin-
gen. Yandenhoeck «Sr Ruprecht's Verlag. 1859. [8°. viii, 342 pp. Price, 1 Th. 15
Ngr.]
The titles are arranged under the names of the authors in alphabeti-
cal order, but an analytical index of subjects is added, under which the
names of authors contribnting thereto are specified, with reference to
the pages of the body of the work. The work is useful, but very incom-
plete.
RUPRECHT (Rudolph). Bibliotheca Chemica et Puarraaceutica.— Alphabetisches
Vorzeichniss der auf dem Gebiete der reinen, pharmaceutischen, physiologischen und
technischen Chemie in den Jahren 1853 bis Ende 1870 in Djutschland uad im Aus-
lande erschienenen Schriften. Von Rud. Ruprecht. Mit einem ausfiihrlichen Sach-
register.—Gottingen, Vandeuhoeck «S6 Ruprecht's Verlag. 1872. [8°. Title, 125 pp.]
A continuation of the preceding, and arranged according to the same
plan.
ZOOLOGY.— (general.)
AGASSIZ (Louis John Rudolph) and STRICKLAND (Hugh E.). Bibliographia Zoolo-
gife et Geologic-e. — A general catalogue of all books, tracts, aud memoirs on zoology
and geology. By Prof. Louis Agassiz, corr. memb. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sc. &c. Cor-
rected, enlarged, and edited by H. E. Strickland, M. A., F. G. S. &c. [vol. IV;]— (and
Sir William Jardine, Bart., F. R. S., E. & C.) [Vol. I-I V as below]. London : printed
for the Ray Society. 1848 [-1854]. 8«.
Contents.
Vol.1. Containing periodicals, and the alphabetical list from A to BYW.— 1848.
[1 p. 1., xxiii, 506 pp.]
Vol. XL Containing the alphabetical list from CAB to FYF.— 1850. [3 p. 1., 492 pp.]
Vol. III. Containing the alphabetical list from GAB to MYL.— 1852. [3 p. L,
657 pp.]
Vol. IV. Containing the alphabetical list from NAC to ZWI.— 1854. [3 p. 1.,
604 pp.]
208 Public Libraries in the United States.
This work ia its time was of considerable use to zoologists and geol-
ogists who simply wished to ascertain what a given writer had published
upon a subject and where it might be found. The articles are cata-
logued in each case under authors' names alone, and the articles of any
given author are not arranged according to any uniform method, chro-
nological or otherwise ; the titles also are often taken at second hand
or in translated forms, the originals not having been accessible to
the authors. This, therefore, at once indicates the absence of many
works available for consultation. A critical examination amply con-
firms this supposition. The work was originally prepared for Pro-
fessor Agassiz's private use, but was subsequently accepted by the Ray
Society for publication, and Mr. Strickland, the editor, by his biblio-
graphical ability and care has greatly increased the number of titles
and otherwise improved the work, so that he should be treated as a
co-author. A catalogue of the publications of societies (Pars prima?
acta societatum, diaria, et tractatuum syllogas continens) is prefixed to
the alphabetical arrangement under authors, and is the model which
the Smithsonian Institution has adopted for the catalogue of periodical
works in its own library. The work has now been superseded by Carus
and Engelmann's Bibliotheca Zoologica.
EXGELMANN (Wilhelm). Bibliotheca liistorico-naturalis. Verzeichniss der Biicher
iiber Naturgeschicbte welche ia Dautschland, Scaudiuaviea, Holland, England,
Frankreicb, Italieu i\nd Spanien in den Jabren 1700-1346 erscbienen siud. Von
Wilhelm Eugelmann. — Erster Band. Biicherkunde. Hiilfsmittel. AUgemeine
Schriften. Vergloichende Anatomie und Physiologie. Zoologie. Palaeontologie. —
Mit einem Namen- und Sachregister. — Leipzig. Verlag von Wilhelm Eugelmann.
1846. [8°. ix, 786i)p.]
Also entitled on opposite (left hand) title-page :
Index librorura historiam natnralem spectantiura ab anno MDCC ad MDCCCXLVI
in Germauia, Scandinavia, Anglia, Gallia, Belgio, Italia atque Hispauia impressorum.
Edidit Guilielmas Eugelmann. — Pars Prima, continens historiam natnralem in nniver-
8um, anatomiam et physiologiam comparatam, zoologiam, palaeontologiam. — Cnm
indice scriptorum et rerum. — Lipsiae, sumptibus Guilielmi Eugelyiaun. MDCCCXLVI.
[etc.].
CARUS (Jnlins Victor) und ENGELMANN (Wilhelm). Bibliotheca Zoologica.— Ver-
zeichniss der Schriften iiber Zoologie, welche in den periodischen Werken enthalten
und vom Jahre 1846-1860 selbstilndig erscbienen sind. Mit Einscbluss der allgemein-
naturgescbicbtlicheu, periodischen nud palaeontologischea Schriften. Bearbeitet
von J.Victor Cams, Professor der vergleichenden Anatomie in Leipzig und Wilhelm
Eugelmann. Zweiter Band. — Leipzig. Verlag von Wilhelm Eugelmann. 1861.
[8«. 1 vol. in 2, viz: x, 1-950 pp. ; xxiv, 951-2144 pp.]
Also entitled on opposite (left hand) title-page :
Bibliotheca Hlstorico-Naturalis. Herausgegeben von Wilhelm Engelmann. Supple-
ment-Baud, euthalteud die in den periodischen Werken aufgenommenen und die vom
Jahre 1846-1860 erschieneneu Schriften. Leipzig. Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann.
1861.
Scientific Libraries. 209
As indicated by the title-page, the last work is complementary and
supplementary to that published by Eugehnaun in 1846 under the title
Bibliotheca Historico-jS'aturalis. It is, however, far superior in every
respect to the previous work.
The series is one of the most complete and useful of scientific bibliog-
raphies, so far, at least, as the supplementary volume is concerned. It
embraces not only the special works that have appeared since the year
1700, but also all the memoirs and articles that have appeared in the
numerous periodical publications of different countries. In the supple-
mentary volume the primary arrangement is according to subjects under
the following captions:
Naturwissexschaftex iji Allgemeixex.— Natural sciences ix general.
I. HUlfsraittel. — Auxiliaries.
II. Geschichte der Naturwisseuscliafteu. — Historj' of natural sciences.
III. Periodische Scbriften. — Periodical writiugs.
IV". Vermischte naturhistorische Scbriften. — Miscellaneous natural history writ
ings.
V. Naturhistorische Lander- und Reisebeschreibungen.— Natural history of
different countries and vojages.
ZooLOGiE.— Zoology.
A. Vergleichende Anatoinie und Physiologic. — Comparative anatomy and phy-
siology.
B. Vermischte zoologische Scbriften. — Miscellaneous zoological writings.
C. Tbiergeograpbie. Faunen. — Animal geography. Faunas.
D. Scbriften liber einzelue Gruppen. — Writings upon special groups, viz:
I. Wirbellose Thiere im AUgemeinen. — Invertebrate animals in general
II. Protozoa.
III. Coeleuterata. Polypi et medus:e.
IV. Echinodermata.
V. Vermes.
VI. Artbropoda.
VII. Rotatoria
VIII. Crustacea.
IX. Myriapoda.
X. Arachnida.,
XL Insecta.
XII. MoUusca.
XIII. Wirbeltbiere im AUgemeinen. — Vertebrates in general.
XIV. Pisces.
XV. Reptilia et amphibia.
XVL Amphibia.
XVII. Reptilia.
XVIIL Aves.
XIX. Mammalia.
XX. Homo sp.
Palaontologie. — PaLJEOX'TOLOGY.
I. Allgeraeines und Vermischtes. — General and miscellaneous.
11. Petrefacten einzelnerLiinder und Orte. — Fossils of single lauds and regions.
III. Petrefacten eiuzelner Schicbten. — Fossils of single strata.
14 E
210 Public Libraries in the United States.
IV. Fossile Pflanzeu.— 'Fossil plants.
1. Im Allgemeiueu. — In general.
2. Einzelue Fatnilien, Gattungea unci Arteu. — Single families geaera, aad
species.
V. Fossile Thiere.— Fossil animals
1. Im Allgemeinen. — In general.
2. Einzelne Gruppen. — Single groups.
A. Wirbellose Thiere im Allgemeinen. — Invertebrate animals in general.
B. Protozoa.
C. Polypi.
D. Echinodermata.
E. Vermes.
F. Crustacea.
G. Arachnida et insecta
H. Mollusca.
I. Wirbelthiere im Allgemeinen. — Vertebrates iu general.
K. Pisces.
L. Amphibia et reptilia.
M. Aves.
N. Mammalia.
Nachtriige.
Sachregister.
Autorenregister.
ORNITHOLOGY.
GIEBEL (Dr. Christoph Gottfried). Thesaurus Ornithologiae.— Repertorium der ge-
sammten oruithologischen Literatur und Nomenclatur siimmtlicher Gattuugen und
Arten der Vogel nebst Synonymen und geographisoher Verbreitung. Von Dr. C. G.
Giebel, Professor der Zoologie und Director des zoologischen Museums der Univer-
sitat in Halle.— Erster Band. Leipzig. F. A. Brockhaus. 1872.
Of this work, two volumes, in four half- volumes, have been published,
viz: Erster Band, xi, 868 pp., 1872; Zweiter Band, vii, 788 pp., 1875,
A third volume is.proposed to complete the work. The numerous mis-
takes and. carelessness of execution render it a very unreliable work
The bibliographical portion (Repertorium oruithologicum) occupies the
first 252 pages of the first volume. The titles of papers are collected
under twenty-three general heads, viz :
I. Ornithologia generalis. Systema. Nomenclatura.
II. Opera periodica.
III. Opera illustrata et collectiva.
IV. Monographite. Familiie. Genera. Species.
V. Pterylographin.
VI. Anatomia. Physiologia.
VII. Embryologia.
VIII. Oologia. Nidologia.
IX. Propagatio.
X. Biologia.
XI. Migratio.
XII. Distributio geographica.
XIII. Europa.
XIV. Europa Septentrioualis. Terr* Arctic.e.
XV. Britannia.
XVI. Gern:ania, Austria. (Holland'a.)
XVII. Gallia (Belgium).
Scientific Libraries. 211
XVIII. Eiiropa Meridioaalis (Hispauia. Italia. Holvetia. (jrneoia. Tarcia.
InsuUe Mediterrauefp).
XIX. Russia.
XX. Asia.
XXI. Archipelagus Malayanus (Moluccas. Philippinne).
XXII. Australia. Oceania (Nova Guiuea. iSfova ZelanJia. Polynesia).
XXIII. Africa.
XXIV-VI. America Septentrionalis, Centralis, Meridionalis.
XXVII. Aves lUQnstros;^, abuormes, hybriche.
XXVIII. PaL-Bornithologia.
XXIX. Aves domesticPB et captivre.
XXX. Ornitbologia agraria et venatoria.
XXXI. Oruitbologia vulgaris.
XXXII. CoUectioues.
XXXIII. Taxidermia.
The manner in which articles are collected under these several heads
makes it very difficult to know exactly where to look for many, and
there is no index of authors. The work has been very generally and
severely criticised by ornithologists; but as there is no other at present
of the same scope, it is a useful one. It must, however, be consulted
with extreme caution.
ICHTHYOLOGY.
BOSGOED (D. Mulder). Bibliotbeca Icbtbyologica et Piscatoria.— Catalogus van
boeken en gescbriften over de uatuurlijke gescbiedenis van de visscben en walvis-
scbeu, de kunstmatige viscbte^Jlt, de visscberijen, de wetgeving op de visScberijen,
enz. Bewerkt door D. Mulder Bosgoed, bibliotbecaris van bet Rjtterdamsch Lees-
kabinet. — Haarlem, de erven Loosjes. 1874.
Also entitled :
Bibliotbeca Icbtbyologica et Piscatoria.— Catalogue de livrcs et d'6crits snr I'bistoire
naturelle des poissons et des c6tac63, la pisciculture, les pecbes, la legislation des
p^cbes, etf. Rddig6 par D. Mulder Bosgoed, bibliotbdcaire du Rotterdamscb Lees-
kabinet. — Haarlem, cbez les beritiers Loosjes. 1874. [8°. xxvi,474pp.]
A tolerably full bibliography of ichthj^ology, but of minor value, in-
asmuch as the articles are only enumerated under the authors' names
under a few very general heads, viz :
I. NaTUURLIJKE GE'SCHrEDEXIS VAN DE VISSCHEN.— HiSTOIRE NATURELLE DES rOIS-
SONS.
a. Allgemeene ^yerken. — G6n6ralit6s, dictionn aires, encyclopddies, etc.
1). Visscben von verscbillende landen en werelddeelen. Eukele soorten. — Poissons
de differents pays. Espfeces s6par6es.
c. De baring eu baringacbtige visscben. — Le hareug.
d. De zalm en zalmacbtige visscben. — Le saumon.
e. De walvisch en walviscbacbtige dieren. — Les ccStacds.
/. Kunstmatige viscbteelt. — Pisciculture.
ViSSCHERIJEN.— PfeCHES.
a. Allgemeene werken. — G6n6ralit6s.
h. Haringvisscberij. — Pecbe du bareng.
c. Walviscbvangst en reizen ter walviscbvangst. — Pecbe de la baleine et journaux
de baleiniers.
d. Kabeljauwvisscberij. — Pecbe de la raorne.
212 Piihlic Libraries in the United States.
e. Kustvisscherij. Oestervisscherij ea vesterteelt. — Peche coti^re. Peche et culture
des huitres.
/. Riviervisscberij. Hengelkunst. Zalmvisscli3rij.— Peche fluviale. Peche a la
ligne. Peche du saumou.
g. Tentoonstellingen van visscherij-voortbreugseleD, gereedschappeu, enz. — Exposi-
tions de produits et engins de peche.
h. Wetgeving op de visscherijen. — Lsgislation des peches.
i. Tractateu betrekkelijk de visscherijen. — Trait6s et conventions concernant les
peches.
k. Addenda.
Alphabetisch register.— Table alphab6tique.
CONCHOLOGY.
BINNEY (William G.)- Bibliography of North American conchology previous to the
year 1830. Prepared for the Smithsonian Institution by W. G. Binney.
Part I. American authors. — Washington : Smithsonian Institution. March, 1863.
(Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. V, article 1. 8'. vii, 650 pp.)
Part II. Foreign authors. — Washington: Smithsonian Institution. June, 1864.
(Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 174, vol. IX, article 1. 8^. 3 p. 1., 306
PP-)
A quite couiplete and elaborate bibliograpliy of all data relative to
Americau couchology and conchologists, but very indigested, no
uniform arrangement having been adopted for the classification of the
titles, and no complete index having been yet published, although long
promised.
ENTOMOLOGY.
PERCHERON (A.). Bibliographie entomologique, comprenant I'indication par ordre
alphab<Stique de noms d'auteurs (1°) des ouvrages entomologiques publics en France
et h l'6tranger, depuis les temps les plus recules jusques et y compris I'ann^e 1834;
(2°) des monographes et m^moires conteuus dans les recueils, journaux et collections
acad^miques frangaises et ^trang^res; accompagn6e de notices sur les ouvrages p6-
riodiques, les dictionnaires et les memoires des soci6t6s savantes; suLvie d'une table
m^thodique et chronologique des mati^res; par A. Percheron. [2 tomes.] A Paris,
chez J. B. Bailliere, [etc.] ; a Londres, meme maison, [etc.] 1837. [S". 2 vols.]
Contents.
Tome premier, [xii, 326 pp., viz : A-Q.]
Tome second. [2 p. I., 376 pp., viz: R-Z, pp. 1-140; Anonymes, pp. 141-215; In-
dication des dictionnaires, ouvrages p^riodiques, et memoires des soci^t^s savan-
tes, les plus utiles k consulter, pp. 217-242 ; Table des articles, par ordre de
matibre et 6.3 chronologic, pp. 243-372 ; Errata, pp. 373-376.]
Quite a full and valuable work, but supplanted now by the Bibliotheca
Entomologica of Dr. Hagen, to whom it evidently served as a model and
basis for his work.
HAGEN (Hermann August). Bibliotheca entomologica.— Die Litteratur iibcr das
ganze Gebiete der Entomologie bis zum Jahre 1862. Von Dr. Hermann August Ha-
gen. [2 Bande.] Leipzig. Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmanu. 1862 [-1863]. 8°. 7
Thlr. 20 Ngr.
Contents.
Erster Band. A-M. [xii, 566 pp.] 1862.
Zweiter Band. N-Z. Mit einem systematischen Sachregister. [1 p. 1., 512 pp.]
Scientific Libraries. 213
This is one of the most complete and carefully prepared of scientific
bibliographies. The titles, when the authors are known, are primarily
arranged under the names of authors in alphabetical order, and under
each author's name in chronological sequence. When initials or evident
pseudonyms alone are given under such names, and where the authors
are entirely unknown, the titles are arranged under subjects, viz: 1. All-
g-emeines und Verraischtes (general and miscellaneous) ; 2. Lepidoptera ;
3. Bombyx mori ; 4. Apis mellifica ; 5. Yespa und andere Hymenoptera j
G. Cochenille manna; 7. Schiidliche Insecten (injurious insects); 8. Lo-
custa; 9. Gryllotalpa, Gryllus, Blatta, Forficula ; 10. Pulex ; 11.
Schiidliche Diptera (injurious diptera) ; 12. Cimex ; 13. Aphis; 14.
Ameisen (ants), Termiten; 15. Meloe ; 16. Maikiifer-Schaden ; 17. Hal-
tica; IS. Dem Weinstock schadliche Insecten (insects injurious to the
vine) ; 19. Den Fruchtbiiumen schadliche Insecten (insects injurious to
fruit trees); 20. Dem Gemiise schadliche Insecten (insects injurious to
vegetables) ; 21. Dem Getreide schadliche Insecten (insects injurious
to grain); 22. Forstschadliche Insecten (insects injurious to forests); 23.
Den Biichern und Zeugen schadliche Insecten (insects injurious to books
and textile fabrics) ; Entomologische Vereine (entomological societies).
An excellent synoptical reference is given to the authors who have
treated of the various subjects connected with entomology, under gen-
eral heads and numerous minor heads, viz : 1, Hiilfsmittel; Allgemeiues
(auxiliaries, general), under 17 heads ; 2. Allgemeine Eutomologie (gen-
eral entomology), under 35 heads ; 3. Specielle Entomologie (special
entomology), under the names of the orders, families, etc., in systematic
order; 4. Anatomic (anatomy), under 25 heads; 5. Physiologie (physi-
ology), under 28 heads ; 6. Biologic (biology), under 30 heads ; 7. Nutzen
durch Insecten (benefits from insects), under 44 heads; 8. Schaden
durch Insecten (injuries from insects), under 47 heads.
KRtJGER (M. S.). Bibliographia botanica.— Hanclbucli der botanischen Literatiir ia
systematischer Ordming uebst kurzeu biograpbischeu Notizea iiber die botanischen
Schriftsteller. Zum Gebrauche fiirFreunde nod Lehrer der Pflanzenkunde. Vou M.
S. Kruger. Berlin, Hande u. Speuer. 1841. [8°. yi, 464 pp. Price, 2 Th.]
PRITZEL (G. A.). Thesaurus literaturte botanicc-e omnium gentium inde a rerum
botanicarum initiis ad nostra usque tempora, quindecim millia operum recensens.
Curavit G. A. Pritzel. Lipsiae,Brockhaus. 1851. [4'\ Title., viii, 547 pp. Price, 14
Th. ; on writing paper, 21 Th.]
A valuable bibliography, but mostly confined to special monographs
and theses, and Eot including the periodical literature to any extent:
it is consequently far less comprehensive than the corresponding
work of Carus and Engelmann for zoology, and even than Agassiz
and Strickland's work for zoology and geology. The titles of the works
enumerated are arranged under the names of authors, in alphabetical
order, and the contributions of each author in chronological sequence.
This is followed by an analytical synopsis, in which the various essays
214 Public Libraries in tJie United States.
are distributed under special heads and in rigorous systematic order.
A second edition has been in part, and, perhaps, wholly published,
although the writer has only seen the first three parts.
ZUCHOLD (Eruestus Amandus). Additamenta ad Georgii Augusti Pritzelii Thesan-
rura literaturae Lotanicae collegit et composuit Ernestus Amaudiis Zuchold. [Ex
annalibus societatis naturalis Haleusis, quibus titulus est Jahresbericht des natur-
wissenschaftlichen Vereiaes in Halle. (Berlin, 1853), seorsim impressnm.] Halis,
typ. express. Ploetzianis. [Lipsiae, T. O. Weigelin comm.] 1853. [8°. 60pp. Price,
20Ngr.]
As indicated by the title, a supplement to the first edition of Thesau-
rus literaturae botanicae, but of inferior value.
PEITZEL (G. A.). Iconum botanicarum index locupletissimus. Die Abbildungen
sichtbar bliibender Ptlanzen und Farnkriiuter aus der botanischen und Gartenlite-
ratur des XVIII. und XIX. Jahrhunderts in alphabetiscber Folge zusammengestellt
von G. A. Pritzel. Berlin, Nicolai, 1855. [4°. Title, xxxii, 1184 pp. Price, 7 Tb.]
Zweite [Titel-] Ausgabe, daselbst. 1861. [4". Price, 4 Tb.]
This work gives, under a systematical botanical arrangement, ref-
erences to the plates of plants published in works of generally recog-
nized merit.
The subjoined table will show the principal societies and schools in
the United States which possess libraries of a scientific character, and
the extent of each library, as indicated by the number of bound vol-
umes. In addition, the dates of organization of the several schools and
societies are given, and, in the case of the latter, the number of mem-
bers, and the number of pamphlets in the libraries, so far as reported.
Several societies recently formed, having but the beginnings of libra-
ries, are included, because they represent the development of new
branches of science.
A number of libraries that would be excluded from the table by a
rigid system of classification have been admitted, in order to show, in a
measure, the collections that have grown out of the necessities of the
various applications of science.
Scientific Libraries.
215
Tahle of the principal libraries of schools of science and scientific societies.
I.-SCIENTIFIC SCHOOLS.
[For additional statistics of theas and other s?-ientific libraries, ;
volume.]
reneral taoie at tbe end of this
Place.
Name.
■S .5
\i
11
125
Sheffield Scientific School . . .
1866
1868
.1, 000
10, 600
800
3,540
3,000
2,200
Iowa
Iowa State Ao-ricultural Culleo-e
1868
1860
1869
.
OroDO
Maine State College of Agriculture and Me-
chanic Arts.
Maryland
United States Naval Academy
1845
17, 678
1 800
Massachusetts A oricultural College
1867
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asy-
lum for the Blind.
2,500
Cambridge
Botanical Gardens, (Harvard University) . . .
1864
2,500
2,500
13 000
Cambridge
1858
Jamaica Plain
Bussey Institution, (Harvard University)...
1, 500
Worcester
Worcester County Free Institute of Indus-
trial Science.
1868
1,000
Michio-an
1 ansinff
Michigan State Agricultural College
Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy
New Hampshire College of Agriculture and
1857
4 200
Missouri
...Rolla
1871
1 478
New Hampshire
...Hanover
1868
1,300
Mechanic Arts.
Hanover
Thayer School of Civil Engineering
1862
2,000
New Jersey
New York
5,030
1,145
...New York
New York
School of Mines of Columbia College
Engineering School of Union College
1864
7 000
Schenectady
1845
3 000
1824
3,000
West Point
United States Military Academy
1812
25, 000
1,000
Ohio
.. .Columbus
Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College ..
1873
Pennsylvania...
...Philadelphia
State College P.O....
IR?-)
15, 000
Pennsylvania State Colleo'e
1859
3 200
216
Public Libraries in the United States.
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CHAPTER VIII.
LIBRARIES IN PRISONS AND REFORMATORIES.
BY THE EDITORS.
I.— PKISOX LIBRARIES.
History of prison libraries ix the United States — Number — How maintained
— Regulations for use — Characteu — Extent of use— Influence.
A majority of the convicts in the State prisons of tbe Northern and
Western States can read j a large proportion both read and write, and
many, before their incarceration, received higher instruction than is im-
parted in the common schools. According to an official report^ to the
legislature of Xew York in 1867, the number of prisoners unable to read
at the time of commitment varied from one-twentieth in Vermont to one-
third each in Wisconsin and New York, (Sing Sing prison,) which two
prisons contained the largest proportion of illiterate Inmates. The
report adds :
Of convicts who give themselves iu as able to read, from a fourth to a half cannot,
as a general thiug, do so without spelling out more or less of the words.
The reports of the State Penitentiary for the Eastern District of Penn-
sylvania, at Philadelphia, show that of the 7,092 convicts received in a
period of forty-three years, beginning with 1829, 1,418, or 19.99 per cent.,
could neither read nor write ; 1,124, or 15.85 per cent., could read ; and
4,5.50, or 64.16 per cent., could read and write.
In the Southern States the proportion of illiterate convicts is consid-
erably larger. Thus the warden of the North Carolina Penitentiary re-
ported in February, 1875, that of the 455 prisoners but 75, or about 16.5
per cent., could read. In the Mississippi Penitentiary one-fourth of the
convicts are reported as making use of the library ; while that iu the
Virginia Penitentiary is used by one-third of the convicts. According
to a report^ made in 1874, the number of convicts in all the State prisons
and penitentiaries proper, in 1873, was 18,520. From thirty-four prisons
1 Eeport on the Prisons and Reformatories of the United States and Canada, made to
the legislature of New York, January, 1867, by E. C. Wines, D. D., LL. D., and Theo-
dore W. Dwight, LL. D., commissioners of the Prison Association of New York. As-
sembly document 35, p. 23L
Transactions of the Third National Prison Reform Congress, being the third annual
report of the National Prison Association of the United States. S". New York, OfiSce of
the Association, 1874, pp. 376, 382.
218
Libraries in Prisons and Beformatories. 219
statistics of the education of the prisoners were received and reported as
follows, the percentages given being averages for the whole number:
Percentage of prisoners who were unable to read, and of t'lose who read with diffi-
culty on their admission — prisoners, therefore, who were virtually illiterate, forty-
eight ; percentage of prisoners having a fair common school education, fifty-one ; per-
centage of prisoners having a superior education, one.
Deducting from the total number of convicts all unable to read, and
making allowance for those who read but imperfectly, there still remains
a large proportion of the American prison population that can and will
read if an opportunity is afforded. Impressed by this fact, and actuated
by the belief that the^difficulties of prison discipline would be lessened,
greater efficiency of adminisl ration secured, the moral sense of the pris-
oners quickened and improved, and thus an important end of imprison-
ment, the reformation of the criminal, rendered of easier attainment,
manj" l)hilanthropic men and women, distinguished by their efforts in
behalf of prison reform, began at an early day a movement to furnish
libraries to prisons. The collections thus made were designed to form a
necessary adjunct to the Sunday and secular schools which, by the energy
and perseverance of these philanthropists, were about the same time
organized for the instruction of convicts, as well as to supply the intel-
lectual and moral wants of those who did not need primary instruction.
The first notice we find looking toward the formation of a prison
library in our country is in a code of rules and regulations enacted by
the inspectors of the Kentucky penitentiary as early as the year 1802.
The following is the provision of the code on this subject:
The convicts shall be encouraged to employ any leisure time in reading, and dona-
tions of books will be thankfully received ; and the keeper shall take care of them,
and procure a list with the names of the donors.
It is not stated that any considerable collection of books resulted from
this invitation.
Prison libraries owe their origin to the benevolence of individuals and
societies, stimulated by the appeals of statesmen and philanthropists
like Livingston, Seward, Sumner, Mann, Dwight, Bacon, Howe, Miss
Dix, and a host of others who, forty years ago, devoted themselves to in-
culcating correct views as to the purposes of imprisonment, eradicating
the evils which beset prison administration, and ameliorating the con-
dition of prisoners. Their efforts laid the foundations of many prison
libraries, the beneficial influences of which were sooner or later recog-
nized by legislators, so that now, in many of the States, the prison libra-
ries receive a regular annual grant from the public treasury for their
increase and maintenance. In 1845, after "four years' personal study
and observation of the penitentiaries, jails, and almshouses in the
Northern and Middle States, with occasional visits to others adjacent,"
Miss D. L. Dix made a report^ in which will be found a thorough dis-
' Remarks on Prisons and Prison Discipline in the United States. By D. L. Dix. 8".
Boston, Munroe & Francis, 1845.
220 PuNic Libraries in the United States.
cussiou of the several questions of prison management, and much in-
formation regarding the reformatory agencies employed. Respecting
libraries, the report affords the following information :
Thomastoivn, Me.— The prison is deficient in a supply of books.
Concord, N. H. — There is a small library, and each prisoner is supplied with a weekly
temperance paper and a religious paper.
Charlestotvn, Mass. — Some hundred volumes of books are in circulation, presented by
several individuals from time to time, but chiefly purchased, first by the sura of $50
sent by the mother of a life prisoner to her son to furnish him with proper read-
ing. Books were purchased with this sum, and these he used for a time, and then put
them into general circulation, that his fellow-prisoners might be benefited thereby.
A donation of $50 was opportunely sent from New York by persons friendly to this
important means of promoting good in prisons; the sum was expended as designed
by the donors. At the last session of the legislature $100 were appropriated to add
to the number and variety of works already in use. The additions to the library
Lave for these several years past been made by the prisoners, who, on being discharged
have often left the books which they brought with them, or which have been furnished
by their friends.
Auburn, N. Y. — The supply of books at this, as at other prisons, is quite inadequate
to the wants of the i)risoners. I think there were less than 350 volumes in a condition
for use.
SingSivgjN. Y. — Books have been, through the efforts of intelligent persons interested
in the reform of the prisons, contributed, and these, with the efforts of the officers, have
aided in the improvement of the convicts.
Trenton, N. J. — Some have received books, but there are too few belonging to the
prison library to aiford much advantage.
Baltimore, Md. — The Maryland Tract Society has liberally proposed to establish a
library of appropriate books for the use of the convicts, and much good is expected to
result therefrom.
Allegheny, Pa. — The prison library is receiving additions from time to time.
Philadelphia, Pa. — A well chosen library, established by the benevolence of Mr. J.
Bacon, which is gradually increasing through the good offices of those who ax^preciate
this mode of instructing the prisoners, is in continual circulation.
Dauphin County Jail, Harrishurg, Pa. — Has a well chosen library.
Philadelphia, Pa., County Jail. — The prisoners are supplied with suitable work, and
with books.
The library of the State Penitentiary at Philadelphia was, as we have
seen, begun by the gift of Mr. Bacon, in 1829 ; that at Sing Sing, N. Y.,
owes its origin to the benevolence of Governor Seward, who, in 1840,
directed the officers of the prison to select books for the prison library
to the amount of $300, which he paid ; the library of the prison at Al-
ton, 111., was given in 1846, by the convicts in the Oharlestown, Mass.,
prison. The following account of the donation is from Prison Disci-
pline in America :^
About a year ago, a clergyman from Alton, 111., visited the prison and was requested
by the chaplain to perform the evening service ; after which he made a short address
to the prisoners — a mark of attention from a stranger which always gives them pleas-
ure. He expressed his high gratification with the neatness, order, and contentment
■which prevailed there, and his particular delight in seeing the library, observing that
they were much better off in this respect than the inmates of the State prison at Al-
1 Prison Discipline in America. By Francis C. Gray. London, John Murray, Albe-
marle street. 8°. 1848. pp. 53, 54.
Libraries in Prisons and Reformatories. 221
tou, who had no books at all. The next day, as the chai)lain was walkin^j through
one of the workshops, a prisoner having asked leave to quit his work and speak to
him, told him that he had some books which he could spare and should like to seud to
the prisoners at Alton, if permitted, aud so had some of hisshopmates. The chaplain,
having conferred with the warden, stated in the chapel, after evening prayers, that
such an application had been made to him, and added, that if any prisoner had books
which he wished to send to the Alton prison he might leave them in the adjoining
room, on coming to prayers the next moruing. He also sent worl to his friend the
clergyman, that if he would call at the prison the next day he would fiud some books
for Alton. The reverend gentleman went accordingly and took with him a large silk
handiierchief to carry off the books. What was his astonishment to find, in the room
adjoining the chapel, more than four hundred bound volumes, besides tracts and
pamphlets. The silk handkerchief would not do, and the prisoners req[uested permis-
sion to make boxes to pack the books in.
The prison libraries gradually increased in number, aud iu 1837, accord-
ing to the report of Drs. D wight and Wines, before quoted, there were
in 13 prisons 20,413 volumes ; being an average of 1,570 volumes to each.
The largest prison library in the country at that time was that at Sing
Sing, with 4,000 volumes, and the smallest reported was that? of the Wis-
consin State Prison, with 250 volumes. The report says :
The legislatures of many of the States make a fixed annual appropriation for the in-
crease of the prison libraries. New York appropriates for her three prisons $950;
Pennsylvania for her two, $450 ; Michigan, $300 ; Massachusetts, $200 ; Connecticut,
$100 ; New Hampshire, $50 to $100 ; Vermont, $25. The legislatures of Ohio, Wisconsin,
and other States appropriate for this purpose only on application by the prison author-
ities, accompanied with a statement of the necessities, and the amouut required to meet
the same.
According to the latest reports received at the Bureau of Education
there are forty prison libraries in the United States, containing in the
aggregate 61,095 volumes, being an average of 1,527 volumes to each.
The largest library reported is that in the State Penitentiary at Phila-
delphia, which numbers nearly 9,000 volumes, besides 1,000 school
books: and the smallest, that in the State Penitentiary of Florida,
which in 1873 reported 40 volumes.
The legislatures of thirteen States make annual appropriations for
the purchase of books, the amount varying iu different States from $50
to $800 ; five prisons report " occasional appropriations ; " the libraries
of the remainder receive additions from purchases made from visitors'
fees, earnings of prisoners, contributions, and by donations of books.
The following abstract of the regulations respecting the use of books
by the convicts in several prisons is taken from the report of Drs.
Dwight and Wines :
In the prisons of Ohio and Wisconsin prisoners are not allowed a choice as to the
books to be read by them, but are furnished, in the former once in two weeks, and the
latter once each week, with such as the ofiScers may choose to give them. In all the
other prisons visited by us the convicts are allowed to select such books as may suit
their taste.
The method of distributing the books to the prisoners varies in different prisons.
In Massachusetts the following plan is adopted : The convicts are allowed to take out
222 Public Libraries in the United States.
oue book at a time, on Mondays and Saturdays, and they keep it a fortniirbt. If it is
wanted for a longer period, permission must be obtained from the librarian. Each
volume is numbered, and every prisoner has a catalogue and card, and pats down on the
card the numbers of (say twenty to ftfty ) such books as he would like to read, so that he
may be sure of securing some one. He lays bis book, after he has read it, on the stool
in his cell, with the card in the book, and the runner takes it and carries it to the
assistant librarian, who changes the book and sends back another. As the book is
read the number is rubbed off the card, and another one placed in its steal.
A somewhat similar method of distribution is pursued in the Eastern Penitentiary,
Pennsylvania. The books are distiibuted every two weeks, and each applicant is al-
lowed to take out one large volume, or two of more moderate size. Every convict has
in his cell a printed catalogue and a card-slate, on which he marks eighteen numbers,
out of which the librarian is able to obtain some book that will suit his taste, though
not always the one that he would prefer.
A very different plan from either of tlie above is adopted in two of our New York
prisons— those at Sing Sing and Clinton. There the prisoners come in squads or com-
panies once in three weeks, and each one selects one or two volumes for himself of those
that may be upon the shelves at the time. No doubt a good deal of time is con-
snmed in this way, and the work might be done, is done iu other prisons, in a much
shorter period. But it is at least doubtful whether it would be wise to change the
method on this ground. There are obvious advantages, and those connected with the
higher ends of prison discipline, in the mode of distribution practiced in these prisons.
The coming of several hundred prisoners every three weeks into the chaplain's office
affords him the opportunity of becoming personally acquainted with them, and of
dropping into their ear, perchance into their heart, many a wise counsel and exhorta-
tion. These opportunities, we have reason to think, are gladly embraced and faith-
fully used.
At Auburn a plan is in use differing from either of tlie above, and, as it strikes us,
inferior to both. Prisoners have the privilege of exchanging their books once a week.
The chaplain sends a quantity of books to each shop, together with a list of the same,
to the keeper ; and thus the exchange is effected in the shop where they are at work.
The objection to this is, first, that it limits the convict's selection to a very small part
of the library, and, secondly, that it must hd a source of more or less disorder in the
workshops.
The rule in all prisons is to examine books on their return ; but it is enforced, as
indeed all rules are, with different degrees of stringency. In the Wisconsin prison, if
books — and they are carefully scrutinized when returned — are found soiled, dogeared,
or in any way marred or defaced, tha offouder is deprived of the privilege of the
library for a certain time, which is longer or shorter according to the extent of the
injury done to the book. All injuries to books are recorded for future reference.
We are sorry to be obliged to report that in many State prisons, our own among the
number, very inadequate provision is made for prisoners reading at night. In
England, there is a gas-burner in every cell ; in America, such an arrangement, we
believe, is quite unknown. Lights, whether from gas or oil, are placed in the corri-
dors, and very often at such a distance from each other that scarcely oue prisoner in ten
can see to read. For about five months iu the year, the convicts are locked in their
cells from thirteen to fifteen hours a day. There are prisons (we wish the number
were less) in which, during all these long and dreary hours, only those few prisoners
whose cells happen to be near the lights can make any use of their books ; all the rest
being condemned to intellectual starvation, with ample stores at hand, as Tantalus
was to eternal thirst, with tlite water reaching to his chin. Thus is left to the dark-
ness of his cell and the deeper, sadder darkness of an ignorant, benighted mind, many
a young man, who, if opportunity were afforded him of acquiring useful knowledge,
might, despite his fall and its forlorn consequences, be awakened to hope, to cheerful-
ness, to virtue. More than once have wc heard bitter lamentations by convicts over
Libraries in Prisons and Reformatories. 223
their iuability, from want of light, to occupy themselves in re;uling while locked in
their cells during the long winter evenings. We look upon such deprivation as a
hardship and a wrong ; and we have known it to be, in many ways, most hurtful in
its consequences. We thiuk it no more than right, and certainly it would be good
policy, that prisoners should have at least two hours of light for reading every night
during the winter mouths.
In the Illinois Penitentiary at Joliet, a copy of the catalogue is kept in each cell,
and the selections maile from it by the convicts are written, by number, upon the
library slate with which each cell is also provided. Taese slates are collected oace in
ten days by the librarian, and the books are issued according to the selections, and
placed in each cell while the men are at work. The convicts are allowed lights in
their cells, and can read from the time of quitting work (which is 6 p. m. from March
to November, 4.45 p. m. the remainder of the year) until 9 o'clock p. m., and all day
Sunday, except the time taken for chapel exercises.
SELECTIONS OF BOOKS.
The character of the books composing prison libraries ia 18(J7 is de-
scribed iu the report last quoted :
The character of the books composing the prison libraries is, as might be expected,
quite miscellaneous. Works on religion, histories, biographies, travels, works on
science and general literature, and standard novels (those of a sensational character
being generally excluded) predominate. It is not strange that the preference should
be given, in the majority of cases, to story books, magazines, and the lighter literature,
but the reading of convicts is by no means confined to works of this character. His-
tories, travels, biographies, and even treatises on science and philosophy, find many
readers. This we found to be pre-eminently the casein the Massachusetts State Prison,
where Humboldt's Cosmos and other works of a no less elevated and philosophical
character have been read through by many of the convicts. Indeed, the testimony is
quite uniform to the effect that numbers of the prisoners are most evidently growing
in useful knowledge ; and we think, from the evidence before us, that there is more
reading, and that of a solid character, too, done by the convicts in our American State
prisons than by any equal number of working people taken promiscuously in free
society. On this subject, Mr. Cordier, of Wisconsin, says : "I really believe that no
convict, nnless he be a perfect idiot, leaves the prison without having his mind im-
proved, and without having gained some knowledge."
The library of the State Penitentiary at Philadelphia contained in
February, 1875, exclusive of school books, 8,737 volumes, classitieJ as
follows: Religious, 701; instructive, 3,121; entertaining, 3,721; Ger-
man, 839 ; French, Latin, etc., 52 volumes.
The printed catalogue of the library iu the Illinois Penitentiary shows
tnat it contains a greater proportion than above of works that might
be classed as " entertaining," though a fair proportion of them are
standard works of their class.
USE OF LIBRAEIES BY CONVICTS.
That the libraries are highly valued by the prisoners is amply at-
tested by the extent to which they are used. D.s. Dwight and Wines
say on this point :
In all our State prisons, the proportion of prisoners who take out books is very large ;
indeed, the general if not the universal rule is, that all draw books who are able to
224 Public Libraries in the United States.
read. We were anxious to ascertain whether the books so taken out are really read by
the persons receiving them. The answers to our inquiries on this point were unanimous
to the efit'ect that such was undoubtedly the fact in the great majority of cases. On
calling for the proofs of this, they were stated to be, first, the appearance of the books
when returned ; secondly, observation of the prisoners in their cells ; thirdly, their
comments on the books ; and, fourthly, questioning them on the subject matter of the
volumes taken out. In reference to the second of the above named proofs, the Rev.
Mr. Ives, of Auburn, remarked : " In passing through the galleries, I see the men al-
most all engaged in reading. I have often been through on purpose to see what
proportion were thus engaged, and have found ninety-seven out of one hundred. In
the shops it is the same, when their tasks are finished." Wardens and chaplains of
other prisons made substantially the same statement. Convicts in all the State prisons
have considerable time which they can devote to reading if they are so disposed.
Everywhere they have the whole of Sunday, after deducting the portion spent in pub-
lic worship and the Sabbath school, where such exists. Besides this, they have for
reading, during the day and evening, on an average from two to four hours. In the
New York State prisons, prisoners are allowed to take their library books to the work-
shops and read in them after they have finished the task of the day ; but nowhere
else, as far as we could learn, even where task work is in vogue, except occasionally
by special permission. In far the greater number of State prisons the convicts are
not allowed to take or read secular newspapers, but the reverse of this is true as re-
gards magazines. In Wisconsin, and we believe also in Missouri, both classes of pub-
lications may be taken by the prisoners.
The average pioportiou of convicts " using the library" in 25 prisons,
as reported in 1875, was nearly 78 per cent. The chaplain of the Sing
Sing (N. Y.) Prison, in reporting that 99 per cent, of the convicts use the
library, remarks :
You may think that we give a large proportion who use the library, for it is in fact
larger than the proportion who read. But many who cannot read draw books and
get their fellow convicts to read to them.
•The warden of the Illinois Penitentiary reported :
To an average of 1,350 convicts, we issue constantly from 1,050 to 1,150 volumes
Only one book is allowed to each convict.
The library of the Kansas Penitentiary, with 1,500 volumes, reports
a monthly circulation of 1,500 volumes.
In the State Penitentiary at Philadelphia, with an average of 654
convicts, (527, or 82.11 per cent, of whom use the library,) there were
issued in the year 1874, 38,978 volumes, or nearly 74 volumes to each
reader during the year.
The Western Penitentiary, at Allegheny, Pa., had, daring the year
1873, an "aggregate population" of 033. The 3,000 volumes in the
library circulated as follows :
The total number of books issued during the year was 12,640. Of these there were
novels and romances, 3,812 : histories, 1,525 ; travels and poems, 1,438 ; magazines,
1,410; religious and scientitic works, 1,254; biographies, 1,117; German, 709; mis-
cellaneous, 1,575.
INFLUENCE OF PRISON LIBRARIES ON CONVICTS.
The remarkable extent to which prison libraries are used by convicts
suggests at once the question : \Yhat influence does this reading exert
Libraries in Prisons and Reformatories. 225
ou piisou discipline and on tlie character of the convicts ? A few facts
and conclusions, presented b^' men who have improved their facilities
for personal observation and investigation outweigh w^hile they coin-
cide with the general opinions of those who have not enjoyed similar
opi)ortunities, and are more valuable than a volume of theories as an
answer to this question. Drs. D wight and Wines, in the report before
quoted, say :
We made it a point of spscial iag[airy to ascertain the opinions of prison officers,
botli wardens and chaplains, as to the utility of libraries in prisons. With a solitary
exception — that of Dr. Campbell, of the Western Penitentiary, Pennsylvania, who re-
gards the library as " of doubtful influence'' — we found a perfect agreement among
these officers in thinking a prison library a most important instrument of good. With
singular unanimitj- they represent it as valuable in communicating useful knowledge
to the prisoners ; in elevating their minds; in beguiling many a tedious and weary
hour ; in making them cheerful and contented ; in affiarding them good material for
reflection, and so diverting their minds from brooding over past offenses and meditat-
ing schemes of future mischief; in affording good topics of conversation with them ;
in improving the discipline of prison ; and in constituting one of the best and most
effective of reformatory agencies. We quite agree, too, with Mr. Hill' in thinking it
important that a prison library should contain many books which, while free from anj'-
thing immoral or irreligious, are both interesting and entertaining. This will tend to
create a taste for reading, to inspire a liking for other than sensual pleasures, and to
give the mind cheerful subjects of thought, in addition to tliose of a more serious cast.
A. due mixture of books of this cheerful type, so far from interfering with reading of a
more solid and even religious character, adds fresh zest to such reading.
Mr, Gray writes as follows^ respecting the use of books in the Charles-
town prison :
There is a library in the prison, to the support and increase of which $100 a year are
appropriated from the earnings of the prison by law, and books are taken out and re-
turned by the convicts once a week. Many prisoners also have books of their own in
their cells purchased from their money in the warden's hands. One of them is now
reading Latin, and another studying Greek.
Rev. B. I. Ives, chaplain of the Auburn (X. Y.) Prison, in his annual
report for the year 1868, says :
As many as 95 per cent, of the convicts draw books from the library, and many of
them become great readers. There is nothing that so much aids in keeping up the dis-
cipline of the prison as a good library. A man of extensive observation has well said :
" One of the great instrumentalities for promoting the reformation of convicts is a ju-
diciously selected library. By affording them facilities for reading, their thoughts are
not only diverted from the gloomy reflections natural to their condition, but they are
led into channels of thought which will inevitably tend to elevate and inspire them to
look to the future with higher hopes, more enlightened views of the world, and a
greater respect for the community they may be thrown among when released from
confinement."
Rev. D. A. Shepard, chaplain of the same prison in 1869, reports:
The convicts make a great use of the books. If deprived of them for a single week,
which unavoidably occurs at the quarterly exchange, they become restless, and more
than ordinarily troublesome ; and, to prevent this, we circulate a large number of tracts
during this interval.
'Crime: its Amount, Causes, and Remedies. By Frederick Hill. 8°. London,
1853.
2 Prison Disci^ line in America, p. 53.
15 E
226 PuUic Libraries in the United States.
Rev. Levi Siuitli, cbaplaiu of tbe Clinion (X. Y.) Prison, s:iys in his
report for tbe j'ear 1SC9 :
About uiae-teulbs of the men read more or less. Nearly all are eager for books.
Some are verj' stiulious and seek works of scieuce and other substantial reading. The
library is therefore a great blessing. It relieves the loueline s of the cell, controls and
informs the mind, and induces quietude and contentment.
The warden of tbe Iowa State Penitentiary, in bis biennial report
dated 1874, remarks :
Among other incentives to good order is the prison library. The convicts able to
read are urgently recommended from time to time to employ their otherwise idle time
in reading the books found in the library.
Tlie report of tbe cbaphiiu of tbe Kansas State Penitentiary, for tbo
year 1873, says :
The prisoners who can read are eager for reading matter; many use a portion of the
small amount allowed them from their earnings to provide themselves with books and
papers, and no less than seventy are regular subscribers for some magazine or journal.
The report of tbe cbaplain of the same prisjn for the year 1874 con-
tains tbe following:
A book is the prisoner's com;)auion ; if it is goo.l, it serves as a sedative in discipline
and as a stimulant to the moral, mental, and physical well being of the prisoner. Nv>
instrumentality is more important in securing the ends for which prisons are estab-
lished than a well selected and regulated library.
The chaplain of the Western Penitentiary, at Allegheny, Pa., rc'ports
in 1873 :
The library is one of our most eflicient agencies for instruction and eutertainmsut.
Its privileges are highly ap])reciated by the mass of the inmates. The books are well
taken care of in the cells. In no instance during the year has there been any depriva-
tion of privileges of the library on account of abuse of its volumes. All books issued
to the cells are carefully examined on their return to the library. In many instances
extracts are copied and carefully studied for future service..
Similar extract.^* might be multiplied did space per.iiit. Tiie testi-
mony of prison ofticials as to tbe value and usefulness of the libraries
is uniform.
IL— LIBKAlUi:S OF REFOPtMATOKIES.
HISTORY, EXTENT, AND INFLUENCE.
The first reform school in the United States was opened in New York
iu tbe year 1825, with nine inmates. It originated in tbe philan-
thropic efforts of Edward Livingston, John Griscom, and others, who
sought to arrest vicious youth on tbe road to prison and train them to
become worthy members of society. Tbe following year a similar school
was opened in Postoii, and in 1828 the House of Refuge was established
at Philadelphia. h\ tbe lirst quarter of a century from the foundation
of the school in New York there were but tive others for a similar [Mir-
pose in operation in the United States.
In May, 1837, a convention of superintendents of bouses of refuge and
Libraries in Prisons and Reformatories. 227
schools of reform was held in New York, when plans for the improve-
ment of those institutions were discussed. Seventeen reformatories
were represented, and the statistics presented showed, since 1825,
20,Gj8 inmates, 3,530 of whom remained under care. The averaj^e age of
inmates on admission was 12| years and the number of pupils reformed
was estimated at 75 per cent.
In 1872 Mr. F. B. Sanborn, secretary of the Massachusetts board of
State cjarities, estimated^ the number of pupils in the reform schools of
the United States the preceding year at 12,00), not including an equal
number (estimated) in '-strictly educational and preventive establish-
ments." He says :
Perhaps the pi^rceutage of worthy cicizans traiuel np aiii')iig tli9 whole '21,000 Li
preventive aud reformatory schools would be as high as 75.
From the very first, moral and intellectual instruction was relied on
as among the most powerful means of reformation.
Of libraries as an adjunct of education in the reform schools in the
United States, no statistics appear to have been published before the
year 1870, when the task was undertaken by the Bureau of Education;
returns for the year 186S were obtained from 23 reformatories, 18 of
which reported libraries ranging from IGO to 2,500 volumes each, con-
taining in the aggregate 20,545 volumes. The whole number of inmates
np to that time had been GG,510, and the average for the year MQ^
was 7,4G3.
For the year 1871, more or less perfect returns were received from 5G
reformatories. The aggregate number of inmates in 43 since their foun-
dation was reported at 110,G22; the aggregate number of inmates at
date of report was 11,185, distribute I among 40 schools; 40 reported
libraries containing altogether 35,012 volumes; and 15 reported an ag-
gregate increase of books during the year amounting to 1,945 volumes.
Later returns from 40 houses of correction, houses of refuge, and
other reformatory institutions under State, municipal, and corporate or
private control, place the aggregate number of volumes in the libraries
at 51,4GG, an average of 1,050 volumes to each. The largest library of
this class is that of the l!^ew York House of Refuge, which numbers
over 4,000 volumes. During the first forty-seven years of its existence
this house received 14,275 inmates. The reports of officers of reforma-
tories bear unvarying testimony to the benefits derived from Jibraries
and reading rooms in the schools under their care, and where neither
exists the deficiency is lamented.
' See paper on juvenile refjrmatories in the United States of America, in Transac-
tions of the International Penitentiary Congress, held at London, July 3-13, 1872. 8".
Loudon, Longmans, Green & Co., 1872. See also abstract of same^paper,in.R3port'oa
the International Penitentiary Congress of London, by E. C. Wines, D.^D., LL. D.,
United States Commissioner. 8". Washington, Government Printing-Office, 1873, 'pp
115, 116.
228
Public Libraries in the United States.
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CHAPTER IX.
ROFESSOKSHIPS OF BOOKS AXD HEADING.
I. -BY F. B. PERKINS.
II.-BY WILLIAM MATHEAVS, A. M
L— ON riiOFEssoRsmrs of books and eeading.
PUOI-'ESSORS SHOULD TEACH A METHOD, NOT A SUBJECT — A PROPER ADDITIONAL
COLLEGE PROFESSORSHIP — READING AS NOW MANAGED — METHODS AND MEN.
METHODS, NOT SUBJECTS, TO BE TAUGHT.
The first idea suggested by a demand for " professorships of books
and reading" is uot unlikely to be this: that the department indicated
is too large, or, rather, too indistinct, for the work of one professor; too
much like Mr. Carlyle's " professorship of things in general." But upon
considering the subject matter of various perfectly regular and satis-
factory i^rofessorships commonly existing, the reasonableness of this
one will quickly appear. Indeed, some of these, when cited, will be
seen to call for some explanation of an apparent pre-emption of the very
ground claimed by the new settler. Thus, we have in abundance in
collegiate institutions, professorships of "belles-lettres," of "English
language and literature," of "rhetoric and oratory," of "modern lan-
guages and literature," all these separately or together. Dj they not,
or do not some of them, cover the very ground proposed ?
To answer this inquiry will leave it unnecessary to do m^re than
merely refer to other parallel cases of large subjects for professorships.
Such are mental and moral philosophy, natural philosophy, theology,
modern history, law. It is quite superfluous to describe the immensity
of each of those fields of labor, and indeed the overwhelming nature of
the themes of some of them. As to the suffiiiient importance of the
proposed new subject, that will be referred to presently ; but that it
is not too large for a professorship, as j^rofessorships go, there can
hardly be a doubt on a comparison with these cases.
To recur to the suggested question of definitions. The partly synony-
mous literary chairs above named may perhaps be described as follows :
1. "Modern languages a:i I literature" usuilly im^)lies the study of
German, French, Italian, or Spanish — not so often of other modern lan-
guages— and this often in an elementary in.iuner, witli grauu.ir, diction-
ary, and the memorizing of coiijagations, declensions, and phrases —
mere primary school work, in fact. Even if the instruction goes further
it is pretty sure to niea;i (very [)roperly, of ca;u\se,) only other modern
languages than Engli^ll.
'2i0
Profcssovships of Boolis and Beading. 231
2. " Rhetoric aurl oratory." This Hue of teachiuj^ looks mostly to
spoken rhetoric, and is commonly not greatly, if at all, cDucjraed with
the reading of l)3oks or with writing them.
3. " Eagiish language and literature " of course excludes the stu ly of
other literatures, than our otu, except in translations. The 03cupant
of a chair with this title will, however, commonly instruct either in
English composition, in the history of the English language, or in the
history of English literature. All these are necessary, of course, and
perhaps asuSQciently vigorous and accomplished man, in a sufficiently
small institution, might undertake the proposed new department along
with these, for they are not far distant from each other; b'ut they are
hy no means the same thing, any more than the law and the gospel are.
4. "Belles lettres" is about the same as what is still called in some
institutions, " the humanities," as what used to be called more than
now, " polite literature; " and the professor of these would seek to ac-
quaint his pupils with poetry, fiction, and the drama, rhetoric and ora-
tory, literary criticism, perhaps also with more or less of history, and
perhaps of philology. And the same observation may be made as to
annexing the proposed new department to this one as under the pre-
ceding head.
The new field, then, is not actually occupied, in any complete way,
though doubtless some hints pertaining to it are more or less subjoined
to some of the above enumerated courses of instruction. "What will the
new chair teach ?
Not the history of literature, nor any one literature, nor any one de-
partment of literature, nor the grammar of any language, nor any one
language, nor language itself, nor any form of its use, nor even any
particular form of thought. It is something higher than^any of
these; it is not any one subject, any one field of investigation, but
it is a method for investigating any subject in the printed records of
human thought. It might be compared with the calculus in applied
mathematics; it is a means of following up swiftly and thoroughly the
best researches in any direction and of then pushing them further; it
seeks to give a last and highest training for enlarging any desired de-
partment of recorded humiu knowledge. It is the science and art of
reading for a purpose ; it is a calculus of applied literature.
Before leaving this definition of the propDsed new dijpartment of
study, something should be said of the various printed courses of read-
ing and similar manuals that are extant. These may be supposed by
some to contain all that is necessary to enable any student to do well
enough without any teacher. This, however, is not at all the case.
Foreign treatises of the kind are practically worthless for American
purjjoses and need not be examined; and those which we have are
thoroughly incompetent for the work required. AVatts on the Im-
provement of the j\[ind, for instance, is quite obsolete. Pycroft's
book, of which an edition has been issued with additions by an
American editor, contains Fcme s^ensible suggestions, but it is thirty
232 PiibUc Libraries In the United States.
years old. Chancellor Kent's, prepared still earlier, (in 18A0,) for the use
of the members of the Xew York Mercantile Library Association, is
simply a list of books on a classified schedule of subjects, beginning with
Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xeuophon, and ending with Knox's Essays,
Drake's Literary Hours, Verplanck's Essays, Ir^ing's Essays, under
the title of Geoffrey Crayon, Dr. Channing's Discourses and Reviews,
Fisher Ames's Works, Webster's Speeches, and Everett's Speeches. To
most of the titles is appended a brief valuation of the books, and while
the whole was a good and kind thing for the chancellor to do, and is
far from foolish, it is heavy and conventional, and thirty-five years old.
Knapp's Advice in the Pursuit of Literature, like Chancellor Kent's,
was made out with a view to the advantage of the New York Mercan-
tile Library Association, to which it is dedicated. It consists of brief
sketches of eminent authors and important literary eras, ancient and
modern, with a good many poetical extracts. It is executed with a
fair share of taste and discrimination, but it is forty-three years old.
A number of lists of books recommended, with more or less suggestion as
to order of reading, have been issued by publishers ; but these are only
trade lists, with a variation. President Porter's work, Books and Read-
ing, issued only a few years ago, is a collection of solid didactic essays,
but consisting largely, as every such treatise must of necessity consist,
of generalizations, which are like army coats ; they fit no one exactly,
because they must fit almost anybody somehow. But no book can serve
the purpose of a live man.
THIS IS A PROPER ADDITIONAL COLLEGE PROFESSORSHIP.
No better exponent of the accepted theory of college education will be
found than the experienced, conservative, and thoughtful president of
Yale College, to whose book on the subject under consideration refer-
ence has just been made. In his inaugural, delivered October 11, 1871,
he stated this theory in substance as follows:
Our higher education (meaning our college, or, as President Porter
wishes it could be first made and then rightly named, our university
education) should be
First. Conversant with the past, including —
a. The doings of the past ;
I). The record of those doings.
Second. A learned education ; that is, based to a liberal extent on
learning, properly so called, and given at seats of learning.
Third. Nevertheless, in appreciative and friendly relations with the
thought and progress of the present.
Fourth. Provident for the future, by sending out graduates having
the best possible training, both intellectual and moral. To this end
two rules (or parts of one rule) as to the method pursued are indis-
pensable for observance, viz :
a. It is culture, training, that is lo be given rather than such* and
such quantities of knowledge. That is —
Professorships of Books aiil Reading. 233
h. The results to ba sought for are not so much immediate ones as
remote ones.
Now, these heads of doctrine are as harmonious with the exposition
herein made as if they had been worked out for the same purpose, in-
stead of having been prepared without the remotest reference to or even
knowledge of each by the author of the other, and four years apart.
Eead over once more the above four heads of President Porter's dis-
course, and ask after each, " Will the course on books and reading, as
above proposed, serve this purpose ?" And the answer will be, '' Yes, "'
every time; and it will serve it, too, with a striking directness and
effectiveness.
But it may possibly be objected that there are enough kinds of profes-
sorships already. The general question involved is important, being
that of the progressive subdivision of departments of education ; and a
brief exposition of it is in place here, since it involves the particular ques-
tion of the proposed additional department.
As the whole field for mental activity and the accumulated stores gath-
ered in it increase, the number of different sorts of this activity increases.
The extent of their separate departments in one sense diminishes ; but
no earnest specialist has ever found his field too narrow ; witness the
story of the German philologist. This scholar, it is related, famous for
profound researches on the third declension in Latin, approaching his end,
and advising his son, also a promising philologist, warned him against
attempting too much by alleging his own example. "Too late," said
the dying professor, "I have realized that I ought to have devoted my
life exclusively to the dative case."
There has been a steady and interesting progress in what Mr. Her-
bert Spencer calls " differentiation " in all the history of human learn-
ing. Four centuries ago, in the early days of printing, a popular
encyclopaedia, or the book that then stood for such, instead of being
twenty-one quarto volumes, like the Encyclopaedia Britannica, or even
ten large octavos like Chambers's Cyclopaedia, -was one small quarto
volume, with not so great an extent of reading matter in it as the Old
Testament. And there was then really nothing so very absurd in a
man's professing all that was known. There is a well-known Latin
phrase of that period which describes such a man: " Qui tria, qui sep-
teyn, qui onine scibile, novit,^^ — i. e., "Who knows the three, the seven,
in short, all that there is to know." Xow, this three and seven were
the "trivium" and " quadrivium," or courses of three studies and of
four studies, first three alone and then both together. The three
were grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and the additional four were arith-
metic, music, geometry, and astronomy. And in the small extent to
which they were known at all, a quick-witted, talkative person (such as
was the Admirable Crichton, for instance) might lecture ably enough
for the period on the whole of them. Even these seven may, of course,
be ranged as only three — language, music, and mathematics, showing
•234 FnUk Libraries in the United States.
a still earlier stage of learning-. But now we Lave, for instance, compo-
sition, sacred rhetoric, homiletics, besides the three old departments of
language, music, sacred and secular, instrumental and vocal, and dif-
ferent departments of each, and so on. All the natural scieuces have
been added; the whole of mechanics, pure and applied; a number of
industrial pursuits, even, and so on, until the numb3r of separate de-
partments of knowledge is such, and the extent of research in each has
become such, that a jiretender to know all the learning of to-day would
either be hustled off to a lunatic asylum, or would be ticketed with
some keen descriptive jest, like those which paid off Lord Brougham
for undertaking to know more than was practicable. "Distinguished
by vast and varied misinformation," one of these said of him ; and the
other (imported from France, by the way) was to the effect that " if
the lord chancellor (Brougham was then such) only kuew a little law, he
would know a little of everything."
The. extent of recorded knowledge, then, is now such that it is per-
fectly hopeless to attempt to master it all. Of works already printed
there are, literally, millions. To this number are added, includ-
ing the printing world, i. e.. Christendom, not less than tweuty-flve
thousand new works each year. Also, probably five thousand volumes
each year of magazines and reviews ; also, a quantity of newspapers, of
which numerals can only give a notion even less accurate and adequate
than the foregoing roughly estimated, but not extravagant totals. There
are said to be about five thousand in the United States, the hive of
newspapers. Suppose we have as many as all the rest of the world ;
that gives a total often thousand. If only one in twenty of these is a
daily, that gives a total of six hundred and thirty-four thousand dif-
ferent newspapers issued a year. To read through a first class daily,
would take a swift reader two hours. Suppose, however, it only took
five minutes to read a book and one minute to read a newspaper ; then
he who should read all the current issues of the book and periodical
press, (pamphlets are omitted, it will be observed, from this estimate,
and no allowance made for reading up on past books,) would have to
provide for the purpose five hundred and forty -four days of twenty-four
hours each, every year; or more than thirteen hundred working days a
year, of ten hours each. But if, instead of this one-minute and five-min-
ute scale, we allow what it would really take to read each book and
])aper; if we allow also for reading up the volumes issued since the
first book with a date was printed, 1457 — restricting ourselves to the
English language, omitting all but local periodicals, and niaking any
other fair allowances that can be imagined — while the fanciful nature
of the estimate is admitted, the mass of reading matter it covers is
simply enormous; immeasurably beyond the acquiririg powers of any
one mind ; a field superabundantly ample in size, as it is in significance
of contents, to justify a technical professional guidance in exa;niuing it
and selecting from it.
Professorships of Bools and Readiuf/. 235
READING AS NOW MANAGED.
So far as ordiuary readers are concerned, the printed records of past
and present human knowledge and mental activity are thus a trackless,
if not a howling wilderness, in which a guide, philosopher, and friend will
find ample occasion for his services. The matter of reading is at present
in a whoUj' unorganized, unscientific, empirical comlition, like navigation
before the use of the compass and the application of scientific astronomy,
or like mining before the introduction of scientific geological and miner-
alogical investigations and of scientific engineering. Every one digs
wherever he fancies ; he may possibly find a deposit of g )ld, but he ma^'
find only mere barren rock or slag or dirt. O.- i)3rhap^ it m ly bd still
more aptly compared with the physician's profession, in which famous
and successful practitioners begin their lectures by saying, " Medicine,
gentlemen, is something that physicians know nothing about," and in
which an advertising quack, whatever his effect on the graveyard, will
sell a great many morexloses to fools, and make a great deal more money
out of them, than a conscientious and scientific gentlemen in treating
people of good sense.
The low comparative merit of American literary and scholastic work
as a whole, compared with that of England, France, and Germany, is
another very important reason for scientific dealing with literature, l^o
doubt our literature is improving; and no doubt we have many good
writers and workers in various fields of thought. Bat every one who has
had occasion to examine at the same time, as one does who is purchas-
ing for a large library, the average issues of the American press and the
English press, for instance, will be prompt to admit the great superiority
of the average foreign article. In the lifetime of Mr. Hawthorne, there
mayhave been but few English novel writershis equal, and but oneor two,
if any, his superior. Bat the best hundred English novels of any given
year were then greatly better than the best hunilred American novels
of that year. There may not be a better historian now at work in Eng-
land than Mr. Motley ; but the English historical books issued this year
are collectively a great deal more useful and va;luable than the American
ones. And so on through most subjects on which books are written.
This is not an agreeable statement to make, but it is a state of things
which requires to be fully understood and appreciated, if we are ever to
escape it. It is not disgraceful, it is not discouraging ; it is the perfectly
natural and necessary and invariable experience of a new people with
small money capital, handling vast unimproved lands, forced to do rather
than to read. So that in fact it is only just now that we are coming to
the social st ite where we are realy t.o produce a trained literary class.
Thus far we have not done it, whatever may have been the case with a
few individuals, and we have had no business to do it. Ax, plow, steam
engine, not pen and palette, have been thus far our proper implements;
and we have done a noble " spot of work" with them. Exactly now, at
236 Pahlic Libraries in the United States.
the end of our first national century, it is good to sum and value just
this total of attainments. And exactly such a scientific instruction in
books and reading- as is here discussed is one of the influences which
will do most to correct our views, to raise our ambition, to bring us up
to the present limits of attainment in knowledge and in thought, and to
prepare us fgr extending those limits. Comparing our past with that of
Europe, we have had at most two centuries and a half of literary ex-
istence— the same length, by the way, as that of our political existence ;
which is not true of any European nation. Njw, roughly speaking, our
higher education system may be dated back to 1638, the origin of
Harvard College. Compare this period with the duration of the corre-
sponding institutions in Europe, where the date of foundation of the
universities of Bologna, Paris, Oxford, and Cambridge is a matter of
doubt; but where that of Bologna was existing in 1158; of Paris al-
ready in 1250, when the Sorbonne was founded; where that of Prague was
founded in 1318, and four more, at Vienna, Heidelberg, Cologne, and
Erfurt, before the year 1400. Here we have the European nations, some
of them rooted in a civilization already ancient, and having higher
educational systems, now six and seven centuries old and more. Is it a
discredit to us that, in our brief existence, and with our other work to do,
we are not now as far forward as they in special scholarship ? Not at all.
We are in advance of those nations in things enough. We have done
more than might reasonably have been expected in the very direction
under discussion.
Certainly, the influence of trained thinkers and students in directing the
choice aud valuation of books, and times and modes of reading, will do
much to cause a demand for better and better hooks, and thus to cause
the appearance of better and better writers ; for if crude, silly, cheap, and
easy writing is the only kind that people will buy, it is the only kind
that can be produced except by rich persons — and the great works in
literature have not, as an invariable rule, been produced by the rich.
Another argument in favor of scientific guidance for reading is that
we have, as a people, so little time for it. We are still deeply
mortgaged to our lands; and, until we have developed from the earth a
larger amount per man of permanent capital than yet exists, we shall,
as a nation, continue to have but little time for reading. It follows, of
course, that we need to use the more skilfully what time we have.
These considerations have been meant to show the desirableness of
the proposed instruction, in view of the conditjon of reading as actually
pursued among us at present, and in view of our present educational
attainments. But such instruction is furthermore indicated with equal
directness and clearness by the general present tone and tendency of
the best public opinion in regard to educational systems of the higher
class. That opinion has, at present, a distinct set towards the employ-
ment of a thorough, systematic, and scientific training in lines of attain-
ment other than scholastic. It is not meant at all by this to suggest
Professorships of Books and Beading. 237
anything about the question of relative values of subjects of education.
Whatever these may be, the fact referred to is shown plainly enough in
the recent growth of scientific and technological schools of various
kinds; some separate, others in connection with some university organ-
ization. Wehaveprofessorshipsofagriculture, of physical culture, of po-
litical economy, of aesthetics, of mechanics, and so on, every one of them
useful and desirable. And in like manner it is in accordance with the spirit
of the educational movement of to-day, that we should have professor-
ships of books and reading ; for the knowledge of what to read and how
to read it is the indispensable completion and finish to any one of the
previous or other courses of study in any university or high grade insti-
tution of learning. No other department, in fact, could be contrived,
so adapted to be the last symmetrizing and polishing process to a com-
plete education.
METHODS AND MEN.
An instructor, if he is fit for his business, must adjust his methods to a
great extent to suit his own gifts or deficiencies and those of his pupils.
All that can be done here, therefore, is to make a few suggestions to
show that there are many practical questions as to range and choice of
subject matter, and as to modes of procedure.
As far as possible, the instructor should adapt his teaching to the
peculiarities, if any, of his individual pupils. A good many of them will
have no very marked peculiarities. For these, and in the beginning for
all, the general course must be begun and followed. As one develops
a strong love for metaphysics, another for historical sociology, another
for military history, another for biography, and so on, each of these
should be shown the relativ^e value and capabilities of his chosen topic;
should be taught how to pursue that specialty without too much neglect-
ing others, and how to take up along with it the related branches. As
deficiencies in attainment appear, they should be put in course of cure.
The tendency t o reading for mere amusement should be carefully
watched and limited. If inferior books are preferred, the pupil should
not be too suddenly forced away from them, but should be gradually
trained to like better ones. Especial care should be taken to habituate
the student to the investigation and mastering of subjects, rather than
to the mere reading of books ; to teach him not to pile up lumber and
bricks, but to plan and build an edifice. The various mechanical modes
of retaining a hold on one's reading should be recommended, and, if
possible, put in practice, always permitting the student whichever, on
trial, he finds best for his own mental habits. With one the vowel
system, "Index Rerura," will do; with another, a regular slip catalogue;
while a third may prefer a system of commonplacing, without so much
indexing, and a prodigy may any day rise up whose memory, " wax
to receive and marble to retain," will enable him to cite, and perhaps
to recite, volume and page without making a single note. Perhaps
some may like to try a mnemonic system, and if they do, they should.
2o8 PnhUc Libraries in the United States.
The habit of making oral and written analyses and sninmaries of books
and parts of them should be cultivated as far as possible. It is a great
aud wonderful secret to learn, that in many cases this practice of search-
ing out the anatomy of works already created, transmutes itself, in
time, into the power of creating other works, jnst as the profoundest
knowledge of anatomy has belonged to the greatest sculptors.
Keading cau usually be for one or more of only three purposes, viz:
1. pjutertainment ;
2. Acquisition of knowledge ;
3. Literary production.
The first is hardly worth teaching; the object here being merely
to train to good taste in selection and good sense iu indulgence. The
second is, or should be, pretty sufticiently practiced in the undergradu-
ate aud university course, though a skillful teacher in the proposed de-
partment would greatly re-enforce the methodology of every class iu the
college. In fact, his course would coincide better with a professed
course in methodology, by name, than with either of the partly
synonymous courses referred to in the beginning of this paper;
it would necessarily be based, if it was a correct course, upon a
complete and detailed methodology.
It is, however, the third sort of reading alone — that for literary pro-
duction— which is the ideal of the scientitic use of books, and the one
for which the course should primarily be modeled. It will be found
easy to relax from its thorough work quite as often as desirable. All
these suggestions, it will be seen, point towards making the student in-
dependent of his teacher as soon as possible, for they tend to set him
to doing his own thinking, and, indeed, his own acting, at the earliest
practicable period.
A hygiene for the eyes, for the stomach, in fact for the whole economy
of students, should be thoroughly taught ; showing, for instance, how to
manage artificial light ; how to get the most work out of the eyes with-
out ruining them ; how to live so as to keep the brain in the best work-
ing order, and so on. A capacity for understanding how, and how
much, a book is useful for the student, himself, aud a habit of ascer-
taining tbis with distinctness, should be taught; but this done, it is a
question whether the maximum of literary power aud accomplishment
requires much more. It is better to try to bring something good to
pass for one's self than to be watching to see whether other people have
done well or ill.
The question of pursuing one's reading into other languages, ancient
or modern, will require various decisions ; so will that of using or of
making translations. The use of reference books will often need to be
taught ; and some enthusiastic student may be encouraged to begin to
prepare some kind of reference book for himself, as a first essay in pro-
ducing something from his reading. The work may be of intrinsic
value ; and if ic is not, it will be valuable to have made it. The relative
and positive importance ai;d value of our own aud other literatures
Frofcssorships of Books and Readhnj. 2o0
M-ill require to be coiisi<lere(l, and the bird of our country must not be
let soar any higher than a due union of literary patriotism and of cos-
mopolitanism miiy permit. The proper mode of reading periodicals and
of newspapers should be carefully inculcated, for there is a proper as
well as an improper mode of reading even uewspa[)ers. Here, the
practice of making scrai) books will properly come up for consideration.
Without attempting to elaborate these and similar details into a com-
pleted system, which would suit nobody except the maker, and probably
not even him very long, this eau.uiratioii is sutiijient to show that
under this title of "books and reading'' a good many practical questions
would naturally arise, and that there is abundant material for establish-
ing by this or an equivalent name a new department of our higher edu-
cation, which shall take cogi.iizance of important nicitters at present very
little attended to.
As everywhere else, it would make all the difference in the world
about the success of the hew course of study what manner of man should
teach it. It would be easy enough to enumerate the qualifications of a
literary archangel and then say, all these he should have. Practically,
the best man must be got that can be had; that is all. But he should
be not merely as good a scholar as possible, but he needs in a peculiar
degree the gift of teaching and a union of conservative and progressive
<iualities. iSoine college professors are logs that have drifted into an
eddy; incapables, whose friends have hoisted them into their chairs to
get rid of the burden of them at tlu expanse of a scho;>l; and others,
of distinguished ability in tlieir specialties, have either no aptitude for
instructing or no desire to instruct. But the professor of books and
reading will be worse th.in useless unless he is a man who takes the full
pleasure of instructing. For such a man, the nature of the subject, and
its peculiar adaptation to the minds of young men of college age, will
render his work a keen delight. Ue may range over the whole held of
human history, knowledge, and activity; his teaching may be a system-
atizing of all these, and at the same time a course of applied mental
philosophy, as he stimulates and guides the various minds before him,
and of morals, as he develops the ethical significances of all his themes.
Such a discursive activity would not suit everybody; but for minds of
a certain class — and that a very valuable class— it would be simply
happiness.
240 PuhVic Lihraries in the United Stufes.
IL— PROFESSORSHIPS OF BOOKS AND READING.
Value of books as a means of culture — A proper course of readixg —
Difficulty of selecting — Manuals not sufficient — Colleges should
provide a professor to assist the student — Objections to the pro-
posed PROFESSORSHIP CONSIDERED.
The valne of books as a means of culture is at tliis day recognized by
all men. Tbe chief allies aud iastruments of teachers, they are the best
substitutes for teachers, and, next to a good college, a good library may
well be chosen as a means of education. Indeed, a book is a voiceless
teacher, and a great library is a virtual uuiversitj". A literary taste is
at once the most efficient instrument of self-education and the purest
source of enjoyment the world aftbrds. It brings its possessor into ever-
renewing communion with all that is noblest and best in the thought of
the past. The garnered and winnowed wisdom of the ages is his daily
food. Whatever is lofty, profound, or acute in speculation, delicate or
refined in feeling, wise, witty, or quaint in suggestion, is accessible to
the lover of books. They enlarge space for him and prolong'time. More
wonderful than the wishing-cap of the Arabian tales, they transport
him back to former days. The orators declaim for him and the poets
sing. He becomes an inhabitant of every country, a contemporary of all
ages, and converses with the wisest, the noblest, the teuderest, and the
purest spirits that have adorned humanitj'. All the sages have thought
and have acted for him ; or, rather, he has lived with them; he has
hearkened to their instructions; he has been the witness of their great
examples; and, before setting his foot abroad in the world^ has ac-
quired the experience of more countries than the patriarchs saw.
The most original thinkers have been most ready to acknowledge
their obligations to other minds, whose wisdom has been hived in books.
Doctor Franklin traced his entire career to Cotton Mather's Essays to
do Good, which fell into his hands when he was a boy. The current
of Jeremy Beutham's thoughts was directed for life by a single phrase,
"The greatest good of the greatest number," caught at the end of a
pamphlet. Cobbett, at eleven, bought Swift's Tale of a Tub, and it
produced what he considered a sort of "birth of intellect." The genius
of Faraday was fired by the volumes which he perused while serving as
an apprentice to an English bookseller. One of the most distinguished
personages in Europe, showing his library to a visitor, observed that
not only this collection, bat all his social successes in life, he traced
back to " the first franc he saved from the cake shop to spend at a book
stall." The French historian Michelet attributed his mental inspira-
tion to a single book, a Virgil, he lived with for some years; and he
tells us that an odd volume of Racine, picked up at a stall on the quay,
made the poet of Tou'lou. Books not only enrich and enlarge the mind,
Professorships of BooJiS and Reading. 241
but they stimulate, inflame, aud concentrate its activity; and. though
without this reception of foreign influence a man may be odd, he can-
not be original. The greatest genius is he who consumes the most
knowledge and converts it into mind. What, indeed, is college ecbica-
tion bat the reading of certain books which the common sense of all
scholars agrees will represent the science already accumulated ?
A well known American writer says that books are only for one's idle
hours. This may be true of an Etnersoa; but how many Emersons are
there in the reading public ? If the man who gets almost all his informa-
tion from the printed page, " needs a strong head to bear that diet," what
must be the condition of his head who abstains from this aliment ? A
Pascal, when his books are taken from him to save his health, injured
by excessive studj', may supply their place by the depth and force of
his personal reflection ; but there is hardly one Pascal in a century.
Wollaston made many discoveries with a hatful of lenses and some
bits of glass and crystal ; but common people need a laboratory as rich
as Tyndall's. To assume that the mental habits which will do for a man
of genius will do for all men who would make the most of their faculties,
is to exaggerate an idiosyncrasy into a universal law. The method of
nature, it has been well said, is not ecstacy, but patient attention.
''There are two things to be considered in the mitter of inspiration;
one is, the infinite God from whom it comes, the other the finite capacity
which is to receive it. Jf Newton had nev^er studied, it would have been
as easy for God to have revealed the calculus to his dog Diamond as
to Newton. We once heard of a man who thought everything was in
the soul, and so gave up all reading, all continuous thought. Said
another, ' If all is in the soul, it takes a man to find it.'" It is true that,
as Ecclesiasticus tells us, "a man's mind is sometimes wont to tell him
more than seven watchmen that sit above in a high tower;" but it is
also true that the man will hear most of all who hearkens to his own
mind and to the seven watchmen besides.
No doubt books, like every other blessing, may be abused. " Eending,"
as Bacon says, "makes a full man;" and so does eating; but fulness,
without digestion, is dyspepsia, and induces sleepiness and flabbiness,
both fatal to activity. The best books are useless, if the bookworm is
not a living creature. The mulberry leaf must pass through the silk
worm's stomach before it can become silk, and the leaves which are to
clothe our mental nakedness must be chewed and digested by a living
intellect. There are readers whose wit is so smothered under the weight
of theiraccumlationsas to be absolutely powerless. It was said of Kobert
Southey that he gave so much time to the minds of other men that he
never found time to look into his own. Robert Hall said of Dr. Kippis
that he piled so many books upon his head that his brains could not
move. It was to such helluones Ubrorum, or literary anacondas, who are
possessed by their knowledge, not possessed of it, that Hobles of
Malmesbury alluded, when he said that had he read as many books as
16 E
242 TiihUc Libraries in the United States.
other men, he would have known as little. There is in many minds, as
Abernethv complained of his, a point ot saturation, which if one passes,
by putting in more than his mind can hold, he only drives out some-
thing aire ady in. It was one of the advantages of the intellectual giants
of old, that the very scantiness of their libraries, by compelling them to
think Ibr themselves, saved them from that habit of intellectual depend-
ence,— of supplyingone's ideas from foreign sources, — which is as sure to
enfeeble the thinking faculty as a habit of dram drinking to enfeeble
the tone of the stomach. But though books may be thus abused, and
miny flue wits, like Dr. Oldbuck's, lie " sheathed to the hilt in ponder-
ous tomes," will any man contend that such abase is necessary ? The
merely passi^^e reader, who never wrestles with his author, may seem to
be injured by the works he peruses ; but in most cases the injury was
done before he began to read. A really active mind will not be weighed
down by its knowledge, any more than an oak by its leaves, or than was
Samson by his locks. Great piles of fuel, which j)ut out the little fires,
only make the great fires burn. If a man is iiijure^l by multifarious
knowledge, it is not because his mind does not crave and need the most
various food, but because it '' goes into a bad skin." His learning is
mechanically, not chemically, united to the mind; incorporated by con-
tact, and not b^' solution.
Such being the value of books, how can the college student better
spend his leisure time, beyond what is required for sleep, meals, bodily
exercise, and society', than in reading? But what books shall he read,
and how shall he read them ? Shall he let his instincts guide him in the
choice, or shall he read only the works which have been stamped with
th e approval of the Hges ? IIow may he acquii;e, if he lacks it, a taste
ior the highest types, the masterpieces, of literature ? Are there any
critical tests by which the best books may be known, and is there any
art by which '' to ])luck out the heart of their mystery?" These ques-
tions, if he is a thoughtful young man, anxious to make the most of his
time and opportunities, will confront him at thfe very threshold of his
college life. Of the incompetency of most students to answer them for
themselves those persons who have watched them when drawing books
from college libraries can have little doubt. Kot to speak of the under-
graduates who read merely for amusement, or of the intellectual epi-
cures who touch nothing but dainties, nibbling at a multitude of pleas-
ant dishes without getting a good meal from any, — how few, even of
the laborious and conscientious students who would economize their
precious moments, read wisely, with definite purpose or plan ? How
many, ignorant that there is a natural order of acquirement, — that, for
young readers, biography is better than history, history than philoso-
phy, descriptive poetry than metaphysical, — begin with the toughest,
the most speculative, or the most deluding books they can find! How
many, having been told that the latest works in certain departments of
knowledge are best, plunge at once into Mill, Spencer, Buckle, Darwiu,
Profcssorslilps of Books and Reading. 243
anil Taiiie! — books pre-etninently saf;,2;-estive to well trainel mituls, l):it
too difficalt of dio^estioii for minds not thoroiiiij'lily instructed. There is,
perhaps, no more frequent folly of the yoangthan that of reading- hard,
knotty books, for the sake of great names, — neglecting established
facts in science, history, and literature to soar into regions where their
vanity is flattered by novel and daring s.neculations.
Again, how many students read b^oks through by rote, without inter-
est or enjoyment; without com[)rehending or remembering their con-
tents, simply because they have been told to read them, or because som?
great man has prohted by them ! Who has not seen young men plod-
ding wearily through bulky volumes of history or science, utterly un-
suited to their actual state of develop nent, under the delusion that
they were getting mental strength and illuniination, when, in fact, they
were only inflaming their eyes and wasting their precious time ? An
lieroic freshman, full of enthusiasm, and burning to distinguish himself
by some literary conquest, fancies that it would be " a grand thing " to
possess himself of universal history, and so he attacks the history of the
world, in seven volumes, by M. Charles Bollin. He plods through Hume,
Gibbon, Robertson, and other " works which no gentleman's library
should be without," journeying over page after page with incredible pa-
tience, and with a scrupulous attention to notes, and, in in rare cases, to
maps, that is morally sublime. Xo tome is too thick for him, no type too
small; whether the author is luminous or voluminous, it is all the same to
him. Years pass, perhaps the young man graduates, before the truth
flashes upon him that the object of reading is not to know books but
things; that its value depends upon the insight it gives ; and that it is no
more necessary to remember the books that have made one wise thin it
is to rfemember the dinners which have made one strong. He finds that
instead of enriching and invigorating his mind he has taken the most
effectual course to stultify it. He has crammed his head with facts, but
has extracted from them no wisdom. He has mistaken the husks of
history for the fruit, and has no more assimilated his heterogeneous
acquisitions than a millstone assimilates the corn it grinds. The corn
wears out the millstone, giving it a mealy smell ; and the books have
worn out the student, giving him only the faintest odor of intellectual
culture and discipline. Almost every college has its literary Calvin Ed-
sons — living skeletons that consume more mental food than the strong
and healthy, yet receive from it little nourishment — remaining weak
and emaciated on much, while the man of sound constitution grows
vigorous on little.
The difficulties of deciding what books to reail are greatly multiplied in
our day by the enormous number of volumes that weigh down the
shelves of our libraries. In the National Library at Paris it is said
there are 800,000 separate volumes, or, according to a late writer's esti-
mate, 148,760 acres of printed paper! The library of the British
Museum, which contains over 700,000 separate volumes, is said to have
244 Public Libraries in the United States.
forty miles of book shelves. And yet the largest librarj' in the world
does not contain over a quarter part of the books that have been printed
since the time of Gutenberg and Fust, while new books are flying from
the press as thick as snowflakes on a wintry day. Five thousand new
publications are issued in a j^ear in England, and it has been ascertained
that over ten thousand works, including maps, or a million volumes, are
l)oured forth annually from the press of Germany alone. The Leipsic
catalogue contains the names of fifty thousand German authors, and
it is estimated that the time will speedily come when the number of
German writers will exceed that of German readers. What reader
is not appalled by such statistics '? Who can cope with even the mas-
terpieces of literature, to say nothing of the scientific and theological
works, whose numbers are increasing in geometrical ratio ! De Quincey
calculates that if a student were to spend his entire life from the age of
twenty to eighty in reading only, he might compass the mere reading of
some twenty thousand volumes; but, as many books should be studied
as well as read, and some read many times over, he concludes that five
to eight thousand is the largest number which a student in that long
life could hope to master. What realms of books, then, must even the
Alexantiers of letters leave unconquered ! The most robust and inde-
fatigable reader who essays to go through an imperial library cannot
extract the honey from one-twentieth of this hive ; though he read from
dawn to dark, he must die in the first alcoves.
It is true that, in another view, the facts are not quite so discouraging.
New-ton said that if the earth could be compressed into a solid mass it
could be put into a nutshell; and so, if we could deduct from the world
of books all the worthless ones and all those that are merely repetitions,
commentaries, or dilutions of the thoughts of others, we should find it
shrunk into a comparatively small compass. The learned Huet, who
read incessantly till he was ninety-one, and knew more of books per-
haps than any other man down to his time, thought that if nothing had
been said twice everything that had ever been written since the crea-
tion of the world, the details of history excepted, might be put into
nine or ten folio volumes. Still, after all deductions have been made,
the residuum of printed matter which one would like to read is so great
as to be absolutely terrifying. The use of books is to stimulate and re-
plenish the mind, to give it stuff to work with, — ideas, facts, sentiments ;
but to be deluged with these is as bad as to lack them. A mill will not
go if there is too little water, but it will be as effectually stopped if there
is too much. The day of encyclopsedic scholarship has gone by. Even
that ill-defined creature, "a well-informed man," is becoming every year
more and more rare; but the Huets and the Scaligers, — the Bacons,
who "take all knowledge to be their province," and the Leibnitzes, who
presume " to drive all the sciences abreast" — must soon become as
extinct as the megatherium or the ichthyosaurus. The most ambitious
reader who now indulges in what Sidney Smith calls the foppery of
Professorships of Books and Reading. 245
naiversality, speedily learns that no iadividaal can grasp in the limits
of a lifetime even an elementary knowledge of the many provinces of old
learning, enlarged as they are by the vast annexations of modern dis-
covery ; and, like Voltaire's little man of Saturn, who lived only dur-
ing five hundred revolutions, or fifteen thousand of our years, he com-
plains, as he closes his career, that scarcely has he began to pick up Ji
little knowledge before he is called on to depart.
For all these reasons we cannot but think that our colleges, while
they provide the student with libraries, should also provide him with a
professor of books and reading. It is not enough to introduce him to
these quarries of knowledge; he should also be taught where to sink
his shafts and how to work them. Mr. Emerson, speaking of such a
professorship iu one of his later essays, says, " I think no chair is so
much wanted." Even the ripest scholar is puzzled to decide what books
he shall read amongthemyriadsthatclamorforhisattention. What, then,
must be the perplexity of one who has just entered the fields of literature!
If. in Bacon's time some books were "to be tasted, others to be swal-
lowed, and some few to be chewed and digested," how much greater
must seem the necessity of discrimination at this day, when the amount
of literary pabulum has quadrupled and even quintupled ! Is there
not, then, an absolute necessity that the student who would economize
his time and make the best use of his opportunities, should be guided
in his reading by a competent adviser ? Will it be said that, according
to the theory of a collegiate education, the studies of the curriculum
Avill demand all his time; that^he will have no spare hours for general
culture ? We reply that, as a matter of fact, whatever the theory, in
no college does the student, as a rule, give his whole time to the regular
lessons, however long or difficult. Unless very dull or poorly prepared,
the student does find time to read — often several hours a day — and he is
generally encouraged to do so by the professors. The question, there-
fore, is not whether he shall concentrate all his time and attention upon
his text books, but whether he shall read instructive books, for a defi-
nite purpose and under com[)etent direction, or shall acquire, without
direction, the merest odds and ends of knowledge.
We live in a day when it is the practice in every calling to utilize
things which were once deemed valueless. In some of the great cities
of Europe ev^en the sweepings of the streets are turned to account,
being sold to contractors whor use them as dressing for farms. In the
United States Mint at Philadelphia the visitor to the gold room notices
a rack placed over the floor for him to walk on; on inquiring its
purpose, he is told that it is to prevent the visitor from carrying away
with the dust of his feet the minute particles of precious metal which,
in spite of the utmost care, will fall upon the floor when the rougher
edges of the bar are filed, and that the sweepings of the building save
yearly thousands of dollars. How much more precious are the minute
fragments of time which are wasted by the young, especially by those
246 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
who are toiling in the mints of knowledge! Who can estimate the
value to a college student of this golden dust, these raspings and parings
of life, these leavings of days and remnants of hours, so valueless singly,
so inestimable in the aggregate, could they be gleaned up and. turned
to mental improvement ! Let us suppose that a young man, on entering
c'ollege, economizes the odds and ends of his time so far as to read
thoughtfully twelve pages of history a day. This would amount, omit-
ting Sundays, to about three thousand seven hundred pages, or twelve
volumes of over three hundred pages each, in a year. At the end of
his college course he would have read forty-eight volumes, — enough to
have made him master of all the leading facts, with much of the phi-
losophy, of history; with the great, paramount works of English liter-
ature ; with the masterpieces (in translations) of French, Germau,
Spanish, and Italian literature, and with not a little of the choicest
periodical literature of the day. What a fund of knowledge, of wisdom,
and of inspiration would these forty-eight volumes, well chosen, well
understood, and well digested, be to him ! What a quickening, bracing,
and informing study would even one great book prove! The histories
of *IIallam, Grote, Merivale, Mommsen, Milman, Macaulay, Motley ;
Clarendon's gallery of portraits. Gibbon's great historic painting; any
one of these might date an epoch in the student's intellectual life. The
thorough, conscientious, study of any masterpiece of literature. Dr.
Johnson thought, would make a man a dangerous intellectual antagonist.
Over and above all this, the student would have formed habits of self-
improvement and of economy in the use of his time which would be of
more value than his acquisitions, and would influence his whole life.
In saying this we do not forget that it is not wpU for the intellectual
worker to be always in the harness, or to be a slave to the clock. We
have no symi)athy with those persons who, with a pair of compasses,
divide the day into portions, allotting one portion and no more to one
thing, and another portion to another, and who think it a sin to lose a
minute. On the contrary, we believe there is profound truth in the say-
ing of Tillier that "le temps le mieux employe est celui que I'on perd."
Much of our education, even of our best education, is acquired, not only
out of school, but out of the study, in the hours which morbid or
mechanical workers consider lost. Deduct from our acquisitions all that
is learned in seemingly idle hours, in times of recreation and social in-
tercourse, and the residuum would be a heap of bones without flesh to
cover them. Making, however, all deduction for necessary rest and
relaxation, we still believe there are few students who cannot find time to
read twelve pages a day. Are there not many who, through ignorance
of what to read, and how to read, and even of the chief advantages of
reading, waste doubfe this time'^
Will it be said that it is enough for the student to read a few choice
authors, — to absorb thoroughly a half-dozen or more representative
books, — and that these he can select for himself? No doubt there are
Professorslups of Books and Beading. 247
advantages in thus liiuitiug one's reading. So far as reading is not a
pastime, but a part of the systematic cultivation of the faculties, it is
nseful only so far as it implies close and intimate knowledge. The mind
should be not a vessel only, but a vat. A man may say that he has
read Milton's minor poems, if he has skimmed over them lightly as he
would skim over the columns of a newspaper, or if he dispatches them
as a person boasted that he had gone through a geometry in one after-
noon, onlj' skipping the A's, and B's, and crooked lines that seemed to
have been thrown in to intercept his progress ; but he has not read them
to any good purpose until they have fascinated»his imagination and
sunk into his memory. E^ally great books must be re id and re-read
with ceaseless iteration, must be chewed and digested till they are
thoroughly assimilated, till their ideas pass like the iron atoms of the
blood into the mental constitution ; and they hardly begin to give
weight and power to the intellect, till we have them so by heart that
we scarcely need to look into them. It is not in the number of facts
one has read that his intellectual power lies, but in the number he can
bring to bear on a given subject, and in his ability to treat them as data,
or factors of a new product. It is hardly possible to censure too
sharply what Sir William Hamilton calls " the prevailing pesti-
lence of slovenly, desultory, effeminate reading." A great deal of the
time thus spent is but the indulgence of intellectual dram drinking,
affording a temporary exhilaration, but ultimately emasculating both
mind and character. The Turk eats opium, the Hindoo chews tobacco
and betel nut, the civilized Christian reads; and opium, tobacco, and
books, all alike tend to produce that dizzy, dreamy, drowsy state of
mind which unfits a nnin for all the active duties of life. But true as all
this is, " the man of one book," or of a few books, is, we fear, a Utopian
dream rather than a reality, in this nineteenth century. Tiie young
man who has a keen, vigorous api)etite for knowledge, and who would
be abreast with his age, will never be content to feed on a few choice
authors, even though each be a library. He knows that as the Amazon
and the Mississippi have hundreds of tributaries, so it is with every
great stream of knowledge. He sees that such are the interrelations
and overlappings of science that, to know one subject well, it is neces-
sary to know something of a thousand others. He recognizes, sooner or
later, the fact that, as Maclaurin says, " our knowledge is vastly greater
than the sum of what all its objects separately could afford; and when
a new object comes within our reach, the addition to our knowledge is
tlie greater the more we already know; so that it increases, not as the
new objects increase, but in a much higher proportiou." Above all, he
knows that, as in our animal economy it is a disastrous policy to eat ex-
clusively the nitrates which contribute to the muscles, the phosphates
which feed the brain and nerves, or the carbonates which develop
fat, so we starve a part of our mental faculties if we limit our mental
diet to a few dishes. The intellectual epicure who would feed on a lew
248 Public Libraries in the United States.
choice antbors is usually the laudator temporis acti, — the indiscriminate
eulogist of the past ; and this, of itself, renders worthless all his recipes
for mental culture, and cuts him off from the sympathy of the young. He
is forever advising them to read only classic authors, — which would be to
live in an intellectual monastery. It is quite possible to feed a young-
man with too concentrated a diet. It has been truly said by a wise
teacher that if there is one law more sure than another in intellectual
development, it is that the young must' take their start in thought and
in taste from the models of their own time ; from the men whose fame
has not become a tradition, but is ringing in clear and loud notes in the
social atmosphere around us.
There are some persons, no doubt, who are opposed to all guidance
of the young in their reading. They would turn the student loose into
a vast library and let him browse freely in whatever literary pastures
may please him. With Johnson they say, " Whilst you stand deliber-
ating which book your son shall read first, another boy has read both ;
read anything five hours a day and you will soon be learned." Coun-
sel, advice in the choice of books, they condemn as interfering with the
freedom of individual taste and the spontaneity which is the condition
of intellectual progress. " Read," they say to the young man, " what you
can read with a keen and lively relish; what charms, thrills, or fasci-
nates you; what stimulates and inspires your mind, or satisfies your
intellectual hunger; 'in brief, sir, study what you most affect.'-- No
doubt there is a vein of wisdom in this advice. It is quite possible to
order one's reading by too strict and formal a rule. A youth will con-
tinue to study only that in which he feels a real interest and pleasure,
constantly provoking him to activity. It is not the books which others
like, or which they deem best fitted for him, that he will read and read
with profit, but the books that hit his tastes most exactly and that sat-
isfy his intellectual cravings. Xo sensible educator will prescribe the
same couxses of reading for two persons or lay down any formal, cast
iron rules for the direction of the mental processes. That which is the
most nutritious aliment of one mind may prove deleterious and even
poisonous to another.
To some extent, too, the choice of books may be left to individual
taste and judgment. There are some minds that have an eclectic qual-
ity which inclines them to the reading they need, and in a libraiy they
not only instinctively pounce upon the books they need, but draw at
once from them the most valuable ideas as the magnet draws the iron
filings scattered through a heap of sand. But these are rare cases and
can furnish no rule for general guidance. To assert that a learned and
judicious adviser cannot help the ordinary student in the choice of
books, is to assert that all teaching is valueless. If inspiration, genius,
taste, elective affinities are sufficient in the^ selection and reading of
books, why not also in the choice of college studies? Why adopt a
curriculum ? The truth is, the literary appetite of the young is often
ProfessorsMps of Books and Beading. 249
feeble, and oftener capricious or perverted. While their stomachs gen-
erally reject unwholesome food, their minds ofteu feed on garbage and
even poison. The majority of young persons are fond of labor saving
processes and short cuts to knowledge, and Lave little taste for books
which put much strain on the mind. The knowledge too easily acquired
may imi)art a temporary stimulus and a kind of Intellectual keenness
and cl.everness, but it brings no solid advantage. It is, in fact, "the
merest epicurism of intelligence, — sensuous, but certainly not intellec-
tual." Magnify as we may the necessity of regarding individual pecu-
liarities in education, it is certain that genius, inspii^ation, or an affinity
for any kind of knowledge, does not necessarily exclude self knowledge,
self criticism, or self control. As another has said, " If the geaius of a
man lies in the development of the individual person that he is, his
manhood lies in finding out by stud> what he is, and what he may be-
cou)e, and in wisely using the means that are fitted to form and perfect
his individuality."
Will it be said that there are manuals or " courses of readings," such
as Pycroft's, or President Porter's excellent work, by the aid of wbich
an undergraduate may select his books without the aid of a professor?
We answer that such manuals, while they are ofteu serviceable, can
never do the work of a living guide and adviser. Books can never
teach the use of books. Ko course of reading, however ideally good,
can be exactly 'adapted to all minds. Every student has his idiosyn-
crasies, his foibles, his " stond or impediment in the wit," as Bacon
terms it, which must be considered in choosing his reading matter, so
that not only his tastes may be in some degree consulted, but "every
defect of the mind may have a special receipt."
A professor of books and reading should be a man of broad and
varied culture, with catholic tastes, a thorough knowledge of bibliog-
raphy, especially of critical literature, and much knowledge of men ;
one who can readily detect the peculiarities of his pupils, and who, in
directing their reading, will have constant reference to these as well as
to the order of nature and intellectual development. While he may pre-
pare, from time to time, courses of reading on special topics, and
especially on those related to the college studies, he will be still more
useful in advising the student how to read most advantageously ; in
what ways to improve the memory ; how to keep and use commonplace
books; when to make abstracts; and in giving many other hints
which books on reading never communicate, and which suggest
themselves only to one who has learned after many years of experience
and by many painful mistakes the secret of successful study. He will
see that the young men who look to him ixs their guide read broadly
and liberally, yet care ^'■imdtum legere potius quam multay He will see
that they cultivate "the pleasure grounds, as well as the corn fields of
the mind ;" that they read not only the most famous books, but the best
reputed current works on each subject ; that they read by subjects and
250 Public Libraries in the United States.
not by authors ; perusing a book uot because it is the newest or the
oldest, but because it is the very one they need to help them on to the
next stage of their inquiries; and that they practice subsoil plowing
by re-reading the masterpieces of genius again and again. Encouraging
them to read the books they " do honestly feel a wish and cariosity to
read," he will teach them to discriminate, nevertheless, between true
desire, the monition of nature, and that superficial, false desire after
spiceries and confectioneries, which, as Carlyle says, is "so often mis-
taken for the real appetite, lying far deeper, far quieter, after solid
nutritive food;" and, discouraging shortcuts in general, he will yet
often save the student days of labor by pointing out some masterly
review article in which is condensed into a few pages the quintessence
of many volumes. Perhaps one of the greatest services which such a
teacher might perform for the undergraduate would be in showing him.
how to economize his reading — how to transfer or inspirit into his brain
the contents of a good book in the briefest time. At this day, the art
of reading, or at least one of the arts, is to skip judiciously, — to omit all
that does not concern us, while missing nothing that we really need.
Some of the best thinkers rarely begin a book at the beginning, but
div^e right into the middle, read enough to seize the leading idea, dig
out the heart of it, and then throw it by. In this way a volume which
cost the author five years of toil, they will devour at a night's sitting,
with as much ease as a spider would suck the juices of a fly, leaving the
wings and legs in the shape of a preface, appendix, notes, and conclusion,
for a boiled joint the next day. It is said that Patrick Henry read
with such rapidity that he seemed only to run his eye down the pages
of a book, often to leap over the leaves, seldom to go regularly
through any passage; and yet, when he had dashed through a vol-
ume in this race-horse way, he knew its contents better than any-
body else. Stories similar to this of " the forest- born Demosthenes"
are told of some of his contemporaries. Wonders are recounted of
their powers of perusal; how Johnson would swoop down upon his
prey like the eagle, and tear out the heart of a book at once ; how
Burke, reading a book as if he were never to see it again, devoured two
octavo volumes in a stagecoach; and how package after package of
these sweet medicines of the mind were thrown in to Xapoleon on the
island of St. Helena, like food to a lion, and with hoc preHto dispatched.
It is said that Coleridge rarely read a book through, but would plunge
into the marrow of a new volume, and feed on all the nutritious matter
with surprising rapidity, grasping the thought of the author, and fol-
lowing out his reasonings to consequences of which he had never
dreamed. Chief- Justice Parsons of Massachusetts, who, according to
Chief-Justice Parker, " knew more law than anybody else, and knew
more of other things than he did of law," read books with a similar
rapidity, taking in the meaning not by single words but by whole sen-
tences, which enabled him to finish several books in a single evening.
Professorships of Books and Beading. 251
Thierry', the historian, tells us of himself that from the habit of devour-
ing long pages in folio, in order to extract a phrase and sometimes one
word among a thousand, he acquired a faculty which astonished him, —
that of reading in some way by intuition, and of encountering almost
immediately the passage that wonld be useful to him, — all the vital
power seeming to tend toward a single vital point. Carlyle devours
books in the same wholesale way, j^lucking ont from an ordinary vol-
ume " the heart of its mystery" in two hours. It is absurd, of course,
to suppose that every man, — above all, that young men, — will be able
with profit to dash through books as did these great men ; but all stu-
dents can be taught how, by practice, to come nearer and nearer to such
a habit. It is a miserable bondage to be compelled to read all the words
in a book to learn what is in it. A vigorous, live mind will fly ahead
of the words of an author and anticipate his thought. Instead of pain-
fully traversing the vales of commonplace, it will leap from peak to peak
on the summit of his ideas. Great quickness, acuteness, and power of
concentration are required to do this ; but it is a faculty susceptible of
cultivation and measurably attainable by all. The first thing to be
learned by every student is liow to read. Few know how because few
have made it a study. Many read «t, book as if they had taken a sacra-
mentum militare to follow the author through all his i)latitudes and
twaddle. Like the American sloth, they begin at the top of the tree
and never leave it till they have devoured all of which they can strip it,
whether leaves or fruit. Others read languidly, without re-acting on
the jiuthor or challenging his statements, when the pulse should beat
high, as if they were in battle and the sound of the trumpet were in
their ears. A reader who knows the secret of the art will get through
a book in half the time, and master it more thoroughly than another
who, ignorant of the art, has plodded through every page.
A word, in conclusion, touching the cost of such a professorship as
we have advocated. In the leading colleges we believe there should be
a chair of " books and reading" specially endowed ; but in the smaller
colleges its duties might be discharged by the professor of English liter-
ature, or by an accomplished librarian.
CHAPTER X.
LIBRARIES OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT.
BY THE EDITORS.
IxTRODucTiON— Library of Coxgress — House of Eepresext.vtives — Uxitkd
States Sekate — Executive Mansion — Department op State— Department of
THE Treasury AND its Bureaus— Department of War, its Bureaus, Military
Academy, and Artillery School — Department of the Navy, its Bureaus,
Naval Observatory, and Naval Academy — Post-Office Departmeni' — De-
partment OF THE Interior, its Bureaus, Government Hospii'al for thu
Insane, National Deaf-Mute College— Department of Justice— Department
OF Agriculture— Summary— Libraries partially maintained by the Gov-
ernment: Soldiers' Home, Military Posts, National Home for Disabled
Volunteer Soldiers, Naval and Merchant Vessels.
IXTEODUCTION.
The libraries of the General G.iverainenfc have grown oat of the exi-
gencies of its administration. Before the Government was removed
from Philadelphia to Washington, members of Congress and the execu-
tive officers of the several departments were obliged to avail them-
selves of the courtesy of a proprietary library. The new Cai)itol offered
no such facilities. The Library of Congress was therefore begun, and
has grown, as needs required, until it now numbers over 300,000 volumes
and 60,000 pamphlets.
As the business of administration increased, and its cares were
divided by the creation of new departments, a reference library for each
was found necessary for the proper conduct of business. In like man-
ner, it became essential from time to time to form libraries in a number
of the bureaus of the departments. With three or four exceptions,
these libraries have been formed with reference to the special duties
devolving on the respective bureaus.
The establishment of the Naval School at Annapolis and the Military
Academy at West Point necessitated libraries in each.
The subjoined notices, several of which have been prepared by the
librarians in charge of the collections named, will show the growth
and importance of the libraries referred to, as well as of some not so
directly connected with the Government, such as those at military gar-
risons and arsenals, at the several navy yards and marine hospitals, and
on board ships of war.
Small collections of reference books are also found in the principal
custom houses and mints, and at the places of holding the United States
distiict courts.
252
Libraries of the General Government 253
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, OR XATIOXAL LIBRARY.
BY A. B. SPOFFORD,
Librarian of Congress.
The Library of Conjjress had its ofigiu la the wants of our National
Legislature for books and inforination. Its establishment, like that of
some of the government libraries of other countries, was almost co-eval
with the existence of the Government in a permanent form, tlie origin
of the Library of Congress dating from the year 1800, about the time of
the establishment of the seat of Government at Washington.
The Continental Congress, assembled at Philadelphia during the
period of the Revolution, represented a government consisting of a mere
league of colonies, without central power or authority ; and it was de-
pendent for library aid upon the chance researches of its members, and
the gratuitous use of books tendered them by the Library Company of
Philadelphia. Thus it formed no library of its own, and after the adop-
tion of the Constitution in 1789, while the controverted question of the
ultimate seat of government remained unsettled, there was little motive
to enter upon the collection of a permanent library.
The first appropriation made by Congress for the purchase of books
was on the 24th of April, 1800, in the fifth section of. "An act to make
further provision for the removal and accommodation of the Govern-
ment of the United States." This act appropriated the sum of $5,000
"for the purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Con-
gress at the said city of Washington, and for fitting up a suitable apart-
ment for containing them, and placing them therein." The selection of
books was devolved upon a joint committee of both Houses of Congress,
to be appointed for that purpose. And the statute provided :
That said books shall be placed in one suitable apartment in the Capitol in the said
city, for the use of both Houses of Congress, and the members thereof.
FOUNDATION AND HISTORY OF THE LIBRARY.
Congress met in October, ISOO, at the city of Washington, for the first
time. In the unfinished condition of the original Capitol, the two
Houses, with the Supreme Court, were all croi^ded into the north wing
of the new building, and little was done for the accommodation of the
nascent Library of Congress. At the next session, which convened un-
der the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, in December, 1801, that officer
appears to have taken an earnest interest in the library, and, at bis sug-
gestion a statement was made, on the first day of the session, respect-
ing the books and maps purchased by the joint committee of Congress.
A special committee was appointed at this session on the part of both
Houses to take into consideration the care of the books, and to make a
rep(irt respecting the future arrangement of the same. This report,
made to the House by John Randolph, of Virginia, December 21, 1801,
254 Public Libraries in the United States.
fomied the basis of "An act concerning the library for the use of both
Houses of Congress," which was the first systematic statute organizing
the Library of Congress, and which still continues substantially in force.
This act of organization, approved January 26, 1802, located the Li-
brary of Congress in the room which had been occupied by the House of
Representatives. It empowered the President of the Senate and the
Speaker of the House to establish regulations for the library. It created
the office of Librarian, and vested his appointment in the President of
the United States, requiring him to give bond for the safe keeping of
the library and the faithful discharge of his trust. It further restricted
the taking of books from the Library of Congress to the members of the
Senate and the House of liepresentatives, together with the President
and Vice-President of the LTnited States. This regulation was subse-
quently extended so as to invest with the privilege of drawing books
from the Library of Congress the heads of Departments, tlie judges,'
reporter, and clerk of the Supreme (yourt and of the Court of Claims;
the Solicitor of the Treasury ; the disbursing agent of the library ; the
Solicitor-General and Assistant Attorne^^s-General ; the Secretary of
the Senate, and the Clerk of the House of Eepresentatives; the Chap-
lains of both Houses of Congress, the members of the Diplomatic
Corps, and the Secretary and Eegents of the Smithsonian Institution
resident in Washington.
The disbursement of fnnds for the purchase of books is under the
direction of a joint committee of both Houses of Congress on the Li-
brary, consisting of three Senators and three representatives, who also
have power to make all regulations uot inconsistent with law in rela-
tion to the Library of Congress, or either of its departments.
In the early years of the library there was little occasion for official
work with a view to its wider usefulness ; and the care of the few
books accumulated (which amounted only to 3,000 volumes up to the
year 1814) involved but little time or trouble. Hence, the earliest libra-
rian placed in charge of the books was, in the case of each Congress,
the Clerk of the House of Eepresentatives for the time being, who
employed an assistant to take the immediate care of the books. The an-
nual appropriation for the purchase of books during these early years
was only $1,000.
On the 25th of August, 1814, the Capitol was burned by the British
arm}', which invaded and held possession of Washington for a single
day, and the Library of Congress was entirely consumed with it. During
the following month, Ex-President Jeflferson, then living in retirement
at Monticello, and overtaken by pecuniary embarrassment, tendered to
Congress, through the Committee on the Library, his private collection
of books, as the basis for a new Congressional Library. The otter was
to furnish the books (numbering about 6,700 volumes, of which a manu-
script catalogue was submitted) at cost, and to receive in payment the
bonds of the United States, or such payment as might be " made con-
Libraries of the General Government. 255
veuient to tlie public." This proposition was favorably reported from
the committees in both Houses of Cougress, but excited earnest debate
and opposition. The final vote in the House upon the passage of the
bill authorizing the purchase, at the price of $23,950, was 81 yeas and
71 nays.
On the 21st of ^March, 1815, Mr. George Watterston was appointed
Librarian of Congress by President Madison, and a room in the building
temporarily occupied by Congress was appropriated for the reception
of the Jefferson library. A catalogue of the collection was printed the
same year (1815), in a thin quarto of 210 pages, which is little more than
a rough finding-list of an imperfect character. It is noteworthy that
on the title page of this volume the collection is styled "The Library
of the United States," instead of the Library of Congress, which lat-
ter designation has since been generally employed.
At the next session of Congress, the library was removed from this
temporary building (which was the Post-Ofhce Department of that day)
to the brick edifice on Capitol Hill which had been erected as a tem-
porary home for Congress, until the Capitol should be rebuilt upon the
old site. The annual appropriation for the purchase of books was raised
to $2,000 a j^ear in 1818. This continued until 1824, when the sum of
$5,000 was appropriated; and the same amount continued the average
annual appropriation for twenty or thirty years thereafter. The annual
accessions of books under this modest appropriation were not great, al-
though the selections were generally judicious, and resulted in bringing
together a library formed with a view to the highest utility, and with
some general unity of plan. In the year 1824, the library was finally
removed to the central Capitol building, which had been completed,
where an apartment 92 feet in length by 32 feet in width (still occupied
as the central library hall) was fitted up to receive the books.
There the library continued to grow, slowly but surely, until it had
accumulated, by the year 1851, 55,000 volumes of books. On the 24th
of December of that year the calamity of a second fire overtook the
Library of Congress. A defective flue, which had been neglected, and
was surrounded with wooden material, communicated the fiames to the
adjoining shelving, and the entire library, then, as now, occupying the
western front of the Capitol, was soon wrapped in flames. The fire
occurring in the night, its extinction was attended with great delay, so
that only 20,000 volumes were saved from the flames. These, however,
embraced the more valuable portion of the library at that time, includ-
ing the whole of the department of jurisprudence, American history
and biography, and political science. But the important divisions of
geography, voyages and travels, English and European history, fine
arts, natural history, poetry, the drama, &c., were entirely destroyed.
Starting anew in 1852 with the little nucleus of 20,000 volumes, the
Library of Congress soon arose from its ashes, and has since continued
to grow in a greatly accelerated ratio. The Cougress of that day took
25 G Piiblic Libraries in the United States.
a wise and liberal view of the situation, and appropriated at the same
session the sum of $72,500 for the recon struction of the library rooms,
and $75,000 additional for the immediate purchase of books. The
library hall, under the superin tendence of Thomas U. Walter, esq.,
Architect of the Oapitol, was rebuilt in fire proof Material, the wails,
ceiling-, and shelves being- constructed of solid iron finished in a highly
decorated style.
The Library of Congress thus furnished the first example of an ii\tn».
rior constructed wholly of iron in any public building in America.
The liberal appropriation made by Congress for books soon began to
show its fruits in the acquisition of multitudes of volumes of the best
literature in all departments ; and many expensive art publications, sets
of periodicals, and valuable and costly works in natural history, archi-
tecture, and other sciences were added to its stores. By the year 18G0
the library had grown to about 75,000 volumes.
Soon after the outbreak of the civil war in 18H1 the regular appropria-
tion for the purchase of books was increased from $7,000 to $10,000 per
annum, the great cost of imported books rendering it very difficult to keep
up with the current literature of value and to continue to supplement
the deficiencies of the collection within the limits of the former meagre
appropriation.
THE SMITHSONIAN LIBRARY.
In the year 18GG, the Library of Congress received a most important
accession in the transfer to its shelves of the whole collection of books
gathered by the Smithsonian Institution, and representing twenty years'
accumulation since its establishment. This collection was a most valu-
able complement to the library already gathered at the Capitol, being
well supplied with books in the natural and exact sciences, and quite
unique in the multitude of publications of learned societies in all parts
of the world and in nearly all of the modern languages. With this
large addition (numbering nearly 40,000 volumes) the Library of Con-
gress became at once the most extensive and valuable repository of ma-
terial for the wants of scholars which was to be found in the United
States. By the terras of transfer of the Smithsonian Library, (Congress
became its custodian during such time as the Regents of the Smith-
sonian Institution should continue the deposit, it being stipulated that
the expense of binding and cataloguing of all books should be defrayed
by Congress in return for this valuable and annually increasing addi-
tion to its stores. This arrangement, while it relieves the funds of the
Smithsonian Institution from an annual charge in maintaining a library,
secures to the National Library an invaluable scientific department with-
out material cost ; and the deposit, supplying as it does a much larger
library of use and reference to the scholars of the country than is to be
found in any one body elsewhere, is likely to be a permanent one.
Libraries of the General Government 257
THE FORCE LIBRARY.
In the following year (IS07) Congress became the purchaser of a very
extensive historical library, formed by the late Peter Force, of Wash-
ington. This collection represented nearly fifty years of assiduous
accumulation by a specialist devoted to the collection of books, pam-
phlets, periodicals, maps, mauuscriptvS, &c., relating to the colonization
and histor}' of the United States. This purchase, which was effected at
the price of $L00,000, included, besides nearly 60,000 articles (or titles)
in books, pamphlets, and manuscripts, the entire unpublished materials
of the Documentary History of the United States, a work to which Mr.
Force had dedicated his life, and nine folio volumes of which, embrac-
ing a portion only of the history of the revolutionary period, had been
published. This wise and timely purchase saved from dispersion one of
the most valuable private libraries ever gathered by a single hand, and
has treasured up in a national fire proof repository multitudes of orig-
inal political and military papers, and historical documents, which are
unique, and throw much light upon our revolutionary history, as well as
upon that of subsequent periods.
By the accessions of succeeding years, the department of American
history has been still further enriched by assiduous care in selecting
from catalogues at home and abroad, and-purchasing at every important
auction sale whatever works were not already in the Library of Congress
illustrative of the discovery, settlement, history, topography, natural
history, and politics of America.
THE LAW LIBRARY.
The law department of the Library of Congress was constituted by
act of July 14, 1832. Prior to that timethe whole collection bad been kept
together ; but the wants and convenience of the justices of the Supreme
Court of the United States would, it was found, be greatly promoted by
removing the department of jurisprudence into a separate room
more conveniently accessible to the court and conference rooms of that
tribunal. By the same act the Librarian of Congress was required to
take charge of the law library, which was made a part of the Library
of Congress, subject to the same regulations as the general library, except
that the justices of the Supreme Court were empowered to make such rules
for the use of the same by themselves and the attorneys and counsellors
of said court during its sessions as they should deem proper. The an-
nual appropriation for the purchase of law books was fixed at $1,000,
and a special sum of $5, ODD was twice appropriated to enrich the law
department, which, at the time it was set apart, consisted of only 2,011
volumes. From 1850 to the present time the annual sum approi)riated
for law books has been $J,000. The law library was first placid in a
room adjacent to the main collection, on the same floor. Eemoved in
1848 to the floor underneath, near what was then the Supreme Court
17 E
258 PuhUc Libraries in the United States.
room, it was finally lodjjed in the Supreme Court room itself in De-
cember, ISGO, the court having been transferred to the former Senate
chamber on flie upper floor.
The Law Library of Congress is rich in the English and American re-
l)orts, of which it possesses full sets, many of them being in duplicate. \n
civil law it contains all the leading works, and many of the more obscure
collateral treatises. In the statute law of the several States, and of the
chief foreign nations of the globe, it is well equipped; its collection of
treatises in every depirtment of ttie cominou law and miscellaneous law
literature, both in English and Fiencti, is large, though far from com-
])lete; while its collection of sets of all important law periodicals,
whether English, French, or American, surpasses that of any other
library in the United States. It now numbers upwards of 35,000 vol-
umes, exclusive of works on the law of nations and nature, and the
journals and documents of legislative bodies, Avhich form a part of the
general Library of Congress.
EXTENT AND CHARACTER OF THE COLLECTIONS.
It may be said that the central idea of a library for the use of a legis-
lative body should be completeness in the two dei)artments of jurispru-
dence and political science. Yet a library adequately contributing to
the enlightenment of the legislators of a nation must necessarily em-
brace much more than this. There is, in fact, no department of science
or literature which may not require at any moment to be drawn upon to
lend its aid. Further than this, as the Library of Congress is also freely
open for the use and reference of the much larger public, resident or
temporarily sojourning at the seat of Government, it must inevitably,
by the mere law of growth, become sooner or later a universal library,
in which no department shall be neglected. While, therefore, the im-
portance of rendering it approximately complete in books relating to
law and government has been kei)t steadily in view, it has also been
assiduously enriched in other directions. Its accumulation of authori-
ties in English and Earoi)ean history and biograpliy is especially exten-
sive. Its collection of peiiodicals is very rich, and there are \esv Eng-
lish or American reviews or magazines of any note of which com-
]>lete sets are not to be found upon its shelves. An adujirable selection
of the more important literary and scientific periodicals published in
France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and other countries of Europe, is
also to be found here.
As the library of the American people, supported and constantly en-
larged by taxation, it is eminently fitting that this library should not
only be freely accessible to the whole people, but t!iat it should furnish
the fullest possible storcis of information in every department of human
knowledge. While, therefore, more particular attention has been de-
voted to rendering the library complete in jurisprudence, history, and
Americana, there is no department which has been neglected in its
Libraries of the General Government. 259
formation ; atid it is, accordingly, beconiinf? measurably coini)Iete in
many directions which, were it merely the Library of Congress and for
the sole use of a legislative body, would not receive special attention.
As one example, it may be stat'ed that this library contains much the
largest collection of the countj^ and town histories of Great Britain and
of genealogical works, to be found in America.
The present numerical extent of the Library of Congress may be summed
up in saying that it contains30D,000 volumes, besides about GO,00(J pam-
phlets. Bat this estimate by enumeration, although commonly the first
item asked for, is very far from constituting a practical test of the value
of any library. Non multa, sed multiim applies with strict pertinence to
the intellectual wealth stored within the alcoves of a great library.
And with regard to the careful selection and winnowing of books, so
that we may be sure to have the best on any given subject, no matter
what other collection contains the most, it may be said that it has been
the steady aim to secure for the Library of Congress the most compre-
hensive materials which can be contributed to the enlightment of read-
ers upon every theme that interests men. Further than this, sugges-
tions of books wanting in the collection have been welcomed from all
quarters, and whenever found worthy of incori^oration in the library,
they have been procured.
THE CATALOGUE.
The catalogue system of the Library of Congress is substantially that
adopted in most great and ra[)idly growing public libraries. The card
catalogue is kept constantly complete to date by incorporating daily the
titles of works added to the collection. The printed catalogues, how-
ever, comprise two divisions — an alphabetical catalogue by authors'
names, and a classed catalogue by subjects. The annual catalogues of
accessions to the library, which were published in a series of bulky
volumes from 1867 to 1872, have been discontinued, on account of the
great cost of producing them in comparison to their utility, and will be
replaced by a more frequent issue of the general catalogue, embracing
the whole contents of the library, pamphlets included, which latter
were omitted from the annual catalogues for economical reasons. The
next general catalogue, com[)lete to the year 187G, will fill four or more
royal octavo volumes, and in it will be embraced the feature of record-
ing full collations of every book and pami^hlet, including publishers'
names, first introduced in the catalogues of this library in 18G7. A cata-
logue of the more important accessions of the last three years 1873-1875,
accompanied by an index to subjects and titles, was recently issued.
A labor recently undertaken in connection with the catalogue system
of the library, and by autliority of Congress, is the preparation of a
complete index of topics to the documents and debates of Congress.
This is a work of vast extent, euibracing the contents of about 1,600
volumes, including the Annals of Congress, the Register of Debates, the
260 Public Libraries in the United States.
Congressioual Globe and Eecord, the journals of the Continental Con-
gress, the complete set of congressioual documents, (including the par-
tial reprints in the American State Papers,) the Statutes at Large, &c.
Considering the great extent and rich material of the documentary his-
tory of the Republic, the most of which has been completely buried from
view by the want of any index or other key to unlock its stores, this
task, when completed, may be expected to yield valuable fruit in bring-
ing to light the sources of our political history, as well as furnishing an
important aid to the legislative, executive, and judicial officers of the
United States.
THE COPYEIGHT DEPARTMENT.
It remains to consider, briefly, one distiuctiv^e tield of the operations
of the Library of Congress, namely, its copyright accessions. By an
act of Congress approved July 8, 3870, the entire registry of copyrights
within the United States, which was previously scattered all over the
country in the offices of the clerks of the United States district courts,
has been transferred to the office of the Librarian of Congress. The
reasons for this step were threefold : 1. To secure the advantage of one
central office at the seat of Government for keeping all the records re-
lating to copyrights, so that any fact regarding literary property can
be learned by a single inquiry at Washington. 2. This transfer of
copyright business to the office of the Librarian of Congress adds to the
registration of all original publications the requirement of a deposit of
each publication entered, in order to perfect the copyright. This secures
to the library of the Government an approximately complete representa-
tion of the product of the American mind in every department of printed
matter. The resulting advantage to authors aud students of being cer-
tain of finding all the books which the country has produced in any
given department is incalculable. 3. The pecuniary fees for the record
of copyrights are now paid directly into the Treasury, instead of being-
absorbed, as formerly, by the clerical expenses in the offices of the dis-
trict clerks.
The average number of copyright entries is not far from 12,000 per
annum. As two copies of each publication are required to be deposited
in the library as a condition of perfecting copyright, the annual receipts
under this head amount to nearly 25,000 articles. Of this large number,
however, one-half are duplicates, while a very large share are not books,
but musical compositions, engravings, chromos, photographs, prints,
maps, dramatic compositions, and periodicals. Yet there is, even in the
accumulation of what some critics might pronounce trash, an element
of value which will receive increasing illustration in the future. By
the constant deposit of copyright engravings, photographs, wood-cuts,
chromos, and other objects of art, the library must iu time accumulate a
large and attractive gallery of the fine arts, richly worthy of attention as
representing the condition and progress of the arts of design at difterent
periods in the United States.
Libraries of the General Government. 261
By the required deposit, also, as a conditioii of the copyright, of every
book aud periodical on which an exclusive privilege is claimed, there
will be gathered in a permanent fire proof repository the means of tracing
the history and progress of each department of science or literature in
this country. As a single example of this, consider how great a beneBt
it must be for those who are interested in the profession of education
to be secure of finding in a national library a complete series of school
books produced in all parts of the United States for the period of half a
century. What seems trash to us to-day may come to morrow to liave
a wholly unsuspected value ; while that which is worthless to one reader
may contribute a very solid satisfaction to another.
There should be in every nation one great library, and that the prop-
erty of the whole people, which shall be inclusive, not exclusive, in its
character; which shall include not a selection merely, but all the pro-
ductions of the intellect of the country, year by year, as 'they appear
from the press. Thus only will our National Library be htly repre-
sentative of the country ; thus only will it discharge its function
as the custodian and transmitter to future generations of the whole
product of the American press. No one who is familiar with the
tendency to disappear, or the rapid consumption, so to speak, w^hich
overtakes so large a [)ortion of the books that are issued ; no one who
has sought in vain for a coveted volume, which has become almost lost
to the world from the small number of copies printed, and the swift de-
struction through the accidents of time, can fail to appreciate the value
of a collection thus truly complete and national.
HOUSE OF REPEESENTATIVES LIBRARY.
This library is attached to the Clerk's office of the House. There was
a collection of public documents as early as 1789, which formed the
nucleus of the present library. The books are altnost exclusively of a
legislative and executive character, and are particularly for the use of
the members of the House. They are subject to the order of the mem-
bers, but are not to be taken from the city. The library is in charge of
a librarian appointed by the House. Including duplicates, the library
numbers 100,000 volumes.
UNITED STATES SENATE LIBRARY.
The library of the United States Senate was begun as a regular library
in 1852, though it was established as a repository of public documents and
State papers in 1789. It was at first attached to the office of the Secre-
tary of the Senate. The collection consists entirely of public documents.
It contains a complete set of State papers, beginning with the first pub-
lished by Gales & Seaton, and the manuscript journals of the Senate,
from the first session, held at New York, beginning March 4, 1789.
The library numbers 15,000 volumes.
262 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
EXECUTIVE MANSION LIBEARY.
TLe library of the Executive Mausion dates back to the administra-
tion of President Madison, and is simply a miscellaneous family library,
containing, however, in addition to miscellany, a number of executive
documents for special reference for the use of employes. Small addi-
tions are made from time to time from the contingent fund.
The number of volumes in the library is 1,453. The first appropria-
tion for its increase was made in 1850, and amounted to $2,000.
THE LIBEAKY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE.
BY T. F. DWIGHT,
Librarian of the State Departments
This library has been growing- from the time of the organization of
the Government; its foundation maybe dated from the resolution of
Congress of September 23, 1780, which made it the "duty of the Secre-
tary of State to procure, from time to time, such of the statutes of the
several States as may not be in his oflSce." Although it cannot be said
that tlie idea of fornung a miscellaneous library was contemplated, yet
tlie fact possesses considerable interest that this resolution was the first
authorization of a collection of books by the Congress of the United
States.
The real character of the library was determined by the necessities of
the service. After tlie organization of the Departnjent of State, a
demand was created for works on the law of nations, diplomatic hi.s-
tory, and cognate topics, which led to the gradual accumulation of
American and foreign histories, voyages, treatises on political science,
l)olitical economy, and works affording liberal information on the sub-
jects of investigation of the Department.
Few data have been preserved respecting the growth of the collection.
Two subject catalogues, issued in 1825 and 1830, furnish the only records
of its early history. The first, a small octavo, covers sixty-eight
pages, and accounts for eight hundred and seventy-five titles in three
thousand volumes. The second, of one hundred and fifty pages, small
octavo, shows an increase within five years to about thirteen hun-
dred titles in four thousand six hundred volumes. Since the date of
the latter, an accurate statement of the increase cannot now be furnished.
It is estimated that there are at present about six thousand titles iu
twenty-three thousand volumes. Of these, there are, in English titles, five
thousand; in French, Italian, and Spanish, one thousand.
This estimate, of course, does not include the large and valuable col-
lection of news])apers nor the publications of Congress. Of the former
there are four thousand seven hundred and fifty bound volumes, com-
l)rising files of the princii)al journals of the United States and Europe,
preserved from an early date by the Department. There are of English
Libraries of the General Government. 263
pnpers alone seven huntlred volnmes ; the files of South American and
West Indian journals could hardly be duplicated. The library possesses,
also, complete sets of the most important reviews and majjazines. Of
congressional publications, it has a quite full, though not complete,
collection. In documents relating to foreign affairs, it is naturally rich.
In the peculiar province of the library may be noted, briefly, works
on the law of nations, commentaries and dissertations, diplomatic
usages and formularies, collections of treaties and negotiations, foreign
statutes and digests, reports of cases of common, civil, and municipal
law at home and abroad, state papers, and treatises on the princi|)les
of law. Here are Rymer's Fcedera, Damon t's Corps universel diplo-
matique and Xegociations touchant la paix de Munster, etc.
The resolution of Congress of 1789, before referred to, is still in force,
and the library duly obtains the published acts of the legislatures of
the States and Territories. This collection is one of great importance,
numbering six thousand seven hundred volumes.
Although the purchases have been mainly regulated by necessity,
the library has accumulated through long years of slow but steady growth
many works of miscellaneous literature, embracing the standard English
and Continental writers in the best editions and in appropriate bindings.
Among them are many rarities to attract the bibliophile in the shape of
tdltioncs princlpes and specimens from celebrated pres^ses, such as Basker-
ville, Elzevir, and Pickering. Foremost among the works rehiting
to the early history of the Auierican continent is a copy of tlie first
eight parts of De Bry's Great Voyages, the Latin versions, mostly of
the' first impressions, in excellent condition. Here are also copies of Gar-
cia, Barcia, Herrera, and Torquemada. Of collections of voyages, the
library possesses Hakluyt, jSTavarrette, Churchill, Burney, and Pinker-
ton ; and of special travels by sea and land, the relations of tlic most
notable from the time of Xearchus to the [)reseut day. In biograi)hy
and history, the library is even more full; in these classes its real
strength lies. Among them may be found the first French and second
English editions of Bayle, the first edition of the Biographia Biitannica,
the quarto series of old chronicles edited by Douce, Ellis, and others,
and Petitot's collection of French historical memoirs. These neces-
sarily brief references afford but little information of the extensive his-
torical material the library contains, not only of systematic histories of
the principal nations of the world, but of rarer works, memoirs of special
periods and princely houses, the secret histories of courts that have
more or less relation to diplomatic affairs, collections of tracts and pub-
lic documents and of historical dissertations.
The departments of lexicograi)hical and statistical works are very full,
to meet the requirements of the general work of the Department.
Tiie library possesses large stores of pamphlets, made up for the
most part of the publications of foreign g'overnments relating to the
intercourse of nations, commerce, and finance.
264 Public Libraries in the United States.
The preparation of a complete catalogue has been for some time
l)a!st iu couteuiplation ; but tor various reasons the work has been
delayed. Since the removal of the books to the new building occu-
pied by the* Department of State, a card catalogue has been under-
taken, on a very comprehensive phin, to supply the need of a thorough
analytical index to the working material of the library ; and good
progress has been made. The work is of considerable importance, as
the beginning of a systematic bibliography of international law and
diplomacy.
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY.
A small reference library was begun in this Department as early as
1803, but not till 18G7 was any considerable collection of general litera-
ture acquired and made accessible to the employes of the Dei)artnjent.
The library now numbers 8,450 volumes, a large part of which is com-
posed of works on biography, history, and fiction. Books can be drawn
daily, except Sundays, by employes.
BUREAU OF STATISTICS.
This library was begun in 1866, when the Bureau was established.
A few works, chietly annual publications of a statistical character,
have, from time- to time, been purchased for the Bureau ; but the
additions to its librftry consist chiefly of the statistical publications of
foreign governments, official documents of the United States and of
various State and municipal governments thereof, and reports of cham-
bers of commerce and other associations. The librar}' now contains
about 6,000 volumes, of which upwards of 1,100 are in foreign languriges,
including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Dutch, Scan-
dinavian, Bohemian, Hungarian, and Russian. There are also about
2,500 unbound pamphlets. The library is used chietly by the officers
and clerks of the Bureau iu compiling statistics.
FIRST AUDITOR'S OFFICE.
The nucleus of this library was formed in 1789. It is composed
almost exclusively of legal works and public documents. It is only
for the use of employes, for reference, and contains 2,000 volumes.
LIGHT-HOUSE BOARD.
Tlie library of the Light- House Board was begun in 1852, and consists
mainly of scientific treatises needed for reference by the employes of
the office. For a small library it possesses an unusually Llrge number
of valuable books, among which are Annales deChimie and Annales de
Chimie et de Physique, 201 volumes, from 1789 to 1872, early copies
of which are not known to be in any other library in the country ;
Peclet's Traite de la Olialeur; Bulidor's Science des Ingenieurs, printed
1729; Stephenson's Bell Rock Light-House ; and Smeaton's Eddystone
Light-House, 1793. The library numbers 1,500 volumes.
Libraries of the General Government. 265
OFFICE OF THE SUPERVISING ARCHITECT.
This small library was began in 185S, and consists almost entirely of
technological works required for purposes of reference in the duties of
the office to which it belongs. It numbers 250 volumes.
UNITED STATES COAST SURVEY.
The library of the United States Coast-Survey Office contains about
3,01)0 volumes. The collection is the growth of years, receiving its ac-
cretions from donations, exchanges, and purchase. It is restricted
mainly to such scientific works, journals, and periodicals as are neces-
sary and useful in the prosecution of the work committed to the officers
and other employes of the Coast-Survey.
The library contains works on mathematics, astronomy, and geodesy,
topography and hydrography, navigation and engineering, chemistrj',
physics and mechanics, geology, meteorology, electricity and magnet-
ism; also scientific journals, and the proceedings of societies, astro-
nomical and philosophical, both at home and abroad.
Among the foreign periodicals may be found PoggendorffsAnnalender
Physik,Dingler's Polytechnic Journal, ComptesKeudus, Peters's Astron-
oinischeN"achrichten, Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie, Petermaun's
Mittheilungen, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Memoirs
of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Among the American periodicals are the American Journal of Science
and Arts, Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, Reports of the Smithsonian Institution, and Journal of the
Franklin Institute.
DEPARTMENT OF WAR.
This library was begun when Lewis Cass was Secretary of War, in
1832. It consists largely of works on military science, though it likewise
possesses valuable collections on law, history, and' biography, together
with public documents. It also contains all the Government medals,
and is well supplied with valuable maps and charts showing the seiges
and plans of battles of many European wars, and also of our own wars.
Books may be drawn only by officers and employes of the Department
aid officers of the xlrmy when in Washington. It is open once a week
for delivery of books. The library contains 13,000 volumes.
ARTILLERY SCHOOL.
The library of the artillery school at Fort Monroe, Va., for the instruc-
tion of officers of that arm of the military service, was begun in 1824. It
had its origin in a gifi of 300 volumes of professional works by Colonel
B. S. Archer, inspector-general. United States Army.
The library has been increased from time to time by presentation of
duplicates from the library of the United States Military Academy at
West Point, and by purchase. It contains upwards of 2,500 volumes.
266 Public Libraries in the United States.
BUREAU OF ORDNANCE.
This library was beguD in 1S38, and consists of vakiable works on
military tactics, engineering, pyrotecbuy, military and civil law. It
contains 2,200 volumes.
OFFICE OF THE ADJUTANT-GENERAL.
The library of this Office is made up almost entirely of puMic docu-
ments. It has, however, a full and complete collection of matmscript
reports of the military history of the late civil war, from IS'5!) to 18i>3,
including those of the late confederate government, and all official cor-
respondence relative to the war, which is now in progress of publica-
tion. It numbers 1,700 bound volumes.
OFFICE OF THE SURGEON-GENERAL.
A full description of this library, wliichnow numbers 40,000 volumes
and 40,000 pamphlets, will be foitnd in Chapter VI of this report.
SIGNAL OFFICE.
The library of the United States Signal Office was begun in 1S71. The
books are entirely of a scientific character, consisting of works on
meteorology, telegraphy, cipher and military signaling, and examples
of messages in different ciphers. Exclusive of maps, charts, and pam-
phlets, the library contains 2,900 volumes. It exchanges with twenty-
one different institutions. More than 500 tri-daily maps and bulletins
have been sent out to foreign societies since 1874.
UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY.
The library of the United States Military Academy was begun in ISI2.
Its growth from its establishment cannot be ascertained, the records
and many books having been destroyed by the fire of* February 10, 1838.
The additions by decades have been :
Vols.
1838-1847 2,494
1848-1857 3,895
1858-1867 4,000
18G8-1875 4,645
Present number of volumes, 25,000; of pamphlets, about 800 ; manu-
scripts, 28. There is a printed catalogue.
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY.
The library of this Department comprises historical, legal, and scien-
tific works, especially those which relate to naval affairs. It is used for
reference, and is accessible to employes and officers of the Navy. Books
are purchased from the contingent fund. This library receives works
occasionally, on nautical affairs, from officers at foreign stations. It
numbers 4,000 volumes.
Libraries of the General Government 267
BUREAU OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY.
This library coDsists chiefly of medical and scientific works ; is used
only for reference in performing the duties of the Office ; and numbers
1,000 volumes.
BUREAU OF NAVIGATION.
The library of the Bureau of Navigation is made up cliiefly of scien-
tific works on navigation and nautical astronomy ; is used only for refer-
ence; and numbers 1,250 volumes.
HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE.
This librarj^ numbering 7,000 volumes, was begun in 18G7. It con-
sists largely of hydrographic, meteorologic, and nautical works, together
with numerous maps and plates. Th0 collection is chiefly for refereuce.
It supplies public libraries at home with its publications, and exchanges
Avith hydrographic oflices, geographical and other scientific societies.
NAVAL OBSERVATORY.
BY PROF. J. H. KOUllSE, U. S. X.,
Librarian United States Xaval Observatory.
On the founding of the Observatory, 1843, Lieut. James M. Gilliss,U. S.
K, visited the chief observatories in Europe in reference to the con-
struction of the buildings and the purchase of the instruments to be
used in makiug astronomical and meteorological observations.
To the proper success of the institution Lieutenant Gilliss judged
the formation of a scientific library also to be essential ; he there-
fore submitted for the approval of the Navy Department the selection
and purchase of such standard works directly related to astronomical
operations as should form the basis of an adequate collection. He
consulted the eminent astronomers, Airy, Schumacher, Eucke, and La-
ment, in reference to this object; being guided also by t he catalogue of
the library of the High School Observatory of Philadelphia, at that date
almost the only observatory existing in the United States.
LieutenantGilliss'sselectionsembraced 700 volumesof EuglishjErench,
and German standard publications which he purchased at London, Paris,
and Leipzig. He reported to the Secretary of the Navy "that much
interest had been evinced in the success of the Naval Observatory by
the distinguished savants whom he had the honor to meet ; that in token
of their gratification at the establishment of an institution by the United
States where science would be prosecuted, contributions had been made
by the Eoyal Society, Royal Astronomical Societ}', the Astronomers
lloyal at Greenwich, Berlin, Brussels, and Munich, and the Astronomers
at Cambridge, Dorpat, Prague, and Oxford ; by the English Admiralty,
the Honorable East India Company, the Hydrographer of the lioyal
Navy, and by various autliors of repute, and that the Observatory had
been placed on the list of correspondents to receive from that date the
following publications : The Philosophical Transactions, the Memoirs of
268 Piihlic Libraries in the United States.
the Royal Astronomical Society, and the Astronomical Observations of
Greenwich, Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh, Dorpat, Munich, Prague,
Brussels, Hamburg, Madras, and Berlin."
The basis of a library adapted to the legitimate purposes of an astro-
nomical institution having been thus secured, accessions have been
received from the date of its founding, to a very limited extent, by pur-
chase, but largely by exchanges with the most noted institutions at home
and abroad. These exchanges are effected through the offices, chietiy,
of the Smithsonian Institution. The resident legations respond very
cordially, also, in forwarding volumes to foreign public institutions. It
i-s worthy of note that the expenses of preparing and publishing the an-
nual volumes of the Observatory are largely returned by the exchanges
received, which are here building up a scientific treasury of an astro-
nomical, mathematical, and geodetic character for public use.
The collection, which is approaching 7,000 volumes, while directly
promoting the daily work of the institution, has always been, and re-
mains, available for use by the superintendent of the Nautical Almanac
and by officers of the different branches of the Government, when em-
ployed on astronomical or geodetic duty, such as surveys of our boun-
dary lines or of our lake or sea coasts which involve astronomical
observations, the determination of differences of longitude by telegraph
lines, etc. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to add that the library has always
been available for the work of individual astronomers and scientists,
also, from whom frequent calls continue to be made for information from
its archives. A copy of its' annual publication is forwarded to the libra-
ries of the separate bureaus of the Government, as well as to our own
observatories and scientific institutions, including each State library,
and the libraries of our chief colleges. A copy is also sent to such
individuals as furnish evidence of their ability to appreciate, or of their
being themselves engaged in, practical astronomical work.
UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY.
BV PROF. THOMAS KARXEY,
Librarian of the United States Naval Academy.
A short time after the establishment of the Naval School at Annapo-
lis, Md., in 1845, the Navy Department transferred to it a number of
volumes which had been in use in United States ships of war for purposes
of instruction and in navy yards ; which collection, with small additions
made to it from time to time between 1815 and 1851, constitutes the nu-
cleus of the present library.
A board of officers was detailed by the N.ivy Department in October,
184:9,toframeacodeof regulations for the reorganization of the institution.
On the 1st of July, 1850, these regulations went into operation, the name of
the institution having thereby become the United States Naval Academy.
Beginning with 1851, and onward thereafter, important additions
were made to this inconsiderable collection, so that in 1855 it contained
Libraries of the General Government. 269
4,751 volumes, in I860, 9,598 volumes, and in 1875, 17,678 volumes; in
addition to which it possesses 26 manuscripts, 705 pamphlets, a set of
the United States Coast Survey Charts, a set of the British Admiralty
Charts, and others.
In making additions to the library, the chief aim has always been to
render the largest possible aid to the several departments of instruc-
tion, and especially to make the professional collection equal to all exi-
gencies. The library possesses a, very large number of the most ap-
l)roved treatises on all naval subjects published here, in Great Britain,
or in Continental Europe. Every new publication of this sort, when of
merit, is si)eedi]y added to the collection.
The total amount of money applied to the increase of the library is
estimated at $35,180.
In the summer of 1800 a catalogue was printed and published, in-
dicating the possession, on the 30th of June of that year, of 8,548
volumes.
POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT.
The library of this Department was begun in 1862, and consists chiefly
of public documents, but a small portion of it being general literature.
It is used only for reference by the employes of the Department. The
number of volumes is 6,000.
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR.
The library of the Interior Department was begun in 1850. It has
been increased from year to year by means of the contingent fund. In
1874, 1,027 volumes were added. It is a library of miscellaneous litera-
ture, and open to the employes of the Department. The collection em-
braces many works of value and interest. The number of volumes is
5,580. There is a printed catalogue of the library.
Since January, 1875, statistics of the circulation have been carefully
kept, and an abstract of the result will be found elsewhere in this report
BUREAU OF EDUCATION.
The formation of this library was begun in 1870. It contains about
5,000 bound volumes, consisting mainly of works relating to education,
and nearly 15,000 educational journals and pamphlets. The depart-
ments of American, State, and city reports on public education, and of
catalogues and reports of American colleges, schools of science, and pro-
fessional schools and academies, are very complete. The library also
l)0ssesses a large collection of reports of reformatory and charitable
institutions in which schools are maintained.
There are full sets of reports on education from Great Britain and
Ireland, Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland,
Italy, Sweden and Norway, the British Colonies, Brazil, and the Ar-
gentine Republic ; and pretty full, though not complete, sets from Den-
270 Piihlic Libraries in the United States.
mark, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Egypt, Chili, Mexico,
Ecuador, aiul the United States of Colombia. Recently a large acquisi-
tion has been made of the catalogues and reports of Auierican public
libraries, comprising some 500 of tiie former and 700 of the latter. The
library also contains probably the largest and best collection of current
American periodical literature relating to education to be found in tho
United States, and regularly receives the more important foreign edu-
cational periodicals.
ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE.
The hospital possesses two libraries : the first, a sm ill msdical library
of 200 volumes for tiie use of the medical officers ; the second, a general
library of 1,200 volumes for the use of the patients. Bath were begun
iit the opening of the hospital iu 1855. About one-fourth of the patients
use the generiil library. The library is sustained partly by the General
Government and partly by contributions.
GENERAL LAND-OFFICE.
The library contains 500 volumes, composed entirely of l^w books
and documents relating to public lands. Charts and maps of all the
surveys in the country' may also be found in this librar3^
NATIONAL DEAF MUTE COLLEGE.
BY TROF. E. M. GALLAUDF.T, PH. D., LL.D.,
President of the National Dea/Mute College.
The nearness of the great libraries of the Government makes it
unnecessary for this library to emulate those of other colleges. About
1,200 volumes have been collected, on miscellaneous subjects, mainly
such as would be often consulted as books of reference by protessors
and students.
The college has, however, recently secured a very important collection
of works relating to the instruction and treatment of the deaf and dumb,
surpassed in extent and value, it is believed, only by the library of the
brothers Guyot, eminent teachers of the deaf and dumb iu Holland.
This collection was gathered by the late Charles Baker, Ph. D., who
was for the period of forty- five years head master of the Yorkshire
Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, at Doncaster, England. Dr. Baker
lias for many years been recognized as one of the ablest teachers of
deaf-mutes in the world. He has published many educational works
of value, and was eminently successful in his management of one of the
most flourishing of the British institutions for deaf-mutes. In the course
of a life full of engrossing official labors. Dr. Baker found time to col-
lect more than 000 volumes concerning the deaf and dumb. Among
these are found works in Latin, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and
Dutch; besides very many iu English. From the sixteenth century on
through the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth, these volumes
Libraries of the General Government. 271
were published; among the earlier being fonnd works of Jerome Car-
dan, Juan Pablo Bouet, John Bulwer, William Holder, Joim Wallis,
Kenelui Digby, George Sibscota, George Dalgarno, and Jolin Conrad
Amman.
Those who may be desirous of cousultii^g the Baker Library, will be
interested to know that in the annual report of the Columbia Institution
for the Deaf and Dumb, lor the year ending June 30, 1875, a complete
list of titles may be found.
It is the purpose of the officers of the institution to publish hereafter
a full descriptive catalogue of the collection.
PATENT- OFFICE LlBFvARY.
BY AV. P. TAYL()1{,
Librarian of the Patent-Office Library.
This library may be said to have been founded by the act of Congress of
March 3, 1830, approjiriating $1,000 from the patent fund for the pur-
chase of " necessary books " for the use of the Patent-Office. Designed
as a colle'ction for reference in the examination of applications for pat-
ents, in order to determine the question of novelty of invention, as re-
quired by law, it has grown mainly in the direction of technological
publications, including full sets of many of the periodicals devoted to
special industrial arts, and all the more important treatises on machines,
arts, processes, and products in the English, French, and German lan-
guages. Prominent among such works, the library contains a series
of tlie English patents from their beginning, continuing to date,
numbering upwards of 2, GOO volumes, text and plates: a series of the
French patents, as published, numbering some 180 volumes of text, and
as many of plates ; and others less voluminous, as the patents of Bel-
gium, Austria, Italy, etc. The library contains also a large number of
encyclopedias of every description, while the transactions of engineer-
ing and other societies, a few of the best reviews, scientific periodicals,
and works on science of a somewhat general character, have considera-
bly extended the scope as well as the size of the collection.
It now contains about 23^000 volumes, and still adhering to its orig-
inal purpose is believed to preserve the character of the best technolog-
ical library in the country. It is a useful resort for the study of the
applications of science to art in every department and in all kinds of
practical or utilitarian investigation. It labors under the great disad-
vantage of want of room, which restricts convenient display, and which
must very soon arrest either its growth or its availability unless relieved
by sou^e extension.
The books are freely open to consultation in the library hall by all
persons, but can be taken out only by employes in the discharge of
their official duties. The library is largely used by inventors, their at-
torneys, and all interested in patent business, as well as by men of
272 Puhllc Libraries in the United States.
science in pursuit of special information. The number of persons using
it annually cannot be accurately stated, but must amount to several thou-
sand.
No special appropriations for the increase of. the library have been
made for many years, but it has been sustained by the precarious sup-
ply deriv^ed from the general contingent fund of the Office.
In regard to the distribution of the published patents: By joint reso-
lution of January 11, 1871, 150 co[)ies of the specifications and drawings
are authorized to be gratuitously supplied to the capitol of every State
and Territory freely open to the public, and to the clerk's office of the
district court of each judicial district of the United States. The Com-
missioner is further authorized to supply at cost a copy of the same to
any public library which will pay the expenses of transportation and
binding and preserv^e the volumes under proper custody for convenient
access to public inspection.
The Official Gazette is published and sold at the price of $6 per annum,
each member of Congress being entitled to one copy for himself and to
eight copies for distribution to public libraries only.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.
Although a small collection of law books had been made in the Office
of the Attorney General as early as 1831, it may said that the library
of the Office owes its origin to the efforts of Mr. Caleb Gushing, who,
while Attorney-General, in 1853, made extensive additions of standard
treatises on American and foreign law. It has since steadily increased,
and now forms an excellent collection of American, English, and Span-
ish-American law books, including valuable works on Roman law. Con-
gress appropriates $3,000 yearly for the purchase of books. The library
numbers 12,000 volumes.
OFFICE OF SOLICITOR OF THE TREASURY.
This library was begun in 1843 by the appropriation therefor of $250
by Congress. It consists almost wholly of law books and official docu-
ments for reference, and numbers 6,000 volumes.
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
BY J. B. liUSSELT.,
Librarian of the Department (f Agriculture.
The library of the Department of Agriculture contains about 7,000
volumes, and is annually increased by an appropriation of $1,500 by
Congress, and by the exchange of its annual and monthly reports with
various agricultural and philosophic il societies in Enrojie. In the sub-
jects of agriculture and natural history, and their kindred branches of
botany, geology, entomology, and chemistry, this library is undoubtedly
the most complete on the continent.
Libraries of the General Government. 273
The library contains nearly complete sets of the annual reports on
aigriculture and geology of the difterent State boards of agriculture in
all the principal States for the last twenty years; also the transac-
tions of the Linuaean and Royal Societies of London ; Curtis and
Hooker's Journal of Botany, from 1787 to the present time ; Sowerby's
English Botany, in 9 volusnes; the splendid work of Ettingshausen and
Pokany, Der Naturselbstdruck, in 7 volumas folio, a present from the
Emperor of Austria; the reports of the chief agricultural and horti-
cultural societies of Earope and Australia, aud the principal scientific
journals of Europe.
Of the annual reports of this Dapartment 230,000 copies were printed
annually for ten years for distribution through members of Congress
and otherwise to agricultural societies; for 1872 and 1873, 125,000 copies
only. Of the monthly reports, respecting the prospect for the crops of
the current season, 25,000 copies are published and distributed through-
out this country and Europe.
SUMMAEY.
The foregoing libraries of the General Government number, according
to the latest reports, in the aggregate, 656,070 volumes and 116,505
pamphlets; the latter but imperfectly reported.
Following will be found notices of libraries for the use of soldiers aad
seamen, which are encouraged and aided by the General Government,
l)ut are mainly supported by their beneficiaries and by the benevolence
of societies and individuals.
LIBRARIES FOR SOLDIERS AND SAILORS.
SOLDIERS' HOME.
This library was begun in 1850, and contains 2,500 volumes. It re-
ceived some accessions from hospitals at the end of the war, in 1865,
but has been chiefly maintained from the soldiers' fund. Attached to
it is a reading room furnished with the leading newspapers and peri-
odicals.
LIBRARIES OP MILITARY POSTS.
By a wise provision of the Army Regulations, libraries have been in-
stituted and are maintained at each military post. Some of these are
of very considerable value. Being purchased from savings accruing
from rations, and each company of a regiment owning a pro rata share,
the library of a post is dispersed as the companies go to different stations.
As the Army was suddenly increased in 1831, the attention of phi-
lanthropic men was newly awakened to the intellectual needs of the
soldier, and the United States Military Post Library Association, of
New York, was organized in that year to supply reading for him
The aims of this association have met with a great degree of success.
The soldier on our most remote frontier is now, through this agency,
regularly supplied with the best reading.
18 E
274 Fuhlic Libraries in the United States.
The rei^ort of the association for the year 1875 presents the following
facts :
Number of books of history, travel, fiction, etc., forwarded to Array posts, 4,672 ; nnin-
ber of religious papers to Army posts, 80,000 ; secular papers to Army posts, 178,000
magazines, 9,875 ; ISmo publications of the association, 7,000 ; pamphlets forwarded,
2,625 ; number of literary commissions transacted for Army posts, officers, chaplains,
and soldiers, 2,750 ; value of transportation furnished by United States Government,
$2,500; value of books purchased for Uiiited States military posts, $2,900; value of
books donated to United States military posts, $2,000; value of periodicals purchased
ior United States military posts, $10,000 ; value of periodicals donated to United States
military posts, $4,200.
Of our receipts during the year, about $15,000 have come from the Army itself, largely
from the reading associations of tlie enlisted men.
At the kind suggestion of Mr. William Libbey, of this city, a plan was matured dur-
ing the year, similar to the loan library system of the American Seamen's Friend So-
ciety, for the collection of about 75 volumes of special books, in a neat library case, to
meet the wauts of such men as were disposed to make use of them.
The books are of a very readable character, comprising some of the best works in our
larguage, and including selections froiu the best authors in prose and poetry. There
is a sufficient admixture of religious and temperance books ; also, some works of his-
toiy, popular science, travel, fiction, etc., purely secular.
Mr. Libbey sent, in his own name, and paid for, the first ten of these libraries, at a
cost of $500. Twenty-two libraries have thus far been sent to various statious, and are
now in service.
Libraries are found at nearly every post and garrison, from the most
remote, at Sitka, in Alaska, to the oldest military post iu the United
States. The one first named, the oiily library in Alaska, contains about
600 volumes. The largest miscellaneous military library is that at Fort
Columbus, K Y., which contains over 2,500 volumes; that at Willel's
Point, N. Y., has an aggregate of 2,300 volumes; that at Fort Warren,
Mass., contains nearly 1,500 volumes ; those at Fort Wayne, Detroit, and
at Omaha Barracks, Nebr., number about 1,200 volumes each.
Reports have been received from 78 garrison and regimental libra-
ries, which contain in the aggregate 32,30(3 volumes. Of these libra-
ries, 30 contained from 300 to 2,550 volun»es each.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY.
At the headquarters of the Army at Washington, D. C, there is a
library of considerable value, the formation of which was begun by
General Grant when General-in-Chief of the Army, and to which im-
portant additions have been made by General Sherman. It contains
1,300 volumes. The books have been selected with careful attention to
the purposes for which such a collection is needed.
NATIONAL HOME FOR DISABLED VOLUNTEER SOLDIERS.
The four branches of this Home, situated at Togus, Me., Hampton,
Ya., Dayton, Ohio, and Milwaukee, Wis., contain about 17,000 volumes,
mostly contributed by individuals. The expenses of administration are
paid from the general funds, from which, iu some instances, purchases of
books have also been made. At the Milwaukee branch, a catalogue of
Libraries of the General Government.
275
the library was prepared and printed in 1875. At the central branch,
Dayton, a history of the home and of Gnepin of Nantes have been
pnblished by the Historical and Monumental Society, the members of
which, 1,500 in niiraber, are inmates of the Home. At the central
branch are two libraries, described by the chaplain as follows :
The Putnam Library was established July 4, 1S3S, and contains 3,000 volumes, com-
prising history, biography, travels, and many valuable works ou art ; also a tine collec-
tion of books on arciitecture, ancient and modern, complete works of the best novel-
ists of America and foreign lauds. The library, though small, is one of the most select
and valuable anywhere to be found, and is entirely the gift of Mrs. Mary Lowell Put-
nam, of Boston, Mass. This library is valued at $12,000.
Mrs. Putnam has also presented about 200 paintings, chromos, lithographs, and other
pictures, which adorn the walls of the library iiall.
The Thomas Library, which occupies the smna hill, was established in October,
1869, and contains 5,100 volumes, priucii>aliy made up of history, travels, biography,
and the better class of light literature; it is valued at .'$r,r)00. With very few exceptions
these books have beau given by the sohliers who serve! under M:ij. Gen. George H.
Thomas, in whose honor the library is named. About two hundred of the best news-
papers of the land, secular and religious, come regularly to the reading room ; also the
leading magazines and pictorials are regularly received.
The annual report of the secretary of the board of managers of the
Home for the jear 1875, presents the following information:
The libraries of the several Homes have steadily increased, both in size and value,
during the year. The central branch reports the largest increase, owing mainly to
the continued thoughtfulness of its kind patron, Mrs. Mary Lowell Putnam, of Boston.
The use made of these libraries is evidenced by the fact that .^0,426 volumes were
taken out and read duringthe past year, not including the hundreds of valuable works
of reference, etc., daily consulted, but which, by the rules, cannot be taken from the
library rooms.
The reading rooms, which are large, well furnished, and beautiful halls, are supplied
with all the leading newspapers and magazines of this country (mostly presented by
the publishers) and some of the more prominent ones of England, France, aud Germany.
The rooms are always crowded, both day and evening, and the papers read until they
are sometimes Hterallj'^ worn out in the handling. The following table will show the
number of volumes in each library; the increase during the year; the number of
papers and magazines received ; and the number of books taken out and read at each
branch during the year:
Number of volumes in library
Increase during year
Number daily papers received
Number weekly papers received
Number magazines and periodicals received..
N umber books takenout and read duri ngthe year
e,756 :
486 I
:}0 j
216 '
27!
34, 130 i
3, 028
67
16
78
24
6,379
W
3,865
93
22
120
17
9,917
!»
1,220
87
27
74
12
16, 869
733
95
488
80
50, 426
The number of inmates November 30, 1675, was 4,040, of whom
3,694 were able to read and write.
276 Piiblic Libraries in the United States.
LIBRAEIES ON NAVAL AND MERCHANT VESSELS.
The wants of our sailors as well as of our soldiers in respect to libra-
ries are also provided for, partly by Govern ment, but mainly by volun-
tary effort. Each of the navy yards and several of the marine hos-
pitals have a library, the largest, that at the Brooklyn navy yard,
containing about 4,500 volumes. Seven libraries of this class reported
contain an aggregate of 11,506 volumes, the number ranging from
400 to 4,500 in each. Afloat, the sailor is also furnished with suitable
reading. The subjoined statement by Commodore Ammen, U. S. N.,
will indicate what is done in this way by the General Government;
the interesting sketch of the operations of the American Seamen's
Friend Society of 'Sew York, by Eev. H. H. McFarland, and the notice
of the work of the Pennsylvania Seamen's Friend Society of Philadel-
phia, will indicate what is done by those societies. The Protestant Epis-
copal Church Mission Society for Seamen, of New York, expends |500
annually for books which are donated to sailors and ships.
LIBRARIES ON SHIPS OF WAR.
Three thousand dollars are annually appropriated to purchase and
maintain ships' libraries.
All vessels of war in commission, about forty at this time, as well as
the difl'erent shore stations, eight in number, are furnished with libraries.
The number of volumes contained in ships' libraries varies with the
rate of the vessel, flag-ships having additional books. In general they
number as follows: For flag-ships, 124 volumes; second rate, 85; third
rate, 48 ; fourth rate, 36.
The books are all either professional or necessary adjuncts to enable
the commanding and other officers to perform their duties intelligently.
Sailing directions, nautical and astronomical works, charts, and other
information necessary to the practical work of navigation, are not
included in the library.
Vessels of war of all sizes usually makfr an assessment on officers and
men, scaled on relative pay, and purchase the current literature of the
day, embracing, iu large vessels, several hundred volumes, which are
issued and turned in, and, upon the expiration of the cruise, divided
among the subscribers.
LIBRARIES OF THE AMERICAN SEAMEN'S FRIEND SOCIETY.
BY KEY. H. H. MCFARLAND.
It is impossible to determine the beginnings or trace the early results
of furnishing books, for use by their crews, to sea- going vessels iu the
ports of the United States. Probably a few ship owners, from philan-
thropic or other motives, had long done this to some extent, but no sys-
tematic work had been attempted in this country until the year 1859,
Libraries of the General Government 277
when the American Seamen's Friend Society began to place its loan
libraries for seamen upon American and provincial vessels sailing from
New York and Bjston. It is a distinctive feature of this system that
the books are loaned, not given, to the crews, and that pains are taken
to secure from some person in charge of each library, either upon the
vessel's return to port or through prior correspandence, a record of its
reading and usefulness. Effort to secure this is in large measure suc-
cessful.
These libraries are put up in portable wooden cases, 23 by 13 inches
in size, consecutively numbered, at a total expense of $20 eacli — the
funds being provided by voluntary contributions to the society's treasury
for this specific purpose, — and contain, on the average, thirty-five vol-
umes, always including the Sacred Scriptures, unless it is ascertained by
inquiry that the vessel is already supplied therewith. Accompanying
the Scriptures are five or six carefully chosen religious books and a
selection of miscellaneous volumes.
Contributions for these libraries are received from Sabbath schools,
churches, and individuals from a wide area of country. The growth
in this department of the society's operations has been continuous.
In 1859-'60, 10 libraries were sent out; in 1874-'75, 454; a total to
May 1, 1875, of 5,233. Reshipments of these libraries to the same
date amount to 3,773, the books in all cases being inspected and
refitted before such reshipment. The number of volumes issued has
been 228,256, and the number of seamen to whom they have been avail-
able, so far as known, is 212,726. They are placed upon vessels (mainly
upon sailing vessels) voyaging to all parts of the globe. The whole
number furnished to United States naval vessels and hospitals to May
1, 1875, is 846, containing 30,156 volumes ; and the total number of men
on these vessels, to whom they have been accessible, is 96,102.
These books are now widely and earnestly sought for by seamen. Ex-
perience enables the society to adapt its selections to their tastes and
requirements with judgment, and every year adds testimony that they
are carefully rea«l and thoroughly appreciated.
It would be difficult to overstate the results of this enterprise
from an educational, a reformatory, or a religious point of view. The
libraries are co:nposed, for the most part, of books in the English lan-
guage, but visitation by the agents of the society, and the inclusion,
in each, of one or more books in German, Spanish, Swedish, French,
Italian, Danish, or other European tongues, secures some fitness in read-
ing matter to the respective nationality of every crew. And among
certain classes of seamen, the whole tone of sailor life has been im-
proved, as shown by the lessening of profanity and intemperance ; the
awakening and culture of a sense of manhood; as well as by the begin-
ning and growth of Christian faith. It will not be doubted, moreover,
that among these classes there has been a general elevation of the stand -
ard of discipline, with benefit to all interested.
278 PuUic Libraries in the United States.
Such results, though as yet partial, can ouly be comprehended by a
knowledge of the condition and surroundings of the common sailor in
the past. In the United States, as in other countries, these have been
such that the sailor, in maritime cities, has been dreaded by all other
classes like a pestilence. Habitually dissipated and often riotous when
on shore, abusing his physique to such a degree that a generation of
common seamen has ordinarily passed out of existence in each twelve
to fifteen years, it was the exception and not the rule, two generations
since, when one of them could read or write. Thus, with both mental
and moral powers unexercised, his position among his fellow men was,
practically, that of an outcast. Satisfying evidence affords ground
for belief that a change is taking place among these men, under the
force of enlightened Christian effort, and in it these loan libraries are
performing a most. salutary and important part.
The interest felt in the society's work in other countries is shown by
the gift to it in 1874 of £300 in gold, ($1,62G,) by the Countess of Ab-
erdeen, in Scotland. This sum was forwarded to send out and to keep
afloat, through the society, one hundred libraries in memory of her son,
George, sixth Earl of Aberdeen, for more than three years a sailor on
American vessels, and lost at sea, six days out from Boston, Mass.,
January 27, 1870, while first mate of the schooner Hera of that port.
PENNSYLVANIA SEAMEN'S FRIEND SOCIETY.
This society began its operations in the year 1861. Its work is akin
to that of the sister society of New York, but with more reference, per-
haps, to the supplying of vessels entirely manned by foreign sailors. It
has, during the fifteen years of its existence, supplied sailors with more
than 50,000 volumes of suitable books. Many entire libraries in the
Danish, Swedish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, German,
Norwegian, and Russian languages have been sent out. In addition to
this, ninety-four United States vessels, one naval asylum, and one naval
hospital have been furnished with libraries by the society.
CHAPTER XL
COPYRIGHT, DISTRIBUTION, EXCHANGES, AND DUTIES.
BY THE EDITORS.
LkGISLATIOX respecting COPYIIIGHTS — DISTRIBUTION OF PUBLIC DOCUMEXTS AT
HOME — Exchange with foreigx goverxments — The Smithsoxian svstem of
EXCHANGE — Legislation uespectixg duties on books lmpokted for public use.
LEGISLATION RESPECTING COPYRIGHT.
The first formal acknowledgment of copyright by law in America
was an act of the State of Connecticut in January, 1783, followed,
in March, 1783, by a law passed by Massachusetts for "securing to
authors the exclusive right and benefit of publishing their literary pro-
ductions for twenty-one years." These were local acts, confined to State
limits. Tue Congress of the Confederation, May 27, 1783, recommended
to the several States to secure to authors or publishers of new books
the copyright of such books for not less than fourteen years. Virginia,
in 1765, anil New York, in 1786, passed laws securing exclusive rights
to authors.
These rights were, of course, limited to the State within which the
author resided. But when the Constitution which consolidated the
States into a nation came to be formed, its fiamers incorporated into it
a cause which forms the foundation of all the legislation of Congress
on the subject and of all exclusive rights to literary property. This
provision of the Constitution (art. I, sec. 8) confers upon Congress the
power "to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing
for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their
inventions and discoveries." The tirst legislation under this power was
the act approved May 31, 1790, "An act for the encouragement of learn-
ing, by securing the copies ot maps, charts, and books to the authors
and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned."
The act of May 31, 1790, gave to the author (being a citizen of the
Uu.ted States) of any book, map, or chart the sole right to print or sell
his copyriglit work tor the tei ni of fourteen years. At the expiration
of that time, the author, or his heirs, might extend the copyright four-
teen years longer. Certain conditions were required for securing coi)y-
rights, and penalties attached to their infringement.
279
280 Public Libraries in the United States.
An act supplementary to this act to secure copyrights, approved April
29, 1802, extended the privilege of copyright to persons who should in-
vent, design, etch, etc., any historical print or prints. The penalties for
infringing on copyrights were increased, and persons professing to have
secured a legal copyright but failing to comply with the required tiTms
were subject to a fine of $100.
The foregoing acts were repealed February 3, 1831, and by the act
then passed the term of copyright was extended to twenty-eight years,
with the privilege of renewal for the further term of fourteen years, on
condition that the author, or his widow or children, should, within two
months from the date of renewal, publish a copy of the record in one
or more newspapers for the space of four weeks. Information must
also be given of the copyright secured, by inserting in each copy of the
book, niap, chart, etc., on the title-page or page following : " Entered
according to act of Congress," etc.
By act of August 10, 1816, it was directed that the author of any
book, map, print, etc., for which a copyright was secured, should for-
ward, within three months after publication, one copy each to the libra-
rians of the Smithsonian Institution and Congressional Library, for the
use of said libraries.
By act of xVIarch 3, 1853, all book s, maps, charts, and other publica-
tions entered for cop yright and required to be deposited in the Library
of Congress and Smithsonian Institution were allowed to be sent
through the mails free.
The act of August 18, 1856, gave to the proprietor of any dramatic
composition (coi)yrighted) -the exclusive right to print or ])erform it
upon the stage during the whole period for ^hich the copyright was ob-
tained ; the penalty for violation to be, for the first peiformance, $100,
and for every subsequent performance, $50.
By act of February 18, 18G1, appeals or writs of error are allowed
from decisions of circuit couits in copyright cases to the Supreme
Court of the United States, without regard to the amount in contro-
versy.
By act of March 3, 1805, photographs may be copyrighted upon the
same conditions and to the same extent as prints and engravings.
By act of July 8, 1870, all records and other things relating to copy-
rights, and required to be preserved by law, were placed under the con.
trol of the Librarian of Congress, to be kept and preserved in the Con.
gressioiial Library, and the librarian is charged with the immediate care
and supervision of copyright matter, and is required to perform all
acts and duties touching copyrights which had previously been in
charge of the clerks of the district courts of the United States. And
further, no person is entitled to a copyright, unless he shall, before
publication, deposit in the mail or deliver to the Librarian of Congress
a printed copy of the title of the book or description of the article for
which he desires a copyright, and within ten days of the publication
Copyright, Distribution, Exchanges, and Duties. 281
thereof forward two copies of such copyright book or other article,
addressed to the Librarian of Cougress ; and a copy of every subsequent
edition wherein any substantial changes are mide. In default of such
deposit in the Library of Congress, said proprietor is liable to a penalty
of $25, to be collected by the Librarian of Congress in the name of the
United States.
No right of action for infringement of copyright can be maintained,
unless the author shill have given notice, in the several copies of every
edition of his copyright, by inserting the words "Entered according
to act of Cougress," etc., or, at his option, the word " Copyright," to-
gether with the year the co])y right was entered, and the name of the
party by whom it was taken out.
DISTRIBUTION OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS.
In December, 1813, Congress ordered that a copy of the public jour-
nals and documents of that and every succeeding Congress should be
sent to each college, university, and historical society in the United
States ; in 1814, the American Antiquarian Society, at Worcester, Mass.,
was added to the list ; in 1817, one set of State Papers was directed to
be sent to each college and univers ity ; in 1819, a copy of Seybert's Sta-
tistical Annals was to be sent to each university and college; in 1820,
a copy of the journal of proceedings of the Convention which formed
the Federal Constitution was directed to be sent to each college and
university' ; in 1822, the returns of the fourth census were distributed
to the same institutions; in 1828, a copy of the secret journals of the
old Congress, of Pitkin's Statistics, and Seybert's Statistical Annals,
to each State library, and to one incorporated athenfeum in each State;
in 1830, a copy of the Diplomatic Correspondence of the Revolution to
each institution and library before mentioned; in 1832, the returns of
the fifth census and compilation of congressional documents, as before
mentioned ; in 1833, Van Zandt's Statistical Tables, and Documentary
History of the Revolution, were ordered distributed ; in 1834, similar
distribution of the diplomatic correspondence from 1783 to 1789 was
made; in 1841, a Catalogue of the Library of Congress, and the returns
of the sixth census were distributed ; in 1844, maps and charts of the
Survey of tlie Coast of the United States, as before mentioned, and to
foreign governments; in 1815, the History of Oregon, California, and
other Pacific Territories, as before mentioned ; in 1840, Little & Brown's
edition of the Laws and Treaties of the United States, as before men-
tioned, and to each navy yard ; in 1849, the Official Register for each
year to each State and Territory; in 1845 and 1850, a copy of the Re-
port of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition to each State and Territory
then or thereafter to be organized ; in 1850, 300 copies of the Annals of
Congress tp literary institutions and public libraries; in 1851, the works
of Alexander Hamilton and of John Adams, a copy to each Department
library, library of each State and Territory, and one copy each to 120
282 Public Libraries in the United States.
colleges and literary institutions designated by the Committee on Li-
brary; in 1834, a similar tlistribation of the works of Thomas Jefferson
was ordered, 300 copies to colleges and literary institutions.
Ill March, 1857, the Clerk of the House of Representatives was
directed to furnish such pulilic library in the district of each Member
and Delegate as be may designate, with the following works, to wit:
Gales & Seaton's Register of Debates, Congressional Globe and Appen-
dix, Public Land Laws, Instructions and Opinions, Elliott's Debates,
Diplomatic Correspondence, O,)iuioiis of the Attorneys-General, in five
volumes, Finance Reports, Gales & Seaton's Annals of Congress, John
Adams's Works, Jefferson's Works, Hickey's Constitution, and Mayo &
Moul ton's Pension and Bounty Laud Laws.
In June, 1858, the compilation of congressional documents was ordered,
under the head of American State Papers, to be continued to March 4,
1859, . . . TOO'copies to be placed in the Department of the Interior,
for distribution to public libraries in the several States and Territories.
Iq March, 18GI, one set of the Works of John Adams and four sets of
the American State Papers were directed to be distributed to the insti-
tutions described by law, on designation of the Members of Congress;
it was also ordered that, of the American State Papers, . . . one copy
be deposited and kept iu the State and territorial library of each State
and Territory.
In February, 18.G3, the Joint Comiliittee on Library was directed to
distribute copies of the Writi ngs of James Madison, published by author-
ity of Congress, . . . to libraries of the several States and Territories
of the Union, and to such colleges and public libraries as the Committee
on Library might desiguate.
In June, 18Gl>, the Secretary of the Interior was directed to distribute
the surplus copies of the American State Papers as follows: One copy
of each of the seventeen volumes to such i)ublic and college libraries as
the Joint Committee on Library may designate.
la January, 1871, the Commissioner of Patents was directed to fur-
nish a complete set of the specifications and drawings of the Patent
Office to any public library which will pay for binding the same into vol-
umes, to correspond with those in the Patent-Office, and will provide
proper custody for the same, with convenient access to the public.
In February, 1871, the Secretary of the Interior was directed to dis-
tribute surplus public documents ou hand, to supply any loss or defi-
ciency there may happen to be iu . . . State or territorial libraries.
In May, 1872, copies of plates of the Official Gazette, of PateutOffico
abstracts, of drawings of patents, etc., were diiected to be sent, one
copy each, to eight such public libraries as each Senator, Member, and
Delegate of Congress shall desiguate.
In June, 1874, the Secretary of State was directed, at the close of
every session, to distribute pamphlet copies of the acts and resolves of
^hat Congress, and afterwards copies bound, as follows : To all the
Copyriglit, Distribution, Exchanges, and Duties. 283
Department libraries, . . . Military Academy, Naval Academy, Brook-
lyn Naval Lyceum, Naval Institute at Charlestowu, Mass., and Smith-
sonian Institution. In addition to the above, ten thousand pamphlet
copies are to be distributed among the States and Territories, la pro-
portion to the number of Senators, Representatives, and Delegates in
Congress to which they are at the time entitled.
There are 372 Senators, Representatives, and Delegates in the Forty-
fourth Congres,«<. The number of institutions that have been designated
under the law to receive regularly the public documents is 239, of which
111 are public libraries, lOS are those of colleges and academies, and
10 those of historical societies, as shown by the records of the Dcipart-
ment of the Interior. There should be, therefore, 143 additional deposi-
tories designated. One State and three Territories have each a greater
number of depositories than the aggregate number of Senators, Repre-
sentatives, and Delegates. New Hampshire has an equal number;
Louisiana, with eight Senators and Representatives, has but one desig-
nated depository, namely, the State University at Baton Rouge.
In view of the fact that, so far as known, no library in the United
States, neither the Library of Congress, that of any State or Territory,
nor any other public library, contains a coihplete set of the public doc-
uments of the General Government, it may be regarded as unfortunate
thrit the provisions of the law are not availed of to the fullest extent.
Fifty years hence it should not be as difficult for the student to find all
the public documents of th6 present as it is for an investigator to-day
to discover the recoids of a half century ago.
The following are the provisions of law at present regulating the dis-
tribution of public documents:
The Secretary of the Interior is charojerl with receiving, arranging, and safe keeping
for distribntion, and of distributing to the persons entitled by law to receive the same,
all printed journals of the two Houses of Congress, and all other books and docu-
uients of every nature whatever, already or hereafter directed by law to be printed or
purchased for the use of the Jlovernment, except such as are directed to be printed or
purchased for the particular use of Congress or of either House thereof, or for the par-
ticular use* of the Executive or of any of the Departments, and any person whose duty
it shall be by law to deliver any of the same, shall deliver them at the rooms assigned
by the Secretary of the Interior therefor.
The. publications received by the Secretary of the Interior for distribution shall be
delivered out only on the written requisition of the heads of Departments, Secretary of
the Senate, Clerk of the House of Represeutatives, Librarian of Congress, and other
officers and persons who are by law authorized to receive the same, except where by
law the Secretary of the Interior is required, without such requisition, to cause the
same to be sent and delivered ; and in either of such cases it shall be the duty of the
Secretary of the Interior to cause the same to be sent and delivered, the expenses
thereof, except when otherwise directed, to be charged on the contingent fund of the
Department.
The copies of journals, books, and public documents which are or may be authorized
to be distributed to incorporated bodies, institutions, and associations within the States
and Territories, shall be distributed to such bodies as shall be designated to the Secre-
tary of the Interior by each of the Senators from the several States respectively, and
by the Representatives in Congress from each congressional district, and by the Delo-
284 Public Libraries in the United States.
gate from eaeh Territory. The distribution shall be made ia such manner that the
quantity distributed to each congressional diatrict and Territory shall be equal; except
that whenever the number of copies of any publication is lnsut3Qcieut to supply there-
with one institution, upon "the designation of each member of the Senate and House
of Representatives, the copies at the disposal of the Secretary may be distributed to
such incorporated colleges, public libraries, atheu seums, literary and scientific insti-
tutions, boards of trade, or public associations, as he may select.
The selection of an institntion to receive the documents ordered to be published or
procured at the first session of any Congress shall control the documents of the entire
Congress, unless another designation be made before any distribution has taken place
under the selection first made. Where the same v/ork is printed by order both of the
Senate and House of Representatives, the duplicates may be sent to different institu-
tions, if so desired, by the member whose right it is to direct the distribution. And
the public documents to be distributed by the Secretary of the Interior shall be sent
to the institutions already designated, unless he shall be satisfied that any such insti-
tution is no longer a suitable depository of the same. Congressional jonruals and pub-
lic documents, authorized to be distributed to institutions on the designation of mem-
bers of Congress, shall be sent to such libraries and institutions only as shall signify a
willingness to pay the cost of their transportation.
So many copies of the public Journals of the Sauate and of the H )use of Represent-
atives shall be transmitted by the Secretary of the Interior to the executives of the
several States and Territories as shall be sufficient to furnish one copy to each execu-
tive, one copy to each branch of every State and territorial legislature, one copy to
each university and college in each State, and one copy to the historical society incor-
porated, or which shall be incorporated, in each State. Fifty copies of the documents
ordered by Congress to be printed shall be used for the purpose of exchange in foreign
countries; the residue of the copies shall be deposited in the Library of the United
States, subject to the future disposition of Congress.
Whenever there are in the custody of the D.epartment of the Interior any sets
of the documents of any session of Congress, or other documents or odd volumes, not
necessary to supply deficiencies or losses that may happen in the Library of Congress,
or in that of either of the Executive Departments, or in State or territorial libraries,
the Secretary of the Interior shall distribute the same as equally as practicable to the
several Senators, Representatives, and Delegates in Congress for'diatributiou to public
libraries and other literary institutions in their respective districts.
All such books and documents, when received at the proper offices, libraries, and
other depositories, as provided by law, shall be kept there and not removed from such
places.i
EXCHANGE VTLTK FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS.
By an act of July 20, 1840, the Librarian of Congress was authorized
to exchange dapUcates in the library for other books or works ; and in
the same manner to exchange documents. It was also ordered that
thereafter 50 additional copies of documents printed by order of either
house of Congress be printed and bound for the purpose of exchange
with foreign countries.
An act of March 4, 1840, directed the Librarian of Congress to pro-
cure a complete series of reports of the United States courts and of the
laws of tlie United States, and transmit them to the minister of justice
of France, in exchange for works of French law presented to the United
States Supreme Court.
June 26, 1848, the Joint Committee on the Library was authorized to
' Revised Statutes of the United States, lfi7'6-'7i, pp. ti2, S3.
Cojjy rigid, Distribution, Exchanges, and Duties. 285
appoint agents for exchange of books and public documents. All books
transmitted through these agents of exchange, for use of the United
States, for any single State, or for the Academy at West Point, or the
National Institute, to be admitted free.
A resolution of June 30, 1848, ordered that the Joint Committee on
the Library be furnished with 25 copies of the Revolutionary Archives ;
25 copies of Little & Brown's edition of the Laws of the United
States; 7 copies of the Exploring Expedition then published, and an
equal number of subsequent publications on the same subject, for the
purpose of international exchange.
A joint resolution of March 2, 1849, directed that two copies of certain
volumes of the Exploring Expedition be sent to the government of Rus-
sia, in lieu of those which were lost at sea on their passage to that
country. The Secretary of State was also directed to present a copy of
the Exploring Expedition, as soon as completed, to the government of
Ecuador.
By the act of August 31, 1852, the act of 1848 regulating exchanges
was repealed.
August 18, 1856, the Secretary of State was authorized to purchase
100 copies each of Audubon's Birds of America and Quadrupeds of
North America, for exchange with foreign governments for valuable
works.
March 2, 1867, it was ordered that 50 copies of all documents printed
by either house of Congress, or by any Department or Bureau of the
Government, be placed with the Joint Committee on the Library, to be
exchanged for foreign works, which shall be deposited in the Library of
Congress.
In each succeeding year an appropriation has been made for the pur-
pose of international exchange.
THE SMITHSONIAN SYSTEM OF EXCHANGES.
BY PROF. THEODORE GILL, M. D., PH. D.
The want of some system of intercommunication between the socie-
ties of this and other countries had long been felt, on account of the
difficulty, as well as expense, attending the transmission of articles
between them, and the scientific literature of neither was well repre-
sented in any one place. The consequence was that discoveries were
heralded as new, and species of animals, plants, and minerals described
as previously unknown, when in fact they had been treated of years
before.
Attempts had been made from time to time to supply the want, and
notable was that of M. Alexandre Vattemare, a Frenchman, who, about
twenty-five years ago, advocated a system of interchange of publications
and works generally between the governments and public institutions of
Europe and America., Being adopted, the system was for a time and to
286 Piiblic Libraries in the United States.
some extent successful, but it did not meet all the difiSculties. It, bow-
ever, proved the feasibility of the task, and kept awake the desire to
have in active operation such an interchanj^e. At this juncture, to sup-
ply the want thus experienced, the Smithsonian Institution offered its
services as a medium of exchange between the societies of America
and Europe.
Of course, the expense attending such an exchange must necessarily
be considerable, and the Institution voluntarily incurred this expense,
inasmuch as it thereby became instrumental in the increase and diffusion
of knowledge. This expense was chargeable (1) to hire for clerical and
laborers' work to be employed in the handling of the exchanges; (2) for
the remuneration of agents in the centres of the Old World from which
packages should be distributed to provincial parts; and (3) to carriers'
charges. The carriers' charges have been, however, greatly diminished
by the liberality of the several companies, and especially the great
steam lines. In time, almost all of the oceanic steamers, (those between
America and Europe, and those between the eastern and western ports
of the continent,) extended facilities for transportation, either for a
definite number of cubic feet of space or for an unlimited extent.
The system adopted by the Smithsonian Institution was begun early
in its history, and was in full activity as early as the year 1851; it
very soon became the chief means of communication between the
learned societies of America and Europe, and other parts of the world.
It has gone through practically two phases of execution, one having
regard to completeness of invoice and the other to speediness of inter-
course.
In lS5t and succeeding years, circulars were issued to the different
societies and active scientific investigators in the United States ottering
its services to them for the transmission of packages to Europe, and
advantage was taken of the offer by a large number.
The rules then adopted and since adhered to required (1) that all
parcels should be delivered free of cost to the Institution in Washing-
ton ; (2) that each one should be legibly addressed, and the name of
the donor be also in<licated thereon ; and (3) that a separate iuvoice
should be sent apart from the package.
The Smithsonian system, as finally perfected about 18G0, was organized
upon the following plan: The packages from America for Europe were
made up once or twice a year.
A room about 75 feet long and more than 30 feet in width, as early
as 1850, was devoted to the business connected with the exchanges.
This room was fitted up with bins, shelves, and boxes, a separate space
being allotted to each country and institution.
A special invoice blank was printed for each transmission. On one
side of this were printed the titles of the Smithsonian publications sent.
Blanks was left for the titles of the other works to be sent to the same
society, as well as for the address of the society, and on the other side
Copyright, Distribution, Exchanges, and Duties. 287
was given a list of all tlie institntious aud private individuals who
had given notice of their intention to send works to their foreign
correspondents. Tbese blanks were duly filled up by the insert )n of
the additional articles to be sent on one side, and on the other by checks
made against the margins of the names of the societies and individuals
sending, and the number of packages sent by these societies and indi-
viduals. These invoices were all numbered with a current series of
numbers corresponding with a numerical list of the societies in corre-
spondence, and their return requested as receipts or vouchers for the
articles sent.
A reasonable time before a shipment was to be made; the Amer-
ican correspondents were notified of the date, in order that they
might forward to Washington such articles as they desired sent abroad.
Upon request, lists of the societies in correspondence with the Institu-
tion, or of those engaged as specialists in various departments of
science, in the order of their importance, were forwarded to those
desiring to send, for their guidance in the selection of addresses.
The institution also assumed the burden and responsibility of receiving
in bulk editions of the works of its correspondents to be forwarded to
those institutions abroad wli ere they would be most useful; always
making care, howev^er, that the shipment should be in the name of the
person originally consisrning, and that he should receive credit therefor.
For a few years, shipments have been made more frequently than
before, to avoid long and sometimes vexatious delays.
When the system was first adopted, three agents were appointed in
Europe to distribute the packages sent, viz, one each in England, France,
and Germany. As the system has been perfected, and tlie sphere of
its operations widened, the number of agents has been increased, and
at present there is one or more in every principal country in Europe, and
in Australia.
As the result of the system of international exchange thus briefly
outlined, it need only be stated that both, or rather all, the continents
have been benefited to an extent which can be appreciated only through
a knowledge of the conditions of scientific activity and the degree to
which original contributions to science are made to scientific societies, as
well as the difficulty of obtaining the publications of those societies ex-
cept through interchange. The numl>er and diversity of such institu-
tions may be dimly conceived when it is known that there are 2,000 out-
side of America which are in communication with the Smithsonian In-
stitution.
By the favor of foreign countries, as well as of the United States,
the custom dues are remitted on all exchanges made. through the Institu-
tion. By the liberality of the numerous steamship lines, which grant
free room for parcels thus forwarded, another large element of expense
is eliminated. Thus many institutions in this and in foreign countrie
which otherwise could not afltbrd the means of interchange, and co/
288
Public Libraries in the United States.
not overcome the difficulties whi«h would interveue in direct commuuica-
tion, are beneficiaries of the system, and receive services which are not
only gratuitous, but in part paid for out of the funds of the Institution ;
the cost of the system being, of course, chargeable to every package
which passes through its agency.
The following tables, compiled from the annual reports of the Smith-
sonian Institution, will give the data respecting the exports of books,
&c., on its own behalf and that of others, to foreign institutions, (Table
A,) and the returns from them to American institutions, (Table B.) In
considering them, it must be recalled that the boxes are sent to several
agents, each box containing packages for several societies, etc., (given
under the heads " Addresses " and " Packages.") Some of these pack-
ages contain, besides the exchange for the society itself, other pack-
ages for its members, etc. ; hence the number of ultimately separable
packages is very considerable. The European agent sends his packages
as he receives them, and these may likewise severally contain a num-
ber of inclosures for different persons ; much the smaller portion of these
are for the Smithsonian Institution. The figures indicating the deposits
in the library will give some idea of the aggregate.
Table k.— Packages sent to foreign countries
Tear.
ll
It
-.3
11
-A
1
1
-si
11
Cm. ft.
Lhs.
201
362
38-2
375
418
511
505
525
825
525
665
846
783
843
783
827
1,001
1, 129
1,569
1, 425
1, 432
1,544
1,856
500
572
625
526
825
1,251
965
913
2,7::5
1, 692
1,099
1,203
1,426
1,011
1,176
1,170
1,190
1,557
1,734
1,905
1,778
2,561
2,735
40
46
48
38
33
70
40
56
82
61
73
114
61
63
77
83
113
104
112
121
108
179
196
131
240
263
392
358
586
384
672
1,054
767
625
1,006
447
546
557
571
975
1,057
1,033
1,189
772
954
1,476
933
7,920
9,985
12, 230
9,791
10, 481
18, 271
14, 248
22,674
29,480
20, 029
16, 9.58
28, 836
10, 286
20, 500
18, 630
18, 050
22, 523
31, 171
€3, 376
31, 383
28, 950
26, 850
44,236
27, 990
jfj52
8,146
3,854
2,816
2,712
3,510
3,397
4, 425
5,337
3,130
3, 627
1,944
3, 316
3,462
2,563
4,137
6,016
6,054
5,220
6,481
7,730
lg53
$1, 600 00
1, 103 23
1(158
1, 600 00
2, 500 00
1S56 .^
1, 500 00
1, 500 00
igeo -
2, 141 86
793 07
1,550 32
]g6j
1,357 76
2, 753 76
1, 453 63
18G6
2, 009 33
1867
3,507 87
2,801 84
4, 860 94
1869
1870
4 165 62
Ir71
4, 201 50
18-a
5, 870 32
1873 ...
6 251 74
1874
5,589 89
Cojjyriffhf, Distrihidion, Exclianges^ and Duties. 280
1851.
1852.
1855.
185C.
ia5<t.
lem.
18C1.
18C5.
1866.
1867.
186?.
1869.
1870.
1871.
187Q.
Table B. — Packages received from foreign countries.
T "
Pucka^res lor
domestic
distribution.
637
1, 052
987
1, 445
1,245
1,273
For Sinithsouian Library.
1,933 i
1,908 j
1,406
2,111 I
1,522 j
2, 482 I
2,368
2,703 i
971 i
2,694 i
4, 130 '
3,705
3,952
4, 635
4,7>>2
4, 3i6
470 i
549 j
1,481
1,440 I
926 j
1,037
1,356 I
555 I
723 j
1,022 !
1,271 i
321
1,611 ;
910 j
823
767 i
1,243 !
1,557 I
1,770 j
1,234 ;
1,113 I
936 i
1,262
8=9 '
618
2, 1C6
991
1,468
1,707
1,834
1,067
1,695
2,540
4,180
1, 945
3,369
3.479
2,754
3, 256
4,509
3,946
3, 605
4,089
3,890
3, 579
4, 502
4,354
4. 521
196 !
454
162
1,094
1,167
5, 336
2, 55()
2, 828
2,770
3, 330
1, 760
2, 540
3,60:?
5, 67t
2, 88i>
5, 03,>
4, 589-
3, 686.
4, 20C-
5, S7:t
5, 83 i
5, 509
5, 55o
5, 182
4,597
5. 962
5, 697
5, 546
Tbe regulations for the preparatiou of excbaages are uow as follows :
1. Every package, svitbont exception, must beeuveloped iu strong paper aud secured
so as to bear separate trausportatioa by express or otherwise.
2. The address of tbe institutioii or individual for whom the package is intended
must be written legibly on the cover, and the name of the sender on one corner of the
same.
3. No single package must exceed the half of a cubic foot in bulk.
4. A detailed list of addresses of all the parcels sent, with their contents, must ac-
company them.
5. No letter or other communication can be allowed in the parcel, excepting such as
relates exclusively to the contents of the package.
6. All packages must be delivered in Washington free of freight aud other expoQ.ses.
7. Every parcel should contain a blank acknowledgment, to be signed and re-
turned, either through the agent of the institution, or, what is still better, through the
)nail, to the sender. Should exchanges be desired for what is sent, the fact should be
explicitly stated on the list of the contents of the package. Much disappointment is
frequently expressed at the absence of any return in kind for transmissions ; but un-
less these are specifically asked for they will fail in many instances to be made. It
19 E
290 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
•will facilitate the work very greatly if tbe number corresponding to the several ad-
dresses in the Smithsonian printed catalogue ^ be marked on the face of each parcel ;
and for this purpose a copy of the catalogue will be forwarded to all who apply for
it. Specimens of natural history will not be received for transmission unless with a
previous understanding as to their character and bulk.
8. Unless all these conditions are complied with, the parcels will not be forwarded
from the Institution ; and, on the failure to comply with the first and second conditions,
will be returned to the sender for correction.
LEGISLATION RESPECTING DUTIES ON BOOKS IMPORTED FOR PUBLIC
USE.
By act of July 4, 1789, a duty of 5 i)er cent, was imposed upon all
imported books, maps, charts, and philosophical instruments, in common
with nearly all other imported articles.
August 10, 1790, books owned by persons coming to reside in the
United States and philosophical apparatus especially imported for a
seminary of learning were exempted from duty.
April 27, 1816, all books, maps, charts, philosophical apparatus, statu-
ary, paintings, drawings, etc., imported for literary purposes or for any
seminary of learning, were declared free of duty.
The act of May 22, 1834, imposed a duty on all books printed previous
to 1775 ; also on all books printed in other languages than English, four
cents per volume, except those printed in Latin and Greek, on which the
duty was fixed at 15 cents per pound when bound, and 13 cents when
unbound. On all other books, when bound, the duty was fixed at 30
cents per pound ; when in sheets or boards, 26 cents per pound.
The act of May 19, 1828, provided that the duty oa imp )rted Greek
and Latin books, printed previous to 1775, should not be more than four
cents per volume.
September 11, 1841, all books, maps, charts, philosophical apparatus,
statues, engravings, paintings, drawings, specimens of natural history,
etc., imported for the use of the United States, or by order and for use
of any institution of learning, were d.'dared exempt from duty.
The act of August 30, 1842, imposed a duty on all imported books
printed in the English language, when bound, 3D cents i)8r poiini ; in
sheets or boards, 20 cents per pound : Provided, that if any such book
had been printed or published abroad more than one year and not re-
published in this councry, or had baen printed and published abroad
more than five years before such importation, the duty should be one-
half the above rates. On books printed in other languages than English
the duties were fixed as follows : On books printed in Latin and Greek,
when bound, 15 cents per pound; unbound, 13 cents per pound ; books
printed in flebrew,when bound, 10 cents per pound; unbound, eightcents
per pound ; books printed in all other foreign languages, when bound or
in boards, five cents per volume; when in sheets or pamphlets, 15 cent<
per pound. The editions of works in the Latin, Greek, Bebrevv, or En-
glish languagea which were printed forty years prior to the date of
' Miscellaneous Collections, No. 'i\'S.
Copyright, Distribution, Exclianges, and Duties. 291
importation, to pay a duty of five cents per volume; all reports of legis-
lative committees appointed under foreign governments, five cents per
volume; [)olyglot8, lexicons, and dictionaries, five cents per pound;
books of engravings, bound or unbound, and mips and charts, 21) {)er
cent, ad valorem. Nevertheless books, apparatus, p.iintings, etc., im-
ported in good faith for literary purposes and fjr use of institutions of
learning, should be admitted free.
July 30, 184G, a duty of 10 per cent, ad valorem was imposed on im-
ported books, magazines, pamphlets, newspapers, etc., bound or unbound,
and upon maps and charts.
Th6 act of March 29, 1.S4S, remitted all duties upon books, maps, and
charts, imported by authority of the Joint Library Committee of Con-
gress for use of Congressional Library.
June 25, 1848, it was enacted that all books transmitted through the
agents of exchange for the use of the Gjvermaent of the United Spates,
or of any government of a State, or of its legislature, or of any depart-
ment of the Government of the United States or of a State, or of the
Academy at West Point, or of the National Institute, shall be aduitced
duty free.
August 12, 184S, it was ordered that thereafter all books, maps and
charts, apparatus, etc., imported in good faith for use of colleges, schools,
or literary societies, should be free of dut^".
The act of January 2G, 184!), provided that after June, 1849, all
books, maps, charts, mathematical and nautical instruments, and i)hilo-
sophical apparatus, imported for use of ihe United States, should be tree
of duty.
June 30, 1864, the duty on imported books, periodicals, patoph ets,
blank books, bound or unbound, and all printed matter, engravings,
illustrated books and papers, and maps and charts, was fixed at 2 ) par
cent, ad valorem; and the duty on philosophictl apparatus and instru-
ments imported for the use of any institution of learning at 15 per cent
ad valorem.
The act of July 14, 1870, still in force, oxem|)ts from duty all impDrted
books which have been printed and manufactured more than twenty
years.
June 5, 1872, it was enacted that on and after August 1, 1872, the
following imported articles shall be exempt from duty, viz : Bi)oks
which shall have been printed more than twenty years from the dace of
importation; books, maps, and charts imported by authjiity for the
use of the United States or for the Library of Congress ; books, ma{»8,
and charts specially imparted (not more than two copies in any oae
invoice) in good faith for the use of any society, literary or religii)us, or
by order of any college, school, or seminary of learning in the United
States; professional books, the property of persons arriving in the
United States; books, or libraries, or parts of libraries in use of per-
sons or families from foreign countries, if used abroad by them not less
than one year, and not intended for other persons, nor for sale.
CHAPTER XIL
STATE AND TERRITORIAL LIBRARIES.
BY HENRY A. HOMES, LL. !>.,
Librarian New York State Library.
OiUGIN AND EARLY HISTORY — GROWTH— StATB GRANTS — AiD BY GENERAL GOVERN-
MENT— Exchanges — Present number and condition — Aims.
The existence of libraries at the seats of government in ancient and
modern times, is a tact so common as to indicate that there are reasons
permanently operating which lead to their establishment. Beginning
with the libraries of the kings of Assyria, carved on stone or clay, or
of the Ptolemies at Alexandria, written on papyrus or parchment, we
may trace government libraries forward through Constantinople and
Home, till we find them flourishing as one of the chief glories of the
capitals of modern Europe.
The example of the Old World could not be rapidly followed in the N^ew.
Ill America, under the administr5,tion of foreign gov^ernors, ruling over
colonies in the spirit of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there
was little to favor the growth of libraries in connection with the govern-
ment. In the British North American colonies, it was not till after the
lievolution, and more than thirty years after the formation of the Constitu-
tion of the United States, that any general tendency was manifested to
establish libraries as a constituent part of the State system. There
were, indeed, in the older States collections of the laws and legislative
proceedings of the State, preserved in one or two legislative libraries, for
whi<}h librarians were chosen each session, and intended solely for the
use of the members of the legislature. There were, moreover, in the
offices of the governors and of the heads of departments, books pur-
chased on account of temporary official necessities, or which had been
presented by sister States or foreign governments or individuals, which,
having accumulated, waited for some special care to be exercised to
render them available for public use.
These collections became most naturally the foundation upon which
to organize State libraries ; yet other causes to which we shall presently
refer operated to give a definite impulse to the measure. As to the fact
that such collections existed, the records of Pennsylvania show that there
was a library at its capital as early as 1777, and resolutions respecting
it were passed in 1781. New Hampshire also has claims to the posses-
sion of one before the Revolution. Probably when the records of the
292
State and Territorial Libraries. 293
older States come to be examined with this point in view, each of them
will be able to supply documentary evidence of the early existence of such
collections, which were occasionally referred to as the library of the State.
That of Pennsylvania was not formally established till 1816, when three
libraries at the state-house were by a law incorporated into one ; nor was
the libraryofN^ewHampshire organized till L8L8. Tennessee, a compara-
tively new State, is reported to have had a library of 8,0(^0 volumes at
its capital, without any evidence to show that it had been created by
law ; for it was not till 1854 that its legislature voted to establish a State
library. Vermont, in providing for a librarian in 1825, required him to
take charge of all the books and documents then existing in the state-
house. These instances are sufficient to illustrate the fact of the accu-
mulations of books at the capitals previous to the definite organization
of the State library.
The most noticeable of the causes which led to their formation was
a resolution of the State of Massachusetts in 1811, requesting its secre-
tary of state to correspond with the proper officer of the several States
for the purpose of securing an annual exchange of statutes for the use
of the executiv^e and legislative departments and to offer three sets to
each of the States that should agree to forward their statutes in return.
The proposition was favorably received, and then commenced the sys-
tem of exchanges now existing between the States which created the
foundations of State libraries. Yet it was not till 1826 that even
Massachusetts established a State library " for the use of the legisla-
ture;" the act required the collection from the public offices into one
place, and the purchase of " such books, maps, and charts, works of
science and the arts as may tend to illustrate the resources and means
of internal improvement of the Commonwealth or of the United States.^'
The plan of Massachusetts was forwarded, and a further impetus given
by a law of Congress of December 27, 1813, ordering one copy of each
of the journals and documents of Congress to be given to the executive
department of each State.
South Carolina had a legislative library in 1814. New York estab-
lished a library in 1818, declaring that its object was to found " a pub-
lic library for the use of the government and of the people of the
State," and it has since that time continued annually to make
appropriations for its enlargement. Ohio owed the creation of its
library, in the same year with that of New York, to the action of
Governor Worthington, who purchased, in 1817, in Philadelphia, with
the money of the contingent fund, a large number of books, and on his
recommendation, the next legislature organized a library. The period
from 1SI6 to 1819 included the organization of five State libraries, in
Illinois, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, the whole
number of States bei\)g twenty-two. Between 1824 and 1829, seven libra-
ries were created, — in Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Missouri, New
Jersey, Vermont, and Virginia, — with twenty-four States in the Union
From 1836 to 1840, eight State libraries were established.
294 Public Libraries in the United States.
No period has been so remarkable for the increase of State libraries,
and of the number of books in them, as that of the last twenty-five
years. During this time, one State after another has adopted the poli-
cy, until at the present moment there is such alibrarj'^ in every State and
Territory. The Territories organized within the last thirty years have
been provided on their organization with such libraries. Congress ap-
propriated $5,000 in 1836, for the purchase of a library for Wisconsin Ter-
ritory "for the useof the legislature and the supreme court." The Terri-
tory of Oregon had an appropriation from Congress in 1848, of like
amount, for the same purpose. In 1850 N^ew Mexico received an appro-
priation of $5,000, and in 1854 $500 additional, for her territorial library ;
which in 1853 numbered about 2,000 volumes, comprising the standard
text books on the various branches of common and civil law and eQuity,
the reports of the United States and the State courts and the codes of the
several States and Territories, besides a number of congressional docu-
ments. The library then contained the manuscript records of the Terri-
tory, dating back more than three hundred years. This collection of
records is probably the oldest in the United States.^ Indeed it came to
be the rule to appropriate in the act organizing a territorial government
funds for the purchase of a library. It was a recognition by the most
enlightened body in the nation of the value and necessity of a library
for the welfcire of new communities, that they might be developed and
sustained under wise laws.
With the accumulation of books at the capitols and state-houses, as
the result of their interchanges of statutes and the journals of the leg-
islatures^ the necessity of a library organization for their control was
still further impressed upon the minds of the legislators by the resolu-
tions of South Carolina in 1844, which were communicated to the States,
proposing an additional exchange, that of the reports of the judicial
decisions of each State. The proposition has been accepted by all the
States.
Among the causes operating to stimulate the development of State
libraries, the disinteres-ted and zealous exertions of Alexandre Vatte-
mare, of France, should not be overlooked. His addresses and appeals,
made personally to the legislatures of many of the States, in favor of
international exchanges of State publications and duplicate works with
the states and cities of Europe, awakened a hopeful readiness to carry
out his special plans, aud stimulated measures for the increase of State
libraries. Washington Irving declared the scheme to be "worthy of
the civilization of the age," especially on account of its teudevncy to ger-
minate libraries promptly and without loss. Sixteen States accepted
the obligations and expenses of this system of international exchanges,
in a greater or less degree. The management was conducted at Paris,
by M. Vattemare, until his death, which occurred in 1864.
' El Grin«fo ; ur, New Mexico aud her People. By VV. H. H. DavitJ. New York : Har-
per Bros., lHo7.
State and Territorial Libraries. 295
Tlie plaa did not coatiaue to be sustained, during the whole of this
period, by all of those States that enj?a<?ed in it, some of them soon de-
clining to contribute annually to the necessary expenses. This aban-
donment was not merely because the classes of books received were
chiefly in foreign languages, but because that, irrespective of their value,
it cost more to bind them than the whole sum the legislature was dis-
posed to allow annually for the increase of their libraries. Yet, as early
as 1856, M. Vattemare had sent from France aloae 100,000 volumes,
besides those which he had secured from other states of Europe ; and
had received in return 80,000 volumes from this country. The exchanges
carried on by M. Vattemare operated in many ways to develop and
vivify intellectuarand sympathetic relations between the people of the
Old and New World. Since his death, the system has been pursued on a
more efficient and practical basis by the Smithsonian Institution, which,
through its various agencies abroad, is very successfully facilitating
exchanges, not only between States, but between societies and individ-
uals.
In these remarks on the origin of our State libraries, it has not been
an object to give the history of all or of any one of them. The casual
notice of particular libraries has been simply for the purpose of illustra-
ting the general facts which appertain to the origin of all of them. The
materials are accumulating in the reports of the libraries of each State,
which will require, ultimately, to be embodied in a general history. Nor
has there been occasion to speak of the origin of the National Library,
the Library of Congress, with its 301),000 volumes. Its aims and scope
are the same, but on a larger and more comprehensive scale, in propor-
tion as its means are larger. Its rapid development is most gratifying
to our hopes and pride.
CONDITION.
Having spoken of the origin of our State libraries, we proceed to a
general brief statement of their character and condition.
The annual increase of books in the libraries is from purchases, ex-
changes, and gifts. The funds for purchases are chiefly from the an-
nual appropriations made by the legislatures of the several States.
There is a tendency to a moderate increase in the amount of these ap-
propriations. In four or five of the larger States it may average from
$1,500 to $i,000 a year, while in the greater number the average would
not be over |500. In California the annual receipts from the State are
about >|7,O0O; a fee of $5 is taxed upon each commission issued by the
governor, and $5 is deducted from the compensation of each member
of the legislature and paid into the library fund. In Nevada, the library
fund is derived in part from fees paid in the public offices and from
licenses to attorneys to practice. In some of the States a portion of
tlie fund comes from the sale of volumes of the statutes and law-
reports.
The increase from exchanges consists of the official publications of the
296 Public Libraries in the United States.
United States and of the forty-six States and Territories with each other.
The provinces of the Dominion of Canada enter into the system of exchange
with some of the States in a liberal spirit. These exchanges add several
hundred volumes each year, although all of the States are not equally uni-
form in sustaining the system. Massachusetts, New York, and Penn-
sylvania report that they have exchanges with all the States and Terri-
tories. It is the custom of some States to place at the disposal of the
authorities of the library an additional number of copies of its publica-
tions, for exchanges with societies and individuals at home and abroad.
The increase from gifts, irrespective of exchanges, has not as yet been
large from any one person, but the aggregate of the donations annually
made by the citizens is considerable. It averaged for the last four
years for the State of New York 250 volumes a year, exclusive of pam-
phlets and gifts from societies.
The proportion of the library funds devoted to purchases for the law
departments is in most of the States from one-quarter to one-half of the
whole amount ; of course varying in successive years according to cir-
cumstances. The proportion of books in the law departments is from
one sixth to two-thirds of the whole number. When State documents
are included in the count with the lawbooks, it of course swells the
number in that department, and in the same measure reduces the num-
ber counted in the general library. In some States the la w library is
recognized as a branch of the State library, and has its separate apart-
ment. In Texas and Indiana the law library is the library of the sn.
preme court. The proportion of books of law to those of all other
classes is gradually changing, and the libraries are becoming more com-
prehensive in their character with time and the increase of the States
in wealth and population. It was natu rally one of the first objects of a
State library to provide works of reference on law, as the courtrooms
of the highest courts in the State are at the capitoIs, and both the judges
aiyl the advocates being separated from their own libraries derive the
greatest advantage from them. In Wisconsin and Iowa the purchases
of books are almost entirely for the law libraries, but the legi><latures at
the same time make liberal annual appropriations to the State histori-
cal societies for the purchase of books of a general character. In this
way the library of the Historical Society of Wisconsin has already
reached 60,000 volumes, including pamphlets.
The general department of the State libraries includ es for the smaller
libraries chiefly State papers, with the most necessary encyclopedias,
and works of reference on statistics, political economy, and history, for
the use of the legislature, a minimum portion of modern light literature,
and incidental additions of a miscellaneous character. The larger li-
braries employ their larger appropriations in the purchase of books
from a wider range, aiming not to supply the direct needs of the legis-
lator only, but to respond to the requirements and tastes of a culti-
vated people, looking forward to such measure of completeness in every
State and Territorial Libraries. 297
department as tbe means at their disposal may allow. An opinion of
the character of one library is expressed in a report from its librarian,
in which he "congratulates the legislature on the number of works
to be found in the library adapted to the wants of the agriculturist, the
merchant, tbe banker, and the statesman.'.' Another report says, " The
library is specially designed to contain books on legislation, government,
politics, history, statistics, and political economy." A third report ob-
serves, "A glance over the purchases will show that the mechanic's and
engineer's call can now be gratified."
Notwithstanding the laws establishing State libraries declare that
they are for books, manuscripts, and maps, the libraries are most of
them too young to have collected largely of the two last named arti-
cles. The largest collections of manuscripts are in the oldest libraries,
as might be expected. Many libraries do not report any manuscripts.
Where they do exist in the libraries, there is abundant evidence that
they are constantly contributing materials for personal and town history.
State libraries are in some cases also the museums of natural history
of the State, and contain the manufactures, dresses, and antiquities of
the aborigines. Others possess portraits and busts of distinguished
citizens, with coins and medals.
Each State library is emphatically a reference library, aud not for the
circulation of the books. Exception is uniformly made in favor of the
heads of depactments, the judges of the highest courts, aud of the
members of the legislature during the sessions, who are allowed to draw
books under special regulations. In some States, other classes, as the
superintendents of public institutions, the officers of the legislature,
and the like, are allowed to draw books. Books which are important on
account of their being in frequent demand or of their rarity are not
permitted to be taken from the capitol by any person. The use made
of the libraries is at present greatest during the sessions ot the legisla-
ture and the terms of the courts. But such is the pressure of business
during the legislative sessions, that few can find time for researches
connected with general principles, and members are obliged to limit
themselves too frequently to such facts as they can gather from statis-
tics and State documents. Information to be derived from State, county,
and town maps and charts is in demand at all times.
State libraries are free to all persons without exception, who have
the privilege of reading any book for which they may inquire. When
situated in large cities, they are much frequented by the residimts and
the students of educational institutions, especially if there is no other
public library. The public have not the right in the New York State
law library to occupy the tables appropriated to the members of the
bar. The libraries are open every day, except on holidays, during the
sessions of the legislature, from 9 in the morning till late in the after-
noon. Most of them are in the same manner open during the whole of
the year, at least during a part of the day. The facilities for reading
298 Public Libraries in the United States.
in the British Museum are generally commended, ^-et any person de-
siring to read there mast apply in writing to the prin/;ipal librarian,
specifying his "description" and place of abode, and accompany his
letter with a written recommendation from sOme other person. There-
upon he receives a ticket, giving him the privilege for six months. Under
such restrictions the room has its hundred thousand of readers in a year.
With us there are no restrictions to repulse any person decently clad
and of good behavior from using a State library.
At their first organization, State libraries were frequently left under
the control of an existing State officer, as the governor or the secretary of
state. The direction and control are now usually assigned to a number
of persons, designated as commissioners or trustees, who are either cer-
tain State officers, with the librarian, as in Pennsylvania, or are chosen
or appointed to the office, and are to remain till their successors are
appointed, or are gra<hially changed after a term of several years' service.
In California the supervising board was composed of the judges of the
supreme court, with the governor. In New York the regents of the
university are the trustees. The changes in the method of administra-
tion, as the libraries grew in value and importance, have always been
for the purpose of securing a steady, watchful, and permanent control
of its interests. The librarians are either appointed by the governor or
the trustees, or are chosen by the legislature for a term of years. In
Massachusetts, while there is a board of trustees, the secretary of the
board of education is librarian.
Annual reports are made to the legislature, either by the commis-
sioners, trustees, or librarians, regarding the condition of the library,
its income, expenditure, and progress. The salaries of librarians and
other expenses of the library are provided for by appropriations, addi-
tional to those made for the purchase of books. The librarians in at
least five of the States are women — in Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michi-
gan, and Tennessee. The purchases of books, as reported by twelve
libraries are represented as being made in six of them by the librarian
and in the other six by the trustees. Yet the same statistics do not
define who makes the selection of the books or the decision upon the
selection.
The measure of care taken for the safe keeping of the books is an
important element as regards all libraries. Oar State libraries are, as
we have observeil, reference libraries, and the privilege of drawing
some classes of books is limited to a small number of persons; but in
1858 Ohio was extending the privilege to clerks both of the legislature
and the departments, to ex-officers of State, the officers of its public
iustitutions at a distance from the capital, and to others. Colorado has
a similar provision for books to be taken to remote counties and retained
for six weeks. Wisconsin once extended the privilege to attorneys.
Many of the libraries, after suffering greatly from the loss of books in
the periods when the application of the rules or the rules themselves
State and Territorial Libraries. 299
were lax, bave assumed a necessary stringency, for the purpose of pro-
tecting the property of the State and securing the greatest degree of
usefuluess from the library. The lil>rarian of Minnesota reported, in
1S60, that out of a large number of volumes which had been regarded
as lost, two hundred of them had been recovered in a single jear by
faithful exertions. They had disappeared under the "order system-^
chiefly. The librarian's report for Pennsylvania for 1873 refers to a
time when the library suffered from that "order system which was iu
vogue for a few years, and which of itself would deplete any library in
this or any other community." The " order system" relerred to is a
custom which not unnaturally springs up in the useof a library, though
it may not be provided for in the regulations, by which those who enjoy
the exceptional privilege of drawing books give an order to a friend or
an acquaintance to draw a book in their name or on their responsibility.
On account of frequent loss of books from this usage, Pennsylvania has
prohibited the acceptance of such orders by the librarian. Tennessee,
for the same reason, in 1871 forbade the librarian to receive any* orders
for books to be taken out by others than those legally authorized.
In 1857, the commissioner of the Vermont library having reported
an " immensely large list of missing volumes," the legislature imme-
diately placed the library uoder tlie control of trust ees, and in fourteen
years the library had trebled in size. Ohio specifically declares in her
laws that whoever, being a privileged person, gives an order to any
other person not having such privilege, shall forfeit all right to take
books from the library.
The number of volumes in all the State and territorial libraries,
not including pamphlets, according to the latest returns, is 833,219.
Within twenty-five years the number has nearly quadrupled. In
the same period in Euroi>e the ten principal libraries have doubled
their number of volumes, an increase still greater than in our own
libraries if we consider their great size at the beginning of the
period. The interest taken in these institutions in our own as well as
in foreign lands is illustrative at tbe same time of the intellectual activ-
ity and the material enterprise of tbe age. If the number of volumes
had simply been doubled instead of being quadrupled in twenty-five
years, it would have still constituted a very gratifying increase. Con-
sidering how recently they became States, the readiness of some of the
Western States to build up strong libraries surpasses the^zeal of others
at the East.
The libraries are very unequal in size, beginning with the thousand
volumes of the librar^-^ of a newly organized Territory, till we reach one
of 95,000 — that of the State of New York. Ten of the whole number
have over 30,000 volumes each. The size of the library depends in part
upon the length of time it has been organized, in part upon the popula«
tion and wealth of the State, and in part upon the vicinity of other
large libraries. It is esi>ecially worthy of notice that only four of the
300 Public Libraries in the United States.
State libraries are iu cities baving a population of over fifty thousand,
accordiug to the census of 1870. Of the forty-six State and territorial
libraries, therefore, it follows that forty -two of them are iu rela-
tively small citi.es. Yet as the State capitals are the most central
towns of the State for facility of access to the citizens, and
are the towns most frequently visited hy them for purposes
of business, institutions of the character which State libraries should
aspire to become, can nowhere else be more properly established for
their highest utility and security. At the centres of population in the
great cities, large and rapidly increasing libraries are already estab-
lished. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and. Washfngton, at the East,
rival each other in their libraries of reference; while Chicago, Cincin-
nati, St. Louis, and San Francisco at the West, give promise of a
worthy competition. But their enlargement from the outset is in be-
half of all the wants possible to the human mind, and they have not the
special aims of a State library; while as our capitals are destined with
the lapse of years to become large centres of population, like the capi-
tals of Earoi)e, they have the same motives to be also comprehensive
in their additions to their libraries as have the cities we have mentioned.
Where the capitol is in a city already possessing large libraries, it is
feasible to build up its State library in directions suited to its more spe-
cific aims. The Massachusetts State library, having already in the vi-
cinity of its State-house libraries containing an aggregate of about
800,000 volumes, may wisely leave the purchase of books on science,
art, and literature, to those libraries, and limit its own purchases to State
history, political economy, and legislation, and thus avoid duplicating
the works already collected in those libraries. But where the popula-
tion is one which has lately settled, and there is no other library of ref-
erence within the State, there is no lin)it to the branches of knowledge
from which books may be selected, except the want of funds with which
to purchase, or the decision of the authorities.
When we reflect upon the late rapid development of the State libra-
ries, the character of the books collected, and the interest with which
they are cherished by the people, their condition is one of great encour-
agement. The deficiencies in the largest of them in every branch of
knowledge are recognized by their friends, and they only wait for op-
portunities to fill them up. And if in any of the older States there is
a backwardness to appreciate their claims and their importance, the
ardor manifested by the younger njembers of the family of States to
build up the State library will not be without its effect to stimulate
them to similar enterprise.
AIMS-
After this brief view of th« origin and condition of our State libraries,
it remains to consider in the remaining observations their aims, com-
bining some practiciil reflections on their administration and enlarge-
State and Territorial Libraries. 301
ment. There" may be uothing io these remarks which has not beea ex-
pressed on different occasions by the ofiScers of State libraries, yet there
certainly will be an advantage in grouping these views together.
Our State libraries come into view first in order of time prominently
as libraries of the statutes, journals of the legislatures, and State docu-
ments. As regards the aim of a State library in this branch of its col-
lections, it cannot fail to be remembered that these libraries are the only
places in each State where it can be supposed that an untiring assiduity
will be exercised to secure complete sets of all the publications of the
State, and, as far as possible, of the several States. In the apartments
called the senate and assembly libraries of s uch States as retain them,
only the sta tutes of the State and the later journals and documents of
the legislatures are preserved. It is impossible to keep the sets com-
plete under a system where the librarian is chosen solely for the actual
session of the legislature, and has hardly time to become acquainted
with his library, or to learn that a deficiency exists, except from inqui-
ries made after an absent volume. It requires the most watchful exer-
tions to make the sets of State publications tolerably complete. It has
been affirmed that there is not a State in the Union, unless it may be a
State lately admitted, which is in possession of a complete set of its own
publications. In 1858 Ohio did not possess one, and Vermont did not
in 1871. Massachusetts reports that some of the papers known to have
been printed by the State are hopelessly lost.
No libraries except State libraries will collect with any perseverance
the documents of the other States. In view, therefore, of the frequency,
even within the short period of our nation al existence, of the destruction
of libraries by fire^ and in view of the occasional calain ity of war, it is
under a system of exchanges existing between States, more surely than
in any other way, that each State has a chance for the complete preser-
vation of its official history d uring a succession of centuries. Although
forty-six States and Territories maybe co-operating simultaneously in
preserving the same documents of each State, the accidents of time will
continually be reducing the number of sets existing ; and how few com-
plete sets, if any, would remain at the end of three hundred years i
Frequently only unique co[)ies are found to exist of works which
three centuries since were printed to the extent of thousands of copies.
Of ninety-six of the works printed by Caxton four hundred years since,
thirty-five of the extant copies are unique. How many of these laws
and debates at the end of a similar period would be extant to testify to
the facts of the history of each State ?
A State library will, of course, make it one of its special aims to col-
lect works on American history in general just so far as the means at
its disposal will admit. But of all the purposes for which it exists,
none responds so directly to the wants of the largest number of the
citizens of a State as to aim to collect all the materials accessible to
illustrate the history of the State, its counties, its to ns, and its citi-
302 PuhUc Libraries in the United States.
zens. The anthorities of the librnry will therefore be attentive to se-
cure all local histories and biographies, manuscript collections of the
papers of its eminent citizens, the official proceedings of all counties
and towns, reports of all societies, charitable, commercial, manufactur-
ing, military, and secret, and as many of the newspapers printed in the
State as can be obtained, with its almanacs, and business and town di-
rectories. To these will naturally be added works in science and the
arts which relate more particularly to the productions of the State. An
honorable historic consciousness will be promoted by securing works of
merit of all kinds written by citizens of the State.
Much might be said regarding the value of the different classes of
books just mentioned, a value which grows with successive years. We
will, however, single out from amongthemfor particular notice the clavSS
of newspapers. For many towns and counties they are the only p^rinted
record of the earliest facts of local history. Their value in libraries is
already recognized in our Western States. The Indiana State Library
receives twenty-eight newspapers as an annual gift; Minnesota w'as
receiving forty in 18G2, and Ohio receives twenty-eight. The New Jer-
sey library invites donations of the same kind. There can be little
doubt that the publishers of a large proportion of the newspapers ot
any State would preserve and give to the State the file of each year, on
the single condition that it should be promptly bound and made accessi-
ble to the public. It would be equitable and useful to provide by stat-
ute that each publisher sending a newspaper should receive a copy of
the laws of the session.
It would also be a beneficial measure that the librarians of town and
incorporated libraries should be required, by statute, to send a copy of
their annual and other printed reports and printed catalogues to the
library of the State. The documents would thus be permanently
preserved, would give publicity to the existence and character of the
libraries, and facilitate the prep.iration of tables of statistics of all the
libraries of the State.
Town directories and guides, after the lapse of a year, can be obtained
at almost no expense, and when a series of a few decades of years has
bsen collected, the experience of libraries shows that they are very fre-
quently referred to as indispensable iu many historical researches.
Unique calleations, such as the minuscript papers of governors antl
other State officers, memorials of early set tiers and prominent citizens,
are to be souglit for, both for their intrinsic value as records of the past,
and also for the distinction the possession of them gives to the library
beyond that of its printed volumes.
It might be provided by law wilh advantage to the public that the
heads of departments could transfer to the custody of the State library
manuscripts not wanted in their departments as matters of record, but
the preservation of which might be desirable for historical reference.
The legislature of Xew York, in 1817, passed a resolution directing the
State and Territorial Libraries. 303
secretary of state to deliver to the State library all such docainents of
historic interest relative to and connected with the annals of the State
"as he might deem desirable and proper to be so transferred." The
State librarian, under proper regulations, might become keeper of the
rolls and records of the State and of all documents of early dates that
should be transferred to the library from any department.
It would be a wise undertaking ior eacli library to aim to enrich itself
by selectiug one or two subjects, which should not be of too great scope,
and making a special collection of books on those subjects. The topics
might be such as the writings and memorials of an eminent author, a
branch of mining, the telegraph, and the like. Persons interested in
such topics would soon learn of the existence of one place where they
cjuld depend upon finding everything written upon these subjects.
A State library should be abundantly supplied with the means of
furnishing teachers of schools, town library committees, and librarians,
with information regarding the character of books desirable to be pur-
chased. All forms of guides to reading, guides in the selection of books
and comprehensive catalogues of select books should be secured, and
the librarian should qualify himself to aid in that direction. The de-
partment of instruction of Illinois has this year published a very valu-
able list of books with ex[)lanatory notes, as a guide in the selection of
books for school districts and town libraries.^ It is a good example of a
part of the work to be done, and of the kind of aid which may be giveu
in connection with each State library.
The expense must be incurred afresh and continually of purchasing
the latest editions of encyclopedias, annual registers, and statistical
works generally, as rapidly as they are published, notwithstanding
earlier editions are upon the shelves of the library. In matters con-
necte I with legislation and for all researches, the freshest statistics and
reports are alone satisfactory to the investigator. The earlier editions
do not become useless ; they will always serve to mark the development
of thought and the progress of science up to the date when they were
published, and they contain information excluded from new encyclope-
dias by the pressure of fresh materials.
It will be readily conceded that a State library should possess all
works pertaining in any way to the history of the State ; for it is
e.ideut that the productions of the press of each State illustrate m
m iny ways its history, being usually the work, either intellectually
or materially, of its own citizens. Any reasonable method of secur-
ing one copy of each of such publications for the State library is
worth considering. At present two copies of every article for which a
copyright is demanded, must, by law, be deposited in the Library of
Congress. Might it not as well be provided that one of these two
copies should be deposited in the State library of the State in which it
'Ciciiliir No. 31, Department of Public luatiuction, Spriugfield, 111., December 25,
1 :74, p. 13:5.
304 Public Libraries in the United States.
is published ? It can hardly bs a necessity that two copies of each
publication should be retained in the same library, one for use in the
library, and the other for the sole purpose of keeping the material
record of copyrights complete. It is probable that at the end of a long
period of years, a much larger number of these publications would be
in existence as a record of the past if they had been officially preserved
in two places than if they had only been preserved in one, thus depend-
ing for their safety upon a single contingency. The convenience of
access to the public, the reasonable claims of the State in which the
work originates, the benefit to authors and publishers, and its advan-
tages for the completeness of State history, — all these motives recom-
mend the plan as preferable to the existing arrangement. During the
last year, 14,000 articles were copyrighted at the Library of Congress,
making, at two copies each, 28,000 articles deposited in the Library.
The deposit in the library of the State in which the work is ])ublished of
one-half of this gross number, by the publishers, or by the Librarian of
Congress, would both relieve the National Library of what is now, in many
respects, an incumbrance, and work greatly to the advantage of each
State. The trustees of the New York State Library made a similar sug-
gestion in 1858, asking for the passage of a law requiring " authors who
obtain a copyright of their works, to deposit a copy in the State library
of the State in which such copyright was entered." This suggestion
was made before the late change in the law of the United States.
Just so far as it is evident to an observing public that the books and
manuscripts in a State library are guarded with a scrupulous care for
their safety, it may be expected that it will be preferred by generous
citizens before other institutions as the one to which they will be glad to
bequeath their libraries, or to give or intrust on deposit manuscripts
and works of value. At the da te when the British Museum contained
514,000 volumes, 218,000 of them had either been bequeathed or pre-
sented to it. These donors have thus acquired a more enduring and
honorable fame for their names than they would have secured by the
erection for themselves of costly mausoleums. The disposition of our
men of wealth to endow public institutions at their death or during life
is so prevalent among us as to be the source of just pride. Trustees
of libraries, sensible of the importance of such collections, can hardly
avoid directing the attention of citizens to this method of rendering
their wealth useful to their country. But in speaking of the condition
of our State libraries, we have referred to the fact that in the early
stages of organization scrupulous care for the safety of the books was
not exercised, atid the libraries suffered frequent and large losses.
This evil has, however, been already remedied in most libraries by
providing for a more etficieot supervision, and for more stringency
in the regulations regarding the loan of books. The relaxation of
tliese regulations should not be left to depend upon the discretion
or good will of the librarian, but should be controlled for special
State and Territorial Libraries. 305
cases by the superior autborities. It seems like an unjustifiable disre-
gard of the interests of a library that a book, either unique or of great
value, perhaps the gift of a citizen, should be delivered into the hands
of a total stranger. Any gentleman, informed by the librarian of the
circumstances, would feel the propriety of making himself known to
him through an introduction from another person.
Of course the public has at all times the freest access to the apart-
ments of a State library ; and one evidence which it can give to those
who might be disposed to be donors to it of the security of the books
deposited there, is that the cases are protected with wire or glass doors
and locked. In Ohio the cases have glass doors ; in Xew York they
have wire doors ; in Massachusetts the front of the alcoves is closed
with glass. The advantage of extending the protection to each case
instead of to the alcoves is, that it gives to the visitor the privilege ot
access to the alcoves and of reading the titles of the books. It is as
important to keep books safely as to purchase good ones. The person
in charge of the library of the British Museum has the significant
title of " keeper" of the books.
State libraries exist for the benefit of the whole State, and the ex-
penditure for them is from the treasury of the State. As they are
not designed for the special advantage of the cities where they are
situated, it is not a part of their object to provide the current literature
for the convenience of the citizens. It would be an undesirable result
if, by great facilities of this kind, the inhabitants of the capital should
be backward in establishing free public libraries for themselves, or if
they should be drawn away from sustaining by their contributions ex-
isting social and subscription libraries. Works of fiction and light
literature will naturally have the smallest place in a State library,
unless the means at the disposal of the trustees should be- abundant
enough to make a collection of all works by A mericau authors, as part
of the history of the country.
The function of selecting the books to be purchased is an important
one. The relative value for reference purposes of a book proposed,
whether ancient or modern, is the prominent point to be considered.
It is comparatively easy to select the most obviously indispensable refer-
ence books, and those relating to State history. With the present
state of things, in a majority of these libraries, modern works, whether
in history, science, or general literature, will be inquired for a hundred
times where a work of more ancient date will be inquired for once. It
is true that the need for works of all classes, periods, and languages
is sure to be felt after the usual changes in the character of the popu-
lation and the increase of wealth in the State, — already the capitals of
at least twenty of the States are the seats of universities, colleges, or
professional schools. But wheu the purchases first enumerated ha\ e
been made, there may be a very limited fund remaining from the State
appropriation ; hence the services of persons capable of making that
20 E
306 Public Libraries in the United States.
sslectiou of books which ou the whole, in view of the moderate means at
coinmand, will be the most useful, are of great importance. We must
recognize that the selection is to be made from a list of works which^
besides including the millions of books printed in past years, is increas-
ing in all languages at the rate of more than thirty thousand annually.
It is a task of great responsibility, involving many perplexing questions j
and as the productions of the press are likely to increase in the same,
if not greater, ratio in coming years, and certainly in greater proportion
in the United States, the necessity of discriminating judgmeutin making
purchases presses with stronger force. A man of education and culture
acting as librarian, with an experience of several years, ought to be com-
petent to suggest to his trustees the books w4iich it would be most desir-
able to place on the shelves of the library. Receiving from them general
principles to guide him in his selections, he should make to them regular
reports of his proceedings, and thereupon may receive special instruc-
tions. With this mode of co-operative support, he could not fail to make
satisfactory purchases from the various sources of supply. This remark
does not apply to a purchase involving a large sum. The trustees and
librarians are in a very favorable position for obtaining the aid of the
best minds in the State to furnish lists of books desirable to be pur-
chased in special departments.
Experience in his profession, a protracted connection with the library^
and a genuine love of books, enhance the value of a librarian's services ;
and make it essential for the best interests of the library, that his rela-
tions to it should not be interrupted for mere political considerations.
Practically the long continuance of a librarian in his office in the serv-
ice of the State is more likely to be cut short by his withdrawal on
account of an insufficient salary.
In all that we have hitherto said of the aims of State libraries, the pur-
pose has been to specify such as relate to them peculiarly, as compared
with other libraries, and in their comparatively incipient and undevel-
oped state. We have not and could not overlook their higher and more
general object, which can be no less than to collect and preserve for the
present and future use of their communities whatever can be obtained
of the printed or manuscript record of what man has thought and done
in past ages, and of what he is now doing. Books are the chief monu-
ments of the operations of the human intellect. In the language of
Milton, " Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency
of life in them, to be as active as that soul was whoss progeny they
are< ... A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit^
embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life." In the
spirit of this thought, we affirm that the general aim of a State library
should be regarded as being as comprehensive as the whole range of
human knowledge, and should therefore include collections as complete
as may be in all history, pbilosophy, science, and art.
It is not going bej'oml what we have a right to hope for, that State
State and Territorial Libraries. 307
libraries sbould also have, in a separate department, museums of history,
natural history, and archfe3logy, embracing medals, coins, scul[)ture,
armor, models of inventions, and i)ortraits. That which has been an
exceptional incident in the history of some of these libraries might well
become the rule for all of them. The cost of the library and of its
museums, gradually enlarged during a long succession of years, is as
nothing compared to their utility. The impressions received in studying
such collections may frequently determine a citizen upon a course of
study and investigation that shall benefit the world and redound to
the honor of the State.
It is too true that the great majority among us are at present chiefly
engrossed by the necessities or the temptations of material industry.
But it will not always be so. With the progress in mechanical inventions
and in scientific appliances, the accumulations of wealth will be rapid.
There will soon be a population of millions in most of the States. Fam-
ilies will enter upon life in the enjoyment of the rewards of industry,
having an abundance of leisure. There will be an ever increasing
number, eager to compare the wisdom of the past with that of their
own times, eager to trace the steps by which their State has risen to its
eminence, and to seek truth and knowledge for their own sakes.
It should not be regarded as a mere dream of the future to expect
that the hundreds of millions who will be living one day under the
protection of our institutions may surpass in intellectual character and
culture the highest forms of Athenian life, and that this culture will be
l);irticipated in, not merely by an aristocracy, but by the whole mass.
Even within a few score years a people will inhabit our plains who
will judge of us and of the degree of our civilization by the provision
we had made for them in laying broad and deep the foundations of
both libraries and museums. If in monarchies these institutions have
been the most useful and the richest boon from kings to their subjects,
why should republican governments, acting for the people, be less for-
ward to endow their capitals with such valuable monuments of civili-
zation! We may reasonably hope that the representatives of the peo-
ple will be so sensible of the grandeur of their mission that they will
be ready to support such institutions. They would not be on a basis
more broad than is the existing British Museum. Each would easily be
managed by the same trustees, in the same manner as is the Library
and Museum of ^STatural History of the State of New York. States are
most competent to effect in such schemes what individuals and societies
cannot afford, to do, except in a limited degree ; and even when the latter
attempt it, they do not always assure exemption from loss or destruction
of the treasures under their charge.
In carrying out these general aims, particularly as regards the library,
its character will be naturally shaped by its trustees, in view of the
situation of its capital, the peculiar manufactures, products, and com-
merce of the State, and the funds at their disposal. These trustees, in
308 Public Libraries in the United States.
their zeal, and as intelligent friends of the libraries, may, at times, con-
template with feelings of disappointment the fact that the collections
are not used in proportion to their value; that the multitude are so en-
grossed with industrial and commercial occupations or pleasures that
the library, however well supplied with books, and however choice its
treasures, is not frequented for scientific or historical research as they
think it should be. In these circumstances they must console them-
selves with the thought that, besides the present good which they are
accomplishing, they are accumulating a wealth of information, for
which coming generations will be grateful when the demands of material
industry shall be less pressing. The value of these libraries is both imme-
diate and prospective. They are not to be tried by the present amount of
use which is made of them, or the absolute need which is felt for them,
but by the good which they augur for the future, when each capital is the
seat of government of a State containing millions of inhabitants, many
of whom will be interested in the completeness of the history of their
State, its lands, its towns, its distinguished citizens, and when its most
cultivated men are resorting to them to enjoy intercourse with the best
minds of all ages. They are now but the centers around which are to
be collected the records of the- past and the future, whose value is to
be enhanced in proportion to their completeness.
In the days of the llomau republic its first public library was estab-
lished in the temple of liberty. Our State capitols are our temples of
liberty, in which it well becDmes the representatives of the people to
sustain sucli an institution as the State library, not merely in behalf of
material ends and legislative necessities, but for the cultivation and de-
velopment of the most serious studies and the highest thought on
themes of science and of social and political life.
State and Territorial Libraries.
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CHAPTER XIII.
HISTORICAL SOCIETIES IN THE UNITED STATES.
I.— HEXRY A. HOMES, LL.I).,
Lilrariayi Xeoj York State Library.
II.— W. I. PLETCHER,
Asshianf Li'jrarim Watkiasoa Library, Hartford, Conn.
III.— THE EDITORS.
I.— HISTORY AXD COXDITIOX.
Early History — Number and importance — Oh.jects — Characteu axd extent of
COLLECTIONS — Impetus given to historical research and publications —
Statk societies — Special and local societies — Membership — Meetings —
Funds, income, and expenditures — Historical publications — Genealogical^
family, and town histories — Plans for the future — National historical
convention.
In. the attempt to collect the most recent statistics which should ex-
hibit the intellectual condition of the United States, it was impossible
to overlook so important an illustration of the subject as would be of-
fered by a view of its historical societies. From the facts shown in the
statistical tables, and from those which we have gathered from other
sources, it is evident that diligent workers in preserving the history of
the nation have been numerous, and that whatever neglect there has
been in the pursuit of science or literature, we cannot be said to have
equally neglected our own history.
Daring the past one hundred years of our national life, the historical
spirit could not fail to be awakened ; the degree of its development, as
compared with the colonial period, has .depended in no small measure
upon the freedom of the people under our republican institutions.
Wherethere are no political or social restraints upon the opportunities,
for co-operation, the historical spirit will effectively develop itself at au-
early stage in the life of the commonwealth.
In proof of this, we find that since the organization of the govern-
ment in 1789 under the Constitution, there have been formed more thart
one hundred and sixty historical societies, the greater number of which
have perpetuated their organizations. The object of these societies has
been essentially the same, to collect and diffuse the materials of Ameri-
can histor3\ It was declared by the first one of the historical societies,
organized in 1791, and afterwards called the Massachusetts Historical
312
Historical Societies in the United States. 31i^
Society, that its object was " to collect, preserve, and communicate ma-
terials for a complete history of the country." No limitation of aims
was made in behalf of the State, or of New England. Later, in 1804,
the New York Historical, and, in 1823, the New Hampshire Historical
Societies were organized, each " for the purpose of discovering, procur-
ing, and preserving whatever may relate to the natural, civil, literary,,
and ecclesiastical history of the United States, and of this State in par-
ticular." Societies formed at a later period, in defining their object,
either give the State precedencs of the United States, or omit the
United States entirely. Thus the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
declares its single object to be " the elucidation of the civil and literary
history of the State.'' We think, therefore, notwithstanding the more
comprehensiv^e schemes set forth by the earlier societies, that it has
come to be their object generally, to collect the materials for the history'
of the State, county, or town where the society is situated, and then, as
circumstances may favor, of the United States and the individual States.
The principal means employed for accomplishing the object aimed at
have been the establishment of libraries, the collection of manuscripts^
the forming of museums of historical memorials and' of the natural his-
tory of the region, and the printing of historical documents. Their pur-
pose has been to collect and to render accessible to the public the ma-
terials for history, but not to write history under the sanction of the
societies.
The libraries formed by these societies, for the use of their members
and all other accredited persons, are alone a fair evidence of their earnest-
ness, when we consider that the works collected in them relate chiefly
to American history. The number of volumes known to be contained
in them amounts, as far as can be gathered from the reports received, to
more than 482,000, and more than 508,000 pamphlets. The books are
solely for reference. Additions are continually made, but with no jjur-
pose of building up a large library, unless it should consist of historical
works. In some towns and cities, however, the library, for purposes of
convenience, is also made miscellaneous in its character for more general
uses.
The zeal of the members in securing and preserving historical manu-
scripts is sufficiently illustrated by the fact that the Massachusetts His-
torical Society has collected a thousand volumes of such manuscripts -,
and the New York Plistorical Society counts 15,000 single manuscripts^
while the number possessed by all the societies is reported at 88,771, be-
sides 1,301 bound volumes. These manuscripts relate to every period
since the founding of the colonies. During many years the apartments
of these two societies, of the American Antiquarian Society at AVorcester,
Mass., and of one or two other societies, were the only places that oflered
for the especial and safe deposit of manuscripts, the State libraries not
having been generally organized. The States of Maryland and Georgia
have made the libraries for their State societies places of deposit of valu-
314 Public Libraries in the United States.
able State historical records. The younger State societies mauifest au
ardor in this direction, which indicates that they are managed by the sous
of worthy sires. The character and subjects of the manuscripts collected
may be inferred from the contents of the publications of the societies,
of which we shall soon speak. The whole number of manuscripts in
their libraries exceeds that of those which are to be found in the State
libraries, if we exclude the official State records in tbo latter.
In addition to books and manuscripts, tbe societies have formed
museums, and have sedulously collected in their halls memorials of the
aborigines, of their arts and customs, relics of the prehistoric races,
and of the founders and early settlers, with portraits of distinguished
oitizens, and cabinets of coins. Some of them have extensive collec-
tions in natural history. In these respects they resemble, as far as our
€ircumstances will permit, the archi^ological societies which exist in so
many of the counties of Great Britain.
The large number of volumes thus far published by our historical
societies is a most substantial proof of the efl&cient industry of their
members. The number of printed pages issued by them, chiefly dur-
ing the last seventy-five years, is equal to more than three hundred
volumes of three hundred and fifty pages each. A detailed descrip-
tion of their contents here would be impossible. They include town
and church histories, town and parish records, journals and correspDud-
cnce of the Revolution, private diaries, biographies, genealogies, deeds,
wills, and family papers of citizens, iilustracions of aboriginal life and
history, annotated rei>rints of rare and early books relating to America,
and other similar materials.
The incidental' operations of the societies are to meet during the year
with more or less frequency for the discussion of subjects of historical
interest, to provide for the delivery of an annual public historical dis-
course, and to secure popular courses of lectures on historical and sci-
entific subjects, rather than on themes of society and literature. Some
of the discourses delivered on their anniversary occasions — three at
least of which have been given by men who have been Presidents of
the United States — will long remain monuments of patriotic eloquence
and witnesses to important truths in our history.
The societies have, moreover, at different times in several States,
been active in calling the attention of State legislatures to measures for
the preservation and publication of the early public records of their
States. These efforts have resulted in securing not only the printing of
the colonial records in the State archives, but have led some States to
procure copies of such documents as were to be found in the record
offices of the states of Europe. In a few years we may expect that all
such papers, existing either at home or abroad, will have been printed
for public use. In the meantime other States, or their State societies,
have obtained and priuted calendars of the contents of such documents
as could be found in England.
Historical Societies in the United States. 315
Membership in the societies is g'euerally secured by the vote of a ma-
jority; sometimes by the payment of an annual tax ; in other societies
it is restricted by the ne^^ative vote of a small minority. The resident
members, residing in the town, county-, or State, have alone the right to
vote. Some societies are managed entirely by an executive committee.
The number of members does not appear to be fixed and limited in more
than three societies. The Massachusetts society was at first organized
on this principle, and limited to thirty members, latterly increased to
one hundred. The American Antiquarian Society, organized within the
same State a score of years after, adopted the same principle. The
Maine Society, a daughter of Massachusetts, organized in 1822, did not
depart from the mother's example. Bat whatever may bi tlio advan-
tages supposed to inhere in a limited membership, the fact that the
practice has not been adopted by otber societies, is evidence of a decided
preference for an enlarged membership, not fixed by law. The number
of members of the several societies ranges from fifty to over one thou-
sand, the largest membership being usually in the largest cities. The
aggregate membership of all the societies, according to the latest re-
turns received, is 27,2 A4.
The income of most of the societies is derived from an initiation fee
of $3, $5, or $10, and an annual tax of from $1 to $5 on each member.
In many cases the annual dues constitute the sole regular income of a
society. Life memberships are encouraged. The expenditures of the
societies are defrayed from these sources, or by extraordinary subscrip-
tions— special permanent funds created by the gifts of the members
and their friends, and in a few cases by annual or special grants from
the State legislature. The Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin State socie-
ties receive, the first, $2,500, the second, $500, and the last, .$7,000 a year
from the State treasuries, which sum is used for the purchase of books,
for salaries, and other expenses. The Tennessee and some other societies
are provided with apartments in the State capitol. The value of the
lands, edifices, and permanent funds of all the societies approaches
$2,000,000; the amount reported, not including all the societies, is
$1,674,973.88. It would not be reasonable to name a lower sum than
another million of dollars to represent the value of their libraries, man-
uscripts, and museums; although it is next to impossible to make a
pecuniary estimate of the amount.
The meetings of the societies are either annual, semi-annual, quarterly,
monthly, or twice a mouth during six to nine months of the year.
Most of the societies whose names are given in our list may be classed
as either State or local societies. State societies have been formed in
twenty-two of the thirty-seven States, although one or two of them can
hardly be said to exist at present. From the prominence which the
State societies give to the history of the State in their plans, they are
properly entitled to bear the name of the State which they represent.
316 Public Libraries in the United States.
They generally have the seat of their operations at the capital of the State
or in the largest city.
The local societies, named after a town, county, or district, limit
themselves to the history of the region indicated by their name, and
do not generally attempt to embrace the larger purposes of the State
societies. Very few of them have combined with their plans for collect-
ing their own civil history, the study of other branches of history, or
science. They are not affiliated in any way with State societies, except
in Michigan, where incorporated local societies are required to report
annually to the State society, and to send to it copies of papers which
h rive been read before them. They frequently have libraries and mu-
seums for the preservation of historical relics. Both classes of societies
occasionally embrace in their plans other aims than American history.
The New York and Maryland societies have galleries of paintings, and
the former a collection of Egyptian antiquities. The Long Island So-
ciety has a collection of paintings. The Georgia Society has a general
library and reading room.
There are ac least nine historical associations engaged in the work
of preserving the histor^^ of as many of the ecclesiastical denomina-
tions of the country, and most of them have formed libraries for the
purpose.^
During the last twenty-five years, and more especially during the
la.st ten years, there has arisen a spontaneous an'd widely spread en-
thusiasm to form associations of pioneers and old residents for the
purpose of cherishing the memory of the first settlers and preserving
incidents connected with the early settlement of different counties and
towns. These continue for a series of years to have annual addresses,
or to publish occasional historical papers of great interest for the
locality. The earliest association of this nature was the Old Colony
Club, founded^ at Plymouth, Mass., in 1769, by which was inaugurated
the custom of celebrating Forefathers' Day by an annual discourse-
As adjuncts to the societies peculiarly historical should be counted the
ethnological, numismatic, philological, geographical, and statistical
societies. They are all contributors, in a greater or less degree, to the
civil and political history of the country, or to the history of the native
races. The several printing clubs, engaged in printing small editions
of rare historical books, freshly annotated, or of unpublished manu-
scripts, have performed an important service. Their enterprises have
'Au effort was made to collect the statistics of the diocesan libraries of the
Protestant Episcppal Chnrch, and from a few registrars returns were received showing
that in nine such collections there are 730 volumes, 14,U24 pamphlets, and 259 manu-
scripts, the books and pamphlets mainly consisting of diocesan journals, proceedings
of conventions, and other periodical and fugitive literature relating to the church. No
description of the manuscripts was given. These collections will, in time, become vain-
able to the student of ecclesiastical history.
Rev. William Stevens Perry, D. D., of Geneva, N. Y., is custodian of the Church
Archives, which " consist of oOO volumes of most valuable manuscripts." — Editors.
Historical Societies in the United States. 317
not been conducted witli a view to pecuniary advantage. The numer-
ous New England societies at the West and South, awaken an interest
in historical studies, by the frequent annual discourses which are deliv-
ered under their auspices, in which the virtues and errors of the fore-
fathers are discussed for the benefit of the present generation.
VALUABLE RESULTS.
From the statements we have made regarding the character and con-
dition of the historical societies, no one would hesitate to conclude that
they have already accomplished a great work or to infer, from the rec-
ords of their operations during three-score years and more, that results
of still greater im[)ortauce will follow. The value of their labors is
not likely to be overestimated ; and a perusal of the details of the his-
tory of many of the societies can alone give an idea of the patient devo-
tedness and affection for their object of many members during a long
series of years. They have steadily pursued their patriotic impulses
as though they were yielding obedience to the behest of the most exalted
virtue. It has been by the exhibition of this disinterested attachment
to their ,cause, which it is a pleasure to contemplate, that they have
obtained so many valuable contributions from their own members, from
the public, and the State.
The libraries and museums of the societies, besides increasing in size,
will, with the lapse of years, hav^e an increasing value for the public. It
has only been by gradual, slow additions to their funds, that any of
these societies have been able to secure convenient apartments and a
curator, so that their collections, the gifts of members and friends, could
be accessible to more than a very limited number. In the future, with
the possession of suitable edifices, open under charge of .officers, theseinsti-
tutions will be useful to the community in a degree hitherto unknown.
The libraries will be more complete on their special subjects ; their rare
manuscripts, increased in number, will be found in the i)laces where
they are most needed. The guarantee which their halls will offer for
the safety and care of manuscripts and historical relics will be appreci-
ated, and citizens will be glad to deposit in their archives the treasures
which they possess and thus save them from destruction. How many
valuable documents have already been lost from the absence of such soci-
eties % How many have already been saved by their existence ? Memo-
rials of founders, pilgrims, and settlers, as well as of ancient customs, are
destined to be regarded with a growing interest ; .and when the period
shall have come that not an uncivilized Indian remains, every material
vestige of the race will be gazed at with admiration. Already the
exhumed arrow-heads, hatchets, and sculptured stones, which had been
quietly noticed for scores of years as memorials of existing races of
Indians, have acquired a fresh value since we have been led to attempt
to discriminate which of them may have been wrought thousands of
years since by races not yet identified.
318 Fiihlic Libraries in the United States.
Wliiie tlie "discovery and preservation" of manuscripts and memori-
als is a [)rime motive for the existence of these societies, their efforts ia
that direction do not present themselves so prominently to the appreci-
ation of the public as do those historical volumes by which they "com-
municate and diffuse" a knowledge of tbe documents which they have
coll-ected. In the three hundred volumes published by them, to which
we have alrea ly referred, there are to be found copies of many unique
manuscripts, which were, of course, difficult of access. By the multi-
plication, through the press, of hundreds of these copies, even if the
manuscript itself were lost, an easy acqu.iintatics with its contents is
secured to investigators. Many a rare volume also, the purchase of which
might cost half a year's income to a poor student, when reprinted by a
society, is put withiu his^each in every library. Both the manuscript
and the rare book have thus the opportunity to carry down the stream
of time the record first made hundreds of years ago.
A special illustration of the value of these publications is offered in
the thirty-five volumes published by the i*^ew England Historic-Genea-
logical Society. Before its [formation in 1845, the whole number
of American genealogical histories was not more than thirty. They
now iir.mber more than four hundred, and the later histories are incom-
parably more thorough and complete. There is every reason to suppose
that the work will be prosecuted till the genealogical story of a great
portion of the early settlers of New England shall have been written
and p.iblished. In succeeding years it may be found that these facts
will liave a value beyond anything designed in their compilation, by
enabling the man of science to trace the influences of varied climate
and education, of the laws of hereditary influence, and the comparative
ability of different nations, from a larger number of similar facts than
was ever before collected. Family history in the past has had for its
object to trace the pedigree of successful families in a single line of de-
scent. Few genealogies have attempted to give the affiliations and
ramifications of all the descendants of a common ancestor for many
generations. In this respect the pursuit is not a minister to pride, but
has a tendency to promote a sense of republican equality'. It is not
necessary to have in one's veins "the blood of all the Howards" to se-
cure an interest in our genealogical relations.
Tbe influence of the historical societies in securing the preparation
and publication of town histories has been remarkable. More than two
hundred have been published in the last thirty years. The thirty town
histories of New Hampshire have all been prepared since the formation
of its society in 1823. All these histories have an exactness and(
thoroughness not to be found in those of early date. The larger por-
tion of 'them are written by those who are members of historical socie-
ties, and who are indebted to the collections in their libraries for their
most important facts, for materials without which it would have been
impossible to perfect their works. The fact that four of the New
Historical Societies in the United States. 319
England States ^ have authorized towns to tax themselves to procure
the publication of town histories is an evidence of the stimulus which
has been imparted to'the'undertaking by these societies.
The compilation of a town history is not an undertaking that can be
begun and finished in a few months. Consequently, since the enact-
ment of State laws authorizing towns to incur the expense, although
the number of histories published by them is already considerable, yet
the results expected to follow from the power of taxation must neces-
sarily be developed gradually. Authors of histories need time and ap-
portunity to collect,"digest, and develop their materials.
The course pursued by the towns that authorize the publication cf
their town histories is, to take a vote upon the subject at the annual
town meeting, the callfor the meeting having specified that the subject
will be introduced. A committee of publication is nominated and
chosen, and this committee selects a gentleman to prepare the history
under its general direction. An appropriation at that or a subse-
quent meeting is made to cover the expense.
A few details of some specific cases are subjoined as illustrations of
the method pursued. The town of Pittsfield, Mass., for example, in
full town meeting, on the proposition by a citizen, appointed a committee
of five to write a history of the town, with authority to select an editor.
The committee chose Mr. J. E. A. Smith to compose the history and to
arrange" the materials, itself giving general directions and aiding in
the work. The town made at the same meeting the necessary appro-
priation of money for the expense to be incurred. The first volume, con-
taining 518 octavo pages, was stereotyped and printed in 1869, and the
town retains the copyright. The history reaching only to the year 1800,
a second volume is to follow speedily. The town of Warwick, Mass., chose
a committee of seven tp adopt such measures as they might deem expe-
dient for the publication of the manuscript of J. Blake's history. The
call for the annual meeting contained a notification that the question
of an appropriation for this purpose would be introduced, and at the
meeting it was voted to publish it, and the same committee was em-
' The following are the legal provisions for the publication of town histories in
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts :
J/at«e.^"Cities and towns may raise money for the purpose of procuring the writing
and publication of their histories." — R2C. Stat., lS7i, tit. I, sec. 3o.
-Veil; Hampshire. — ''Any town, at a legal meeting called for the purpose, may author-
ize their selectmen to contract with some person to prepare and publish the early
history of such town, at the expense of the town, under such restrictions and regula-
tions as such town shall prescribe." — Laws of 1868.
Vermont. — "Any town, at their annual March meeting, may authorize their select-
men to contra3t with some person to prepare and publish the early history of such
town, at the expense of the town, under such restrictions and regulations as such town
shall prescribe."— C^H. Stat., 2d ed., 1t!70, tit. IX, sec. 91.
Massachusetts. — Towns " may, at legal meetings, grant and vote such sums as they
may judge necessary for the following purposes: For . . . procuring the writing
and publishing ofjtheirtown histories." — General Statute^, 1800, cha}). 18, sec. 10.
320 Fuhlic Libraries in the United States.
j)owere(l to borrow the money necessary. The history of the town of
Northfield, Mass., Avas printed in 1875, by Mr. Munsell, of Albany, in
ii volume of 630 pages, much of it in tine type. The towti paid 14
a copy for 320 copies, out of an edition of 500 copies. The authors
received as their share 125 copies. The inhabitants had the privilege
of purchasing- copies from the town at $1 each. No others can obtain
the work, either from the town or the publisher, except at an advanced
price. The history of the towns embraced in the original township of
Eeading, Mass., prepared by Hon. Lilley Eaton, was published in 1874
by the authority and at the expense of the town of Wakefield, one of
the towns included, through the agency of a committee appointed for
the purpose after his death. The town of Bradford, Yt., employed the
Kev. S. McKeen to write and publish the history of the town. The
town owns the edition, and sells copies of it at a fixed sura, on applica-
tion being made to any one of the selectmen. The Middlebury Histori-
cal Society of Vermont embarked in the enterprise of securing histories
of all the towns of Addison County. As one result of its exertions,
the town of Shorebam made an appropriation for the completion and
publication of a history, and appointed the Rev. J. F. Goodhue, a former
citizen, to compile it, under the superintendence of a committee. He
came and took up his residence there until he had completed a work
which he had formerly prepared, and the committee published it. It
bears on the title-page, " Published by the town."^ The history of
Winchester, Conn., by J. Boyd, was published by him, but with pecu-
niary aid in the undertaking from the town. The town of Barnstead,
N. H., having declined to bear the expense of printing a history prepared
by E. R. Caverly, he was afterward enabled to publish it through aid
received from individual citizens.
The prefaces to C. Hudson's two histories of Lexington and Marlborough,
Mass., as well as the preface to the history of Pittsfield, prepared by
the town committees, give ample details of the method of procedure of
the authorities in these particular cases. As regards the regulations
for the disposal and distribution, by sale or otherwise, of the copies of
these histories, the practice varies in different towns. The histories
themselves, in the prefaces, give very little information on the point.
The members of historical societies individually have, besides, pub-
lished many historical monographs, biographies, and genealogies, as the
bibliographical records in their archives show. Their labors, also, as
editors of historical magazines supported by subscription, deserve men-
tion. Though these periodicals have had but a few years of life, they
have been convenient depositories for historical studies and the waifs of
history, and have aided to sustain an interest in the subject.
1 As showing the impulse giveu to historical research, it may be meutioned that
since 1858, the year in which the law was enacted, histories of the following named
towns in Vermont, besides those above mentioned, have been published : Bennington,
Cornwall, Danby, Fairhaveu, Middlebury, Middletowu, Moutpelier, Pawlet, Reading,
Rutland, Salisburv, and Well«.— EnrroKS.
Historical Societies in the United States. 321
The historical fervor stimulated b}' the operations of the societies iu
the Atlantic States, has been manifested iu a remarkable degree iu the
Western States. Several of them have commenced their life as States
with the organization of a historical society. The Minnesota society
was created by an act of its first territorial legislature. Such organiza-
tionsareatestimouytothe high grade of civilization with which these new
communities enter the family of States. They constitute the first em-
bodiment of their men of culture, eager to achieve something for the
common weal outside of the direct necessities of domestic and civil
life. These pioneer founders from the Atlantic States saw that they
had not only to preserve the memory of the French and early settlers,
but that they were in the presence of the monuments of departed races,
which, though already abraded by the hand of time, were certain to be
more rapidly- effaced bj* the hand of man. They felt the need of insur-
ing protection for them, by co-operative action, that their history might be
the better investigated. It is especially in those States that the legis-
latures have encouraged the societies by annual grants of money, free
apartments, (devolving upon the society the care of the State library,) or,
as iu Michigan, have provided for the care of the collections of the State
society in the State library.
While the history of any nation has a positive value to the world,
that of the United States has a special importance, on account of the
character of our institutions. It is probable that this history will be
preserved with a completeness unparalleled in the annals of any people.
It is one of the first attempts ever made to chronicle events contempo-
raneously with the beginnings of life of the municipality and the State.
These events are recorded, not merely in relation to matters of govern-
ment and war, but of education, morals, and religion. The knowledge
will be perpetuated of the character and acts of the numerous races and
families from all quarters of the globe who, uuder novel conditions,
commenced social and political life in the counties and towns of which
the totality of the natiou consists. These records continued through
centuries will furnish most trustworthy facts for statistical tables to
illustrate the laws affecting these relations. It is to this important work
that each active historical society is a substantial contributor.
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE.
With this abundant evidence before us of the character and value of
the work of the historical societies, it is none the less accordant with
our progressive natures to be inquiring whether hy any means they can
be rendered more effective and useful. As regards the State societies,
we think the answer to the question may be safely left to their own in-
telligent action, stimulated by the example of kindred societies among
us. Tbe object which they have in view is broad enough to occupy them
permanently. We hopefully predict that before ten years shall have
elapsed there will be a society of their especial scope in every State.
21 E
322 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
In regard to the local soeieties, however, wliich have been formed in
so considerable numbers, and which will continue to be formed in a ratio
surpassing that of -any former period, there are good grounds for in-
quiring whether their specific object uiiglit not be attained equally well,
and other important advantages gained at the same time, by enlarging
their aims. . Why should they not, instead of limiting their pursuit to
their own localities, embrace the history of all ages and peoples '? Why
should the incipient impulse to co-operate iu some useful investigation
be restrained at the beginning to the scenes and events immediately
at hand ? Were these local societies organized for the pursuit of history
in all its branches, civil, political, educational, and religious, as wide as
the world, we might expect there would be such a variet3' of interesting
themes to discuss, that frequent meetings could successfully be main-
tained throughout the year.
Studies iu general history, pursued in local societies, would insure for
those engaged in them the most healthy mental discipline, and educa-
tion of an ennobling nature. The history of man in all relations is
an inexhaustible study, ever fresh, and expanding with civilization. It
should produce a continual enthusiasm in these societies to be studying
in conjunction with their local aims, the relations of the past with the
relations of progress in different nations, to be observing the evidences
of a divine moral order in the world, and the laws which affect the
development of humanity. Our future statesmen, aglow with aspira-
tions for a wise and beneficent government, need to be familiar with the
history of other nations as well as of their own ; to be able to compare
ancient and modern republics ; and linked as we are with the past, to
judge what may be the limits to the maxim that history is philosophy
teaching by example. From historical societies on such an expanded
basis, we might hope there would be produced a generation of legisla-
tors with a scientific faculty to predict consequences; men who, im-
pressed A\ith a sense of the difficulties of enacting wise laws, would
possess the wisdom to confront those difficulties.
To these observations on the question of enlarged plans for local so-
cieties, we venture to subjoin the further inquiry whether most county
and town societies might not, with incalculable advantage, combine
with historical research the study of science, art, and natural history ?
Every locality already has its military, fire, debating, literary, social
or charitable society. It is incredible that there should be so ft^w
simply for the pursuit of knowledge to the acquisition of which all men
are so naturally impelled and in which they manifest so deep an inter-
est. Tlie same motives, which dispose some of the leading minds of a
place to associate for the sake of preserving its history, must be operat-
ing in the minds of others, their neighbors, to desire to acquire and
communicate knowledge in other forms. On the part of those inter-
ested in history it should be regarded as a strong reason for extending
the scope of their society, the consideration that when confined to a
Historical Societies hi the Ujilted States. 323
siugle subject it will depeud for its permanence on the activity of two
or three members. It does not afford a basis sntiicient for the active
co-operation of more than a small portion of the cultivated minds of
the place ; the topics either soon become exhausted as matters of con-
tinual research, or the information is meagre and accumulates slowly,
and the popular interest diminishes. The meetinos cease to be attended
and the society either dies of inanition or languishes while standing
in the way of a new organization on a more comprehensive plan.
It ma}' be urged as an objection that some of our societies have com-
menced with the title of "historical and philosphical,'' and have not
been remarkably successful. Others, however, have tried the plan of
conjoined aims, and congratulate themselves on the result. The Essex
Institute, of Salem, Mass., was formed in 1848 from the uuiou of a county
historical and a county natural history society, and organized on a popu-
lar basis of large membership, having at the present time four hundred
and eight}' members, ^yith the aid of historical and scientific workers
it is prosecuting both branches with an efficiency, as shown by its pub-
lications, which must compel imitation. The Albany Institute, Xew
York, has been perpetuated with varying fortunes for forty-six years,
and has four departments of research, physical science and the arts,
natural history, history, and general literature. It has at no time been
so promising an organization as at the present, when it has been ex-
tended to a membership of two hundred and four. A similar successful
society is the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, England,
founded in 18-46, which has over two Iiundred members, and has i)ub-
lished twenty-eight volumes of its transactions. The subjects treated of
in thes3 conform, in fair proportion of literature, history, and science, to
the name of the society. One motive assigned in its constitution for
organizing the society, " to modify the local tendency to the pursuit of
commerce," is capable of receiving a wider application.
We have purposely alluded to the large membership in these three
societies, because a late scientific writer, speaking of the frequent fail-
ures of the learned societies of the United States, declares that they
have died from "'a constant enlargement of the- range of membership,
and consequent lowering of the tone of the society." ^ And yet we draw
from this same writer the two facts that the membership of the leading
English societies ranges from four hundred to one thousand or several
thousand members, and that the annual tax on each member is from
two to four guineas. We should infer from these facts that, by a large mem-
bership, an abundant income is secured for the purposes of a society, and
that the original papers of the men of science who are joined with them
can be published, and the expense of their investigations provided for.
A large membership secures friends, an audience, an income, and ele-
vates the purposes and aims of all. Some aid by active efforts, some by
pecuniary help, and all by the sympathy of a common purpose. Mem-
' North American Review, October, 1874.
324 PuU'ic Libraries in the United States.
bersliip is not a reward of merit, acquired for achievements in literature
or science, but an encouragement and a stimulus both to the less
learned and to the most learned. It ought not to be difficult to com-
bine the man of research with the intelligent aspirant for knowledge^
who educates himself for similar researches by means of the companion-
ship. To the man of science or invention it must be desirable that he
should have the encouragement of a listening audience, and be brought
in contact with men of varied pursuits, outside of his specialty. It
affords him an opportunity at least to utter his words of scientific truth
before his fellow-citizens. To make an addition to the sum of human
knowledge, or to diffuse and inspire a love of it, may be of equal impor-
tance to humanity.
In suggest>ing this combination of varied objects of pursuit, we are
not, of course, supposing that academies of scientists can be founded
everywhere; but we cannot resist the belief that in most counties and
towns there will be found a sufficient number of men of education, of all
professions, occupations, and opinions, disposed to unite for the mutual
pursuit of history, science, and the arts; and that they will engage in
it, not in a spirit of exclusiveness, but of benevolence, aiming to develop
a love for the most elevated and accurate foruis of knowledge. It should
be easy, in a multitude of places, for associations formed with these
blended purposes, to sustain twice a month, or even weekly, during a
large part of the year, meetings for the purpose of listening to papers,
original or compiled, from members or invited speakers, or for the dis-
cussion of any topic introduced. By some such method as this, local
societies would become schools of thought and learning for the active
members of the community in hundreds of our towns and cities. There
might naturally follow a union of the societies of a State under a gen-
eral society for the publication of such papers as might be deemed
suitable.
The extensive formation of such societies throughout the land, seems
so full of promise and so potent for good, as to justify the establishment
of a national society for the organization of associations for the pursuit
of knowledge. Such a society might initiate efforts which would have
the cordial support of co-workers in every State of the Union. The
original name of our oldest learned society, the American Philosophi-
cal, of which Franklin was the first president, was " The American
Society for Promoting and Propagating Useful Knowledge." The title
is an indication of the expanded and benevolent designs of its founders.
This society had, also, its standing committee on history and commerce.
If the Smithsonian Institution, founded "for the increase and diffusion
of knowledge among men," should be able to incorporate, with its pres-
ent benefactions to science, the support of an agency for encouraging
such societies as have been described, it might be hoped it would not
be a departure from the spirit of its founder. It would be an agency,
by whatever association it should be controlled, for introducing and
Historical Societies in the United States. 325
promoting- a plan for enlisting tens of thousands in the direct study of
aicience, art, and history. Such societies would be the means of educat-
ing many communities to a loving appreciation of scientific investiga-
tions, and of correct views of human history. They would contribute
incalculably to the progress of American society and to the happiness
of millions.
While we dwell with wonder and pleasure on the historic picture of
our national growth during a century, we need to remember that it does
not become us to rest satisfied solely with recording its details. If we
have received a goodly heritage from those who have preceded us, we
■must not only bequeath it unimpaired, but striv^e to add to its value for
the advantage of those who come after us ; and so " hand on the torch
of light," that the future may excel the past in brilliancy.^
IL— GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS RESPECTING HISTORICAL
KESEARCH.
Importance of collkctixg and preserving materials for history — Need of
CULTIVATING a SPIRIT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH — PRIVATE COLLECTORS AND THEIR
BENEFACTIONS TO THE PUBLIC — A HISTORICAL DEPARTMENT IN GENERAL PUBLIC
LIBRARIES.
The functions of the historical library, and its importance and use-
fulness, especially in this country and at this time, constitute the sub-
ject of these few pages. The chief object and purpose of such a library
is the
COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF HISTORICAL MATERIALS.
The greatest difficulty encounterert by the student of history is the
want of contemporary materials. These are of so much greater value
than oral traditions or histories written after the event that they are
the great object of search on the part of one who wishes to get at the
truth concerning the past. The history of the ancient nations of the
East has been almost entirely rewritten since the discovery of the key
to the mysterious languages in which their annals were embalmed.
And whenever it has been possible to confront tradition with contem-
porary documents, the result has been such as to justify the utmost
caution about believing anything as a matter of histor}^ which is un-
supported by indubitable contemporar}' evidence.
But the lack of such evi-dence for almost all history is lamentable.
Within the narrow scope of our own national existence one would hardly
^The Missouri Historical Society, of St. Louis, at its rueetiug on June 17,1875,
adopted resolutious recommending tliat a national historical convention should be held
during the Centennial anniversary of 1876, and that all the historical societies of the
country should participate in it. If such a Convention should be held, it would
certainly be a favorable time to consider all plans which might be proposed to ren-
■der town and county historical societies more permanent and enduring, and among
them the plan suggested in this paper might find a place.
326 Public Lihraries in the United States.
believe, who bad never attempted to find it, bow scanty is the material
avaibible for anytbiu;^ like a detailed, or even a discriminating gen-
eral bistory. Just now tbe Centennial of our independence is call-
ing attention to tbe bistory of one bnndred years ago ; and no fact
connected witb tbat bistory is more striking than tbe dearth of mate-
rials from which it could be constructed. And when we go back to^
colonial times, to tbe settlement of the country, our most interesting
historical period, the case is still worse ; hundreds of matters are now
the subjects of the widest differences and the sharpest disputes which
would be readily elucidated by the production of such contemporary
documents as once existed but have now disappeared.
All writings pass through three stages, which may be called the newy
the old, and tbe antique. In tbe first stage they have a value growing
out of their connection with present interests; in tbe third stage they
have a still greater value as curiosities and relics of the remote
past; in tbe second stage, between these two, they are at their lowest
point of interest and value. This year's almanac serves a present use*
and is valued accordingly ; " last year's almanac " is a synonym for what
its utterly worthless; but an almanac a century old is often worth its
weight in gold. It is in this second stage tbat most books and other docu-
ments drop out of sight and out of existence. There is not virtue enough
in them to carry them through this purgatory-, and they slip into per-
dition. Nor is it only those tbat are without value which are thus
destroyed ; many of tbe most valuable come to an untimely end through
the ignorance and carelessness of those Into whose bands they fall.
And here is indicated one of the chief departments of the work of
tbe historical library, namely, the protection of old documents until
they become antique. It is a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles^
and does not disdain to gather even the bubbles which float on the stream
of current bistory, prizing them as tbe world will one day prize tbe
gems into which they shall be transformed by tbe magic of time. There
are thousands of printed documents of one kind and another which few
persons think of saving, but which, if preserved systematically and ar-
ranged in sets, become valuable for purposes of reference in a very few
years. And this is a kind of work requiring painstaking and patience
rather than tbe expenditure of much money. The breaking up of pri-
vate collections is the great opportunity for the historical library, which
should always be on the alert for such chances. No scrap should be
allowed to go into tbe remorseless jaws of the paper mill which con-
tains anything for which a judicious librarian would give more than the
regular price per pound ; and it is to be lamented if on the division of
an estate books and papers of no special value except to the connoisseur
go into the hands of those who will not protect them from speedy de-
struction.
One hundred years ago there were doubtless many copies of the
Historical Societies in the United States. 327
various writings of Cotton ^[ather and Roger Williams in private bands
in Xew England. They passed into the ownership of men to whom
theological pamphlets were of no interest, and who, therefore, allowed
them to go to destruction, a few copi:}S only having come down to us, in
fragmentary condition, to be among the greatest desiderata of the bibliop-
olist and the historical library. The simple existence in a community of
an historical library will do much to preserve valuable material for
future history from destruction. Many public spirited persons will sac-
rifice what little profit they might derive from the sale of old paper, and
present their pamphlets, etc., to the library ; while many others, receiv-
ing their first intimation of a value in such things, will be careful of them
in their own interest, which is the next best thing to turning them in
for the public good.
But beyond this, each historicil library should have a certain geo-
graphical fiield of operations, within which it should aim to make
thorough work of the collection of historical matter, and it should leave
out nothing which can ever become useful as material for, or illustration
of, the history of that locality. In this respect many of our historical
libraries may be charged with laxity. They either make no pretense tO'
collect materials for the history of to-day, or, if they do attempt it, it is
not done with any thorougliness. They are occupied in collecting,
what ought to have been preserved in previous years, and while they
thus laboriously correct the mistake of those who neglected to preserve
their own annals they are committing the same mistake with reference
to the present. It is the old tendency to build monuments to the mem-
ory of the prophets whom our fathers stoned, while, with equal shortsight-
edness, we stone the prophets of our own day. To be definite, the follow-
ing might be prescribed as some of the lines on which an historical
library should work on its own special field:
First. It should secure a copy of every book or pami)h1et printed in
that field, or vrritten by a resident of it and printed elsewhere.
Second. It should keep a file of every newspaper and periodical
published within those limits of which files are not kept in some other
public library.
Third. It should find room for, and arrange systematically, such
ephemeral productions as playbills, programmes, political posters, elec-
tion notices, and even printed ballots, all of which will some day be of
value as illustrating the public manners of the people.
Fourth. It should secure as many as possible of the private, or at
least semi-private, diaries and letters of deceased persons of prom-
inence within its field ; it being, of course, well understood that such
documents deposited in the library -will not be open to common public
use, but kept under discreet surveillance, and made public only under
such restrictions as are imposed by good taste and strict propriety.
By persistent efforts at collecting on these general principles, and by
conducting the library in such a way as to make its value and utility
o2S Pahllc Libraries in the United States.
popularly uudeistootl, in a few years a collectioa may be made which
will be worth, in money, much more than it has cost, and which will
have a far j^ieater value of a kind that cannot be estimated in dollars
and cents. Supposin<r a collection of this kind had been made in one
of the States of the Union covering a period of twenty-five years at the
close of the last century, what an immense assistance it would now be
to the historian of that period, and especially of that State. And yet
is there any reason to doubt that the history of the times in which we
live will be of equal interest to the historical student of a century
hence? Whatever may be the course of events and the progress of
the race in the centuries to come, no one can doubt that the nine-
teenth century will be always looked back to as an era of rare historical
importance, a formative period; and hence we should endeavor to see
the things of to-day in the light of the ages to come. To do so fully is,
of course, impossible, but we may at least approximate to this concep-
tion of the present, our familiarity with which breeds contempt for
it. Tbe ancient nations, led either by a high sense of the prospective
value of the present, or by a fine form of the instinct of self preserva-
tion, lavished time, labor, and money without stint on the magnificent
memorials they left of their lives, conquests, and heroes. Furnished as
we are with so simple and easy a mode of erecting memorials of our
times through the means of literature, it becomes us to emulate them.
But the historical library renders other services besides the preservation
of materials for history. Prominent among its functions is that of
CULTIVATING A SPIRIT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH.
Nearly all the tendencies of our national and social life are opposed
to such a spirit. The eye of America is fixed on the future. Her atti-
tude is well described in the language of Paul : " Forgetting those
things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which
are before." To the first settlers in the New World the past represented
simply a state of things from which they had escaped, and for which
they had neither regrets nor respectful memories. Their golden age
was emphatically before them, and as they put their hand to the plow
in tlie virgin soil of a new continent, they were not tempted to look
back. Rejoicing in their freedom to devise their own ways, they turned
the leaf in the book of history, and as they inscribed the record of their
conquests on a new page, they scorned to turn back the leaf in searcii
of precedents. What more natural than that they sliould have imbibed
the spirit of iconoclasm, and that that spirit should have descended to
their posterity in even exaggerated proportions.
Probably no people ever drank so deeply of that spirit as we have
done; it has entered into our very being and been manifested in every
department of public and private life. The name "Yankee notions," as
a commercial term, is a tribute to the restless inventiveness which can-
not be satisfied with the old ways of doing things, and constantly pro-
Historical Societies in the United States. 329
duces new, if not always better. Nor is American inventiveness equal
to the task of supplying tbe American demand for novelties. We bave
furnished the best market for those of other lands, Ko other nation
has been so ready and even eager in obedience to tbe dictates of
fashion. Not less characteristic of this feature of the national character
are the demands in literature. Tbe newspaper and tbe novel have been
tbe staple of our reading, and it has required but a small community to
sustain a daily paper and several news stands. The book store inde-
pendent of tbe news stand is much slower in finding room for itself.
And even into the sacred domain of religion, where, if anywhere, should
be found conservatism and the historic spirit, has this craving for
progress and change penetrated.
These are straws on the surface of the current which show its direc-
tion and its speed. They are certainly sufficient to alarm those who
believe that there is safety only in old paths. They are sufticient
to make all thoughtful persons desire to see employed whatever
measures are practicable to check this current and prevent its ex-
cessive flow. The occurrence of tbe Centennial of American indepen-
dence is to be rejoiced in as an influence in this direction. Especially
is it gratifying to see with how much heartiness tbe people generally
are entering into its observance. It will prevent our being cited as a
convincing evidence that republics are ungrateful. But it is to be
feared that, after carrying out this celebration in tbe American way of
doing with all our might whatever we do, we shall drop back into tbe
old forgetfuluess and disregard for tbe past. We need a more thorough
imbuing with the historic spirit than we shall get from such a brief glow
of patriotic ardor. This spirit is needed, in the flrst place, to give
character and stability to our governments, national and local. It is
needed also to counteract the influence of mischievous reformers, so
called, in all departments of social life. Tbe American feeling of inde-
pendence from tbe control of tbe past furnishes an excellent foundation
for most radical and ruinous ideas as to the social relations. Nothing
will do more to show tbe emptiness and tbe danger of such ideas than a
knowledge of history nor to make people cautious about admitting them
than tbe disposition to judge things by their fruits, which is so closely
allied with tbe historic spirit.
Again, this spirit is needed to give to tbe national character more of
strength, symmetry, and fixedness. The American, as he is caricatured
by bis neighbors among tbe nations, is conceited, vacillating, and sor-
did. While we are not likely to ask for the gift of seeing ourselves as
others see us to the extent of accepting these caricatures as true rep-
resentations of tbe American character, to give us more steadiness
of purpose, to make us less eager in the pursuit of material good, and
to inculcate in us that humility which is the secret and the foundation
of true greatness, nothing is better fitted than tbe study of history and
tbe cultivation of historical tastes.
330 PuUlc Libraries in the United States.
It is now time to consider the question, bow does the historical li-
brary operate in the cultivation of such a spirit ' In the first place, by
furnishing material it makes the study of history easy and pleasant,
and thus promotes the increase of historical literature, and of historical
allusions and historical accuracy in all kinds of literature. Again, it
attracts visitors by its exhibit of curiosities, whether in the way of books
or of other objects of interest, and by its whole atmospliere, as well as
by the special interest aroused by the sight of particular objects, tends
to create and develop historical tastes in those visitors. And just
here a few words may properly be said as to the propriety and utility
of a collection of relics in connection with an historical library. There
cm hardly be a doubt, on the one hand, that such a collection will da
much to quicken the interest, especially of young persons, in historical
subjects, nor, on the other hand, that relics are often the means of in-
cuh;ating mistaken notions and doing more harm than good. Historical
curiosities naturally dividethemselves into two classes: first, those which
illustrate the manners and customs of ancient times and extinct races,
and, second, those which have no value beyond tliat imparted to them
by their adventitious connection with some historical event. In the first
class would be included Indian weai)ons and implements, and whatever
articles were used by the people in any walk of life in previous times,
that differ from those now used. In the second class would fall such relics
as a piece of the stone on which John Smith's head was laid when he was
saved by Pocahontas, or a chip from a spar of Paul Jones's tlag-shi p.
Sometimes objects belonging in the first class are made of additional
interest by placing them also in the second ; thu^, an l\\ lian war club
gains greatly by being labeled Powhatan's war club, and a quaint
looking piano of the last century by having belonged in the Wash-
ington family. Tiie two classes are, however, quite distinct, and in view
of the contempt into which relics of the second class have fallen, in the
estimation of most persons of good judgment, a contempt into which
they have well nigh dragged the other class of historical curiosities, it
is not too much to advise that this second class be rejected, with very
few exceptions, from eveiy public collection, and that objects belonging*
to the first class be not given the character of relics of special persons
or particular events without the most absolute certainty as to the truth
of their claims. Purged of the relic element, a collection of historical
curiosities will commend itself to all as of great value in the study of
history, and as a useful if not necessary adjiinct to the historical library.
Xor will the influence of the historical library in cultivating the his-
toric spirit be confined to those who visit it and examine its treasures ;
but it will be extended in some degree to all who see the place and know
of its uses, and to all who even hear of its existence. If the rooms were
never opened to the public, it would still exercise the same influence for
good that is ascribed to statues and monuments in public places, link-
ing the past to the present, and reminding a busy generation that there
Historical Societies in the United States. 331
is sach a thing as history ; aud jast as far as this inaneace goes, it will
be in fav^or of intelligent conservatism in politics, society, and morals.
Nothing has thns far been said of private historical libraries, bat this
is a part of the subject which shouUl not pass unnoticed. The best, uot
the largest, but the most complete, historical libraries in the country
are, or have been, private collections. Indeed, it is doubtful whether this
is not necessarily so, for it is very rarely, if ever, that a man can be
found who will employ those rare faculties and accomplishments that
go to make up a good book collector so assiduously and untiringly on
behalf of a public institution as for his personal gratification. In fact,
the finest scent for historical and literary treasures, and the true genius
for accumulation, are so closelj" allied to a desire for the gratification to
be derived only from personal possession, that it would be contrary to
nature to find them apart from an opportunity for the indulgence of this
desire. Xor need we wish it were otherwise. We may in thoughtless
moments condemn the conduct of the individual collector who competes
successfully with the public library in the gathering of literary treas-
ures, and guards them so jealously when obtained that they seem to be
of no use to himself or any one else. But when we consider that these
treasures are thus at least preserved, that they are likely to be so classi-
fied and arranged as to enhance their value, and that the probabilities
that the collection will finally become a public one are so great as to
amount to a certainty in most cases, we shall be more likely to rejoice
in the efforts of the collector and count him a public benefactor.
The Prince Library, in Boston, which is the finest collection extant ot
Puritan annals, the Peter Force collection of historical publications, in
the Library of Congress at Washington, the library of James Lenox,
of New York, soon to hd acsessible to the public by the munificense of
its owner, and that of the late J. Carter B^own, of Providence, are fine
examples of what can be done by individual enterprise and skill in library
making. There are many instances throughout the country of similar
success in collecting, followed by simiUr results for the public good.
Even when one of these private collections is dispersed, it is generally
the case that the books are better in some respects, such as binding and
the completeness of sets, than when they went into the collection, so that
it can at least be said that there is little danger of any loss to the world
arising from the gratification of the tastes of the collector.
Thus have been briefly indicated a few of the chief points in favor of
historical libraries. Do we not find here sufficient reason why their for-
mation should be encouraged and their use by and influence over the
public increased by way of available means ' Most, if not all, of our
public historical libraries belong to societies, and are the result of the
voluntary efforts of individuals thns associated, not for their own emol-
ument or enjoyment, but for the good of the public and of posterity.
With few, if any, exceptions, these societies admit the public to the use
of their libraries for legitimate purposes, without restrictions beyond
332 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
those employed Iq other public libraries. Hence it would seem proper
for the cities and States interested in these libraries, and profiting by
their existence, to make generous appropriations of funds to aid them
in the purchase of valuable historical matter and to assist in their main-
tenance as public libraries'? Such appropriations have sometimes been
made; they ought to be more common.
A word should also be said in favor of the establishment of an histori-
cal department in general public libraries where no special historical
library exists; not merely a department of geueral history, but one
which shall do for the locality the work described in the former part of
this paper as that of an historical library in its special geographical field.
This department can be conducted in connection with the other depart-
ments of a general library at a slight expense of money and of time;
and no public library which is the only literary centre of a community
ought to neglect it. As has been intimated, the productions of the pen
ure the best memorials. Stately halls and solid monuments of stone
will survive the shocks of but a few centuries. Books come nearer to
immortality than any other production of man's skill or labor.
III.— SKETCHES OF INDIVIDUAL SOCIETIES
In Alabama, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana,
Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota,
Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsyl-
vania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia,
West Virginia, Wisconsin.
The subjoined sketches, compiled from answers to inquiries sent to
the officers of the respective societies, and from printed reports of the
societies, contain specific information, most of which could not be pre-
sented in tabular form.
ALABAMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, TUSCALOOSA, ALA..
This society, organized in 1851, was inactive during the late war, and
has been revived only within the past year. The terms of membership
are election and payment of an entrance fee of $10. There are 50
members. Meetings, with discussions and addresses, are held yearly.
The society has published a few pamphlets on local history, but none
of these are for sale or exchange.
The library contains 250 bound volumes and a small collection of
pamphlets, all of which have been obtained by gift and exchange.
The society has neither building nor funds, and its collections are, for
the present, deposited in the library of the Universit}" of Alabama, at
Tuscaloosa.
Dr. James Guild, president; W. S. Wyman, secretary.
SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA PIONEERS, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.
This society was founded in August, 1850, by the pioneers who arrived
toefore January 1, 1850. The number of members is about 1,300. It has
Historical Societies in the United States. 333
a permauent fund of $250,000 and an annual income of $15,000. James
Lick, of San Francisco, has given about §1,000,000 to the society. The
greater portion of this, however, is in expectancy ; the society being
residuary legatee.
The library, which is free to the public, contains 2,500 volumes per-
taining to the history of the Pacific coast, 1,500 pamphlets, and 1,000
manuscripts. About thirty American and twenty foreign periodicals
are taken 5 also twenty-five daily, ten weekly, twenty monthly, and four
quarterly publications. The specialty of the library is to collect and
preserve all books and manuscripts pertaining to the settlement and
history of the Pacific coast. The society has also a mineralogical cab-
inet.
The society owns the library building, which is fire proof and cost
$25,000. The yearly costof administration is about $3,500. The fiscal
year begins July 7, the anniversary of the raising of the American flag
on the Pacific coast in 1846.
Lewis R. Lull, librarian.
tp:rritorial pioneers of California, san francisco, gal.
This society, organized November 10, 1874, limits its membership to
those citizens who resided in the Territory of California prior to Sep-
tember 9, 1850, the date of its admission into the Union. The terms of
membership are the payment of an entrance fee of $5 and an annual
subscription of $6. The payment of $75 constitutes a life member.
The present number of members is 38G. The meetings for discussions
and addresses are held monthly; regular meetings quarterly.
The first volumesof the society's proceedings are in preparation, and
will be exchanged as soon as published. Papers not in print are : Early
History of the Drama in California, and a paper read before the associa-
tion, by Hon. John C. Birch, on Theodore D. Judah, the man who proved
the practicability of the Pacific Railroad, and the early history of that
enterprise.
The special objects of the soeiety are : First, to compile the early
history of the Pacific coast; second, to form a library for the diffusion of
useful knowledge; third, to form a cabinet of minerals and geological
curiosities ; fourth, to study literary and scientific subjects by means of
lectures, etc.
The library contains 530 volumes, mostly of an historical character^
about one-eighth of which have been purchased, and the remainder
given by members of the association. The library is free to the public.
The society owns no property other than its collections. Its annual
income is nearly $2,000, derived from membership dues.
James M. McDonald, president ; Emory L. AVillard, secretary.
CONNECTICUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY, HARTFORD, CONN.
The society was incorporated in 1825. There has been no recent
enumeration of members. Membership is not limited. Resident mem-
334 Fuhllc Libraries in the United States.
bers pay $3 ou admission, and 82 annual assessment. No payments
are called for from honorary or corresponding- members. The fiscal
year begins in June. Meetings are held monthly, from September to
May, inclusive, but there is no established course for discussions and
addresses.
The publications of the society are Collections of the Connecticut
Historical Society, Vols. I and II; price $2 a volume. Vol. Ill is in
press.
The specialty of the library is American, State, and local history.
The number of bound volumes is about 10,000, obtained by gift, pur-
chase, exchange, and deposit. The number of unbound pamphlets is
about -JO, 000. There are several thousand manuscripts, mainly of revo-
iutionary and ante-revolutionary times, including the manuscripts or
the first and second Governors Trumbull, the Wolcott papers, Silas
Deane's correspondence, and the Wadsworth correspondence. The col-
lection of publications of kindred societies is tolerably large. There is
no printed catalogue, but a manuscript card catalogue, and a manu-
script finding list of printed books.
The printed books in the library are accessible to all members, and,
vit the discretion of the executive committee, to visitors who are not
members. Access to the manuscript collection can be had only by vote
■of the executive committee.
The society has the light of permanent occupancy of a wing of the
Wadsworth Athenaeum, which is nearly fire proof. Besides its collec-
tions it has no property, but has a permanent fund of $9,000, the in-
come from which and from the annual dues of members amounts to
about 81,500 annually. The library is exempt from taxation.
The bibliography of works prolLisi.lby m^mbars of the S3ciety has
not been printed. It comprises several hundred titles.
J. Hammond Trumbull, president; Charles J. Hoadle}', secretary.
AMEllTCAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY, NEW HAVEN, CONN.
The library of the American Oriental Society was founded in 1843,
and is at present kept in the library of Yale College, at New Haven,
but is liable to be removed to any other place that may in future become
the headquarters of the society.
Th3 fiscal year begins in Maj'. The increase in the library during'
the year ending May, 1874, was 75 books and 75 pamphlets, all received
by gift or exchange. The number of volumes is 3,175 ; number of
manuscripts, 130. The specialty of the library is Oriental literature.
It is both a circulating and reference library, and is for the use of mem-
bers of the society, but is also freely opened to scholars desiring- to use
it. There is no printed catalogue, but a manuscript card catalogue,
complete but unarranged.
The librarian is chosen at the annual meeting of the society in Bos-
ton, and is responsible to the board of directors of the society.
Addison Van Name, librarian.
Historical Societies in the United States. 335
NEW HAVEN COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, NP^W HAYEN, CONN.
This society was organized in November, 1862. The number of mem-
bers is 42 ; 24 life and 18 annual. Membership is not limited. The
payment of $50 constitutes a life member, 85 an annual member.
Meetings are held bi-monthly ; and papers are read in the months of
December, January, February, and March.
The only publication of the society is Papers of the New Haven
Colony Historical Society, Vol. I; price S3. For sale at the rooms of
the society.
The object of the society is to collect and preserve whatever objects
of any kind " may be connected with or may illustrate the local history
of the towns included within the ancient Xew Haven Colony.'' Also,
to secure traditions, "encourage historical and antiquarian research,
and disseminate historical information." Tlie number of volumes in the
library is between 400 and 500. No attempt has been made to estab-
lish a library in the prope r sense, and the books and pamphlets in pos-
session of the society have been received by gift and exchange.
The society owns no building and has no property besides its collec-
tions. Its annual income is from $100 to $200, derived from member-
ship fees and a small fund. There is no permanent fund ; the sum of
$1,200 is invested, but may be expended at any time. The collections,
which are free for reference, are kept in the City hall.
Among the works by members of the society are : History of the
Protestant Episcopal Church in Connecticut, two Yolumes, and Life
of Samuel Johnson, first president of Columbia College, b^" Rev. E. E.
Beardsley ; Genesis of the New England Churches, by Rev. Leouard Ba-
con ; sundry volumes of Historical Collections, by Jno. W. Barber ; Life
of Admiral Foote, and other books, by Prof. James M. Hoppin -, The
Holy Land, by S. D. Phelps.
Rev. E. E. Beardsley, president; Rev. "William G. Andrews, secre-
tary.
NEW LONDON COUNTY' HISTORICAL SOCIETY, NEW LONDON, CONN.
This society, incorporated July, 1870, and organized in 1872, has
about 250 members. The payment of $20 constitutes a life member; of
$1 per annum, an annual member. Yearly meetings are held, at which
addresses are delivered.
Besides the library, the society has a museum of historical relics,.
Indian and other aboriginal curiosities. The number of bound volumes
in the library is 200: of unbound pamphlets, 500; of manuscripts, 50.
All of the books have been obtained by gift. There is no catalogue.
The library is free to members and the public.
The society owns no property other than its collections, and its only
income is from membership dues, and contributions.
Hon. L. F. S. Foster, president ; W. H. Starr, secretary.
336 Public Libraries in tlie United States.
DELAWARE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, WILMINGTON, DEL.
The society was organized ia May, 1864, and has about 75 active,
besides life and honorar^^ members. Membership is not limited; the
terms are election and payment of dues. Meetings for discussions and
addresses are held monthly ; there are also special addresses at appointed
times.
The specialty of the library is State history. The number of bound
volumes is 450; of pamphlets, 500, and manuscripts about 100. The
library has no fund, and is msinly dependent upon gifts and exchanges
for its increase. The yearly income is about <$250. The amount paid
ioi books, periodicals, and binding is about $100 a year. The society
owns no property other than its library.
Joseph R. Walter, corresponding secretary.
GEORGIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, SAVANNAH, GA.
This society was organized in December, 1839. The number of mem-
bers is 400. There is no limit to membership. The terms are, payment
of an initiation fee of 85, and of an annual subscription of $5. Meet-
ings are held monthly.
The publications of the society are : Collections of the Georgia
Historical Society, Yols. I, II, and III, price of Vols. II and III,
$3 each; Vol. I is out of print; Wilde's Summer Eose, price $1.50;
and a number of fugitive publications in pamphlet form. There is
also, in pamphlet form. Part 1 of a third volume of collections on the
Indians of Georgia ; but the volume was never completed, and another
one, entitled Vol. Ill, was published in 1873, containing letters of
Oglethorpe and Wright. The price of the part of a volume is $1.
These publications are for sale at the library in Savannah, and are for
exchange on the usual terms.
The number of bound volumes in the library is 9,320; of unbound
pamphlets, 2,073 ; of manuscripts, 100. The department of American
and State history is the most complete. The manuscript collection,
though not large, contains some valuable records. Among these is the
record of the proceedings of the trustees of the colony, and a large
mass of material procured by the State of Georgia, through an agent
sent to England for the purpose, from the public records and state
paper offices in London, and deposited in this library by order of the
legislature. There are also other manuscripts relating to ante-
revolutionary history.
A reading room is connected with the library, and besides a number
of daily papers on tile, the society subscribes to nine weeklies, twenty
monthlies, and nine quarterlies, American and foreign.
Exchanges of the society's publications are made with most of the
kindred societies in the United States and a few foreign.
There is no printed catalogue. About five-sevenths of the collec-
Historical Societies in the United States. 337
tions have been purchased, and two-sevenths received by gift. The
yearly accessions to the library average 600 volumes.
The building occupied by the society was presented to it by Mrs. W.
B. Hodgson and Miss Telfair, and is valued at $50,000. The society
also owns a building originally occupied by the library, valued at $12,000.
Its annual income is $5,000, derived from rents, and dues of members
The library has always been exempt from State tax, and in 1SG8 was
exempted from city tax.
The librarian receives a salary of $1,000, and the treasurer receives
commissions on collections. The annual cost of administration is $1,250.
The average annual expenditure for books is $800; for periodicals, $250;
for binding, $100.
The following works are by members of the society : Historical
Sketch of the Chatham Artillery ; Historical Sketch of Tomo-chi-chi,
]Mico of the Tamacraws; Antiquities of the Southern Indians, particu-
larly the Georgia tribes, all by C. C. Jones, jr. ; Wilde's Summer Rose;
or, the Lament of the Captive, by Anthony Barclay ; Life of George M.
Troup, by Edward J. Harden.
Hon. H. R. .Tackson, president; W. Grayson Maun, corresponding
secretary.
CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY, CHICAGO, ILL.
The library of this society was begun in April, 1856, and before its
destruction in the great fire of 1871 contained 17,000 bound volumes
and 95,000 pamphlets, not includiug duplicates. It had a fund of $17,000,
and owned real estate valued at $50,000. The building was considered
fire proof throughout, but both building and library were entirely de-
stroyed.
The society has lately resumed active operations under very encour-
aging circumstginces. The number of members is about two hundred.
There is a special fund of $27,000, and a general fund of $17,000. The
new collection numbers about 300 bound volumes and as many pam-
phlets.
B. F. Culver, secretary.
INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INDIANAPOLIS, IND.
The society was incorporated in January, 1831. For a number of years
previous to 1873 it remained in a state of inaction. In the month of Octo-
ber of that year a public meeting was held at Indianapolis, for the pur-
pose of re-organizing the society and placing it in a working condition
on a permanent basis. The regular meetings are to be held at Indian-
apolis in January of each year.
The object of the society is to collect materials relating to the natural,
civil, and political history of Indiana. The collection of books is valua-
ble but not large, numbering only about 2,500 volumes.
John B. Dillon, secretary.
22 E
338 Public Libraries in the United States.
IOWA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, IOWA CITY, IOWA.
The society was organized January 30, 1857, and is connected with
the State University. The fiscal year begins January 1. The number
of members is 350, Membership is not limited; the conditions are the
payment of an initiation fee of $3 and an annual subscription of $1.
Meetings for discussions and addresses are held yearly.
The publications of the society are the Annals of Iowa, a quarterly,
begun in 1Sj3. The subscription. is $1 a year; back numbers 51) cents
each. These are exchanged with other historical societies, excepting
the numbers for 1864:, which are out of print.
The specialty of the society is the collection of facts relating to the
early history of Iowa, and of the newspapers of the State.
The number of bound voluuies in the library is 3,773 ; of unbound
pamphlets, 4,531, and of manuscripts, 233. The entire collection has
been rec^eived by gift. The manuscript collection consists mainly
of biographies of eminent persons, now or formerly citizens of Iowa,
of historical narratives relating to the early settlement of the State,
and of military history relating to the late war. The newspaper
collection embraces files of most of the principal weekly newspapers
of the State, from the foundation of the society to the present time.
There is a considerable collection of the publications of kindred socie-
ties.
The society owns no building nor property other than its collections.
Its yearly income is about $520, including a grant of $500 from the
State.
William G. Hammond, president; Frederick Lloyd, corresponding
secretary.
HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY OF 3IAS0N COUNTY, MAYS-
VILLE, KY.
This society was organized April 8, 1875. 3Iembership is not limited.
Members pay a yearly subscription of $2. Meetings are held quarterly.
The object of the society is the "elucrdation of local history and the
cultivation of physical science."
There is as yet no library. In May, 1875, was celebrated the centen-
nial of the settlement of Mason County, and the addresses, letters, and
reminiscences "which that occasion called forth have been preserved
and form really the basis of the historical department. Collections of
Indian antiquities and geological specimens have been begun, and so
far consist entirely of gifts.
John G. Hickman, president; Dr. Thomas E. Pickett, corresponding
secretary.
BANGOR HISTORICAL SOCIETY, BANGOR, ME.
The society was incorporated March 4, 1864. The library, which is
free and used entirely for reference, contains about 50 volumes, 100
Historical Societies in the United States. 339
pamphlets. 100 to 150 manuscripts, and 30 or 40 volumes of newspapers.
The increase is entirely from gifts. The contributions of money average
about $ 25 a year.
Hon. John E. Godfrey, president; Elnathan F. Duren, secretary.
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, BRUNSWICK, ME.
The society was organized in 1822. Its membership is limited to 100,
the present number. Tlie admission fee is $10. Two meetings are hold
each year. At the annual meeting there are public addresses, and at
the winter session papers and discussions.
The publiciitious of the society are: Collections, first and second series,
in one volume ; the first one the Dis'jovery and Documentary His-
tory of Maine. Two volumes of documentary history are in progress,
partly printed, (April, 1875.) A specialty of the society is the collection
of Indian relics and relics of the early history of the country.
The library contains 3,600 bound volumes, 3,600 unbound pamphlets,
over 1,000 manuscripts, and 150 bound volumes of newspapers. W^orks
relating to American history form the larger part of the collection. The
books have been obtained chiefly by gift and exchange. The perma-
nent fund amounts to $10,000, yielding a yearly income of six to seven
hundred dollars.
Eev. A. S. Packard, librarian.
MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, BALTIMORE, MD.^
The society, organized January 27, 1814, places no limit to its mem-
bership, which is now 200. The terms are the payment of $5 per annum.
Meetings are held on the second Monday of each month, except during
July, August, and September.
The publications of the society, so far as known, are : A Brief Account
of the Settlement of EUicott's Mills, by Ev^au T. EUicott, 1805; The
Maryland Historical Society in Memory of George Peabody, 1870; A
Lost Chapter in the History of the Steamboat, J«>hu H. B. Latrobe, 187 L;
The First Steamboat Voyage on the Western Waters, John H. B. La-
trobe, 1871 ; Narrative of a Voyage to Maryland, by Father Andrew
White, S. J., with an Account of the Colony from 1635 to 1677 ; The
Lords Baltimore, John G. Morris, D. D., 1874. Such of these as are
still in print are for sale by the publisher and are exchanged with kin-
dred societies.
The library contains 15,000 bound volumes, about 800 pamphlets, and
544 manuscripts. About 900 volumes relate to American and local
history. The manuscript collection embraces manuscripts of the Mary-
land Proprietary and State papers from 1037 to 1776, contained in 11
portfolios, and other manuscripts not arranged and belonging to this
period; " Gilmor" Maryland papers, covering portions of colonial his-
' Further iuformation respecting this society will be fonucl iu Sketches of the Public
Libraries of Baltimore, in Chapter XXXVIII, Part I, of this report.
340 Public Libraries in the United States.
tory aud coDtaining- many valuable documents concerning the French
war and Mason and Dixon's line ; the Stevens Index to the Maryland
documents in the state paper office, London, from 1626 to 1780 ; the
'•Gist Papers" and the "Purviance Papers," which are replete with
original letters of historical value concerning the revolutionary period.
Among the pamphlets are some, of very early dates in American history,
which are extremely rare. Eight American and four foreign periodi-
cals are taken regularly. The collection of publications of other his-
torical societies in this country is nearly comi)lete. The library is free
to the public. The number of persons using it in the course of the year
is estimated at 500.
The society owns its building and has a permanent fund of $20,000.
Its yearly' income is $2,500, the sum of $1,500 being derived from invest-
ments, and $1,000 from membership dues. The cost of administration
averages $1,500 a year. The librarian receives a salary of $500.
John H. B. Latrobe, president; Kev. E. A. Dalrymple, corresponding
secretary.
BOSTON NUMISMATIC SOCIETY, BOSTON, MASS.
This society was founded in 1860, and has thirty active, besides seven
honorary and thirteen corresponding members. Meetings are held
monthly. The specialty of the society is its cabinet of coins, of wliich
there are 1,000. The library contains about 50 bound volumes and 100
pamphlets. The society publishestheAmerican Journal of Numismatics.
It has a permanent fund of $500, and an annual income of $50.
President, Jeremiah Colburn ; secretary, William S. Applet on.
CONGREGATIONAL LIBRARY, BOSTON, MASS.^
This library was begun in 1853, by the American Congregational As-
sociation, whose object is to maintain in the city of Boston a Congrega-
tional house for the meetings of the body and for the furtherance of its
general purposes; to found and perpetuate a library of books, pam-
phlets, and manuscripts, and a collection of portraits and relics of the
past; and to do whatever else, within the limits of its charter, shall
serve to illustrate Congregational history and promote the interests of
the Congregational churches. The association is composed of members
of orthodox Congregational churches, paying each $1 or more into its
tieasury. Meetings aie held annually in May.
The library contains 22,895 bound volumes, 95,000 pamphlets, and 550
manuscripts, besides 26 bound volumes of manuscripts. The increase
during the^year ending May, 1875, was 4,735 volumes. It is free to the
public as a reference library. The specialty of the library is Congrega-
tional history.
There is no income for library purposes, except for the payment of a
librarian and assistant. The library has no available endowment fund,
'Further iuloruijition respectiug this library will be found in Sketches ot Public
Libraries of Kostou, Chapter XXXVIII, Part II, of this report
Historical Societies in the V tilted States. 541
but owns its building, which has a capacity for 80,000 volumes, and with
the land is valued at $500,000.
Eev. Isaac P. Langworthy, secretary and librarian.
MASSACHUSETTS HISTOEICAL SOCIETY, BOSTON, MASS.^
The society, organized in 1791, and incorporated in 1794, is by its
charter limited to 100 members. TUe present number is 99. Member-
ship is by election, and regular or resident members must be citizens
of the State. The fiscal year begins April 1. Meetings, for discussions
and addresses, are held monthly.
Tlie publications of the society are Collections, in 41 volumes, and
Proceedings, in 10 volumes ; sold at the rooms of the society.
The library numbers 23,000 bound volumes, 45,000 pamphlets, and
1,000 bound folio volumes of manuscripts, rich in colonial and revolu-
tionary papers. The specialty of the society is American history, gen-
eral and local. The collection of publications of kindred societies is
large and complete. The larger proportion of the library has been re-
ceived by gift. The accessions average 500 v^olumes a year. The library
it used both as a reference and circulating library, by members and
scholars. Besides the printed catalogues, dated 1796, 1811, and 1859-'00
there is a manuscript card catalogue, and a catalogue of the pamphlets,
maps, and works of art.
The society owns its building, which is valued at $160,000, has a per-
manent fund of $150,000, and a yearly income of $15,000, derived from
membership dues, interest on funds, and rent of the building.
The librarian is chosen by the society. 2^one of the officers receives
a salary.
Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, LL.D., president; Rev. Chandler Rob-
bins, U.D., corresponding secretary.
NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC-aENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, BOSTON, MASS.^
This society, organized in January, 1845, and incorporated in March
of the same year, has 3.S8 life members and 452 resident members, mak-
ing 840 active members, besides which there are 12 honorary and 305
corresponding members. Membership is by election and is not limited.
The requirements are the payment of an admission fee of $5 and of a
yearly subscription of $3. The payment of $30 constitutes a life mem-
ber. Meetings, with discussions and addresses, are held on the first
Wednesday of each month, July and August excepted.
The publications of the society are: The Is^ew England Historical and
Genealogical Register, 28 volumes, completed, and two quarterly num-
bers of the twenty-ninth volume, issued, at $3 a year; annual addresses
or proceedings since 1862, in pamphlet form, and occasional addresses
and papers before and since ; and a discourse on the twenty-fifth anni-
' Further iut'ormatioa respecting this society will be found in Sketches of Publi«
Libraries of Bjston, Chapter XXXVIII, Part II, of this report.
342 Public Libraries in the United States.
versary of incorporation, by Sev. E. F. Slafter. None of the publica-
tions, except the Register, have been sold. The society can supply the
Register since 1869, with odd numbers since 1865, but has none of the
rest for sale. All of the annual proceedings and other publications are
out of print, except those from 1863 to 1875, inclusive.
A specialty of the society is the collection of historical relics relating
to New England history.
The number of bound volumes in the library is 12,337 ; of pamphlets,
40,414; of manuscripts, about 40,000. The specialties of the library are
local history, biography, and genealogy, which, together, comprise
about two-thirds of the library. The books have, with very few excep-
tions, been received by gift. The collection of the publications of kin-
dred societies in the United States is quite complete. There is no
printed catalogue. The library is almost exclusively for reference, and
is free to all who desire to use it. It is daily consulted by an average
number of 40 persons.
The yearly accessions during the last three years have averaged 4,986
works. The average increase for the last thirty years has been 411 vol-
umes, 1,347 pamphlets, and 1,300 manuscripts each year.
The librarian and assistant librarian receive $L,000 and $312 a year,
respectively.
The society owns the building it occupies, which was purchased by
members for $40,000. It has, also, several funds, as follows: The
Bond fund, $475.87, for the purchase of books ; the Barstow fund, $1,000,
for binding; the Towne fund, $3,595.23, for printing biographies of de-
ceased members; the life fund, $8,247.74, being the money received for
life membership, which is required to be invested; and the librarian's
fund, $11,000, contributed by members for the support of a librarian.
The permanent fund of the society is $76,000, of which the sum of
$50,000 is invested in the building. The annual income is $2,887.42, of
which the sum of $1,323.75 is derived from admission fees and assess-
ment of members, $616.67 from the life membership fund, and $947 from
the librarian's fund.
Such manuscripts and books as cannot be duplicated are kept in a
fire proof vault.
Members of the society have during each year in its history produced
valuable works, but they are too numerous' for a list to be given here.
Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, president; Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, corre-
sponding secretary.
UNIVERSALIST HISTORICAL SOCIETY, COLLEGE HILL, MASS.
This society was organized in 1834. Membership is dependent merely
upon signing the constitution, and the number of members is unknown.
The object of the society is " to collect and preserve facts belonging to
the history and condition of the doctrine of Universalism, together with
books and papers having reference to the same subject." Yearly meet-
ings are held.
Historical Societies in the United States. 343
The library contains about 1,500 volumes, of which number about
three-fourths have been purchased, and the remainder received by gift.
The average yearly increase is about 50 volumes. The collection em-
braces not only works in favor of the Universalist faith, but the more
important ones against it, especially such as are in any way distinguished
as marking a point in the history of Uuiversalism or eliciting any con-
troversy.
The library is free to all. It occupies a part of Tufts College library
room. The income is indefinite, being derived wholly from collections
and gifts.
Prof. Thomas J. Sawyer, secretary.
DEDHAM HISTORICAL SOCIETY, DEDHAM, MASS.
This society, organized in 1859, has 43 members. Membership is by
election, and is not limited. Quarterly meetings are held, at which
there are discussions and occasional reading of papers.
The object of the society is " the collection and preservation of books,
pamphlets, and mementos relating to the earlier history of the New
England colonies, and especially the town of Dedham, and the prepara-
tion of historical papers relating to the early history of the town."
The library contains, 500 volumes, about 300 pamphlets, and 50 manu-
scripts, all of which have been given. The average yearly increase is
about 25 volumes.
The society has no building; the library is kept in the county court
bouse in Dedham. The income is about $50 a year, derived from assess-
ments on members.
H. O.Hildreth, president; Rev. Carlos Slafter, corresponding secre-
tary.
OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, LOWELL, MASS.
This society, organized in November, 1868, admits to its membership
any person who was a resident of Lowell at the time of the organiza-
tion of the city government. May 2, 183(i, or prior to that date, or who
has resided in Lowell twenty-five years and attained the age of forty-
five. The present membership is 200, Meetings are held quarterly.
The society published, in 1874, Contributions of the Old Residents'
Historical Association.
The objects of the society are to "collect, arrange, preserve, and from
time to time publish, any facts relating to the history of the city of
Lowell, 'SiS, also to gather and keep all printed or written documents, as
well as traditional evidence of every description, relating to the city."
The society has no library, but possesses a small collection of pam-
phlets and manuscripts, less than 300 in all, relating entirely to the
Sfistorj of the city since 1824. It has a permanent fund of $.400, and
344 Public Libraries in the United States.
an annual income of $200, derived from members' subscriptions. No
salaries are paid.
Alfred Gilmaii, secretary.
PILGRIM SOCIETY, PLYMOUTH, MASS.
This society, organized in 1820. requires no conditions for member-
ship, except the payment of an entrance fee. The number of mem-
bers is 5.000. Meetings are held twice a year. A specialty of the society
is a cabinet of relics of the pilgrims, 1G20.
The library contains 2,000 bound volumes, 2,000 pamphlets, and 200.
manuscripts, all of which have been donated. The collections are free
to the public.
The society owns its building, valued at $8,000, and a number of
pictures and engravings, besides its other collections. Its permanent
fund is $700, and its annual income $1,200, derived from entrance fees
and assessments on members. jSone of the officers receives a salary.
William T. Davis, president j William S. Dauforth, secretary.
ESSEX INSTITUTE, SALEM, MASS.
The Institute was formed by the union of the Essex Historical Society
(incorporated 1821) and the Essex County Natural History Society, (in-
corporated 1830,) and was organized under a charter granted in 1848.
The number of members is not limited, and is at present 480. The
membership fee is $3 a year. The tiscal year begins on the second
Wednesday in May. Regular meetings, with discussions and addresses,
are held on the first and third Mondays of each month ; besides, there
are field and other special meetit)gs. The publications of the society are
Historical Collections of Essex Institute, 11 volumes, $3 a volume ;
and Bulletin of Essex Institute, $L a yearj for sale at the rooms of
the society.
The specialty of the society is collecting materials to illustrate the
history of Essex County. Tlie library contains 30,655 volumes, 105,408
pamphlets, and 100 bound volumes of manuscripts, besides a sufficient
number unbound to make about 100 volumes more. There are also
about 120 log books. Besides its historical collection, the society has a
musical library and a museum containing a large number of antiquar-
ian and historical relics, paintijigs, engravings, etc., and an extensive
scieutitic collection. All have been obtained by gift and exchange^
The collection of publications of kindred societies in the United States
is nearly if not quite complete. There is no printed catalogue, but card
and box catalogues in manuscript. The library is chiefly for reference,
but has a small circulation. It is free to members and students.
The society owns a small building reconstructed from the first meet-
ing house of 1634, and has invested funds amounting to $10,000. The
yearly income is $2,500. None of the officers receives a salary.
Henry Wheatland, president ^ A. S. Packard, jr., and George M.
Whipple, secretaries.
Historical Societies in the United States. 345
AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, WORCESTER, MASS.
This sooiety, orgauized in 1812, limits its Americau membership to
140, but does not limit the number of foreign members. Members must
be nominated by the council and elected by the society. The present
number is 140. The fiscal year begins October 22. Two meetings are
held annually : one at Boston in April, the other at Worcester in Octo-
ber.
The publications of the society are ArchaBologia Americana,^ Vol. I,
'The American Antiquariaa Society has devoted the rtftb and sixth volumes of its
Archaeologia to a repnblicatiou of the History of Printing in America, by Isaiah Thopias,
LL. D., its first president and promineut founder.
The original work came from the press in 1810. Mr. Thomas, some years later, formed
the design of issuing a new edition, f(vr which he gradually made preparation in an
interleaved copy. Thus many corrections and additions, and also some curtailments
and some changes of position, were provided for. It was a favorite purpose with him
to attach to the new edition as complete a list as practicable of publications prior to
1776 in what is now the United States ; and he bestowed a good deal o^ labor on the
collection of titles, which he desired to arrange under the names of their printers or
publishers.
As Mr. Thomas never found time to complete his revised copy for the press, he left
his materials to the American Antiquarian Society to be used at its discretion. And
now the work of republication has been carried out, preserving, so far as it could well
be done under a change of times and circumstances, the identity of the author's plan
and method of execution.
Two important changes, however, have been made : First, in omitting his preliminary
account of the beginning and progress of the art of printing in Ihe Old World ; second,
in arranging the titles of American publications prior to the Eevolution chronologi-
cally instead of under the names jjf printers or publishers.
The account of printing in the Old World was regarded as requiring too much modi-
fication and enlargement, in order to adapt it to the present state of information on
that subject, and as not essential to the special purpose of presenting a history of the
art in this country. It was also decided that a chronological arrangement of the list
of publications would render that portion of the work more convenient and useful for
general reference, and also cause it to serve as an exposition of the character and
condition of American literature at each particular period, at the same time denoting
clearly its changes and progress. These points are desiderata which ordiuarj^ cata-
logues do not provide for; and the historical inquirer who wishes to know what was
written and printed at a particular time, and what were then the subjects of public
interest and discussion, has heretofore had no such ready source of information as a
list of contemporary publications will supply.
The reduction of titles gathered from miscellaneous sources, and but partially
susceptible of being verified by collation, to a consistent and trustworthy cata-
logue that should not swell the size of the second volume beyond reasonable propor-
tions as compared with the first, has been the cause of much delay. The revision and
extension of the list had been undertaken by S. F. Haven, jr., M.D., and was carried
forward by him assiduously till the breaking out of the late war, when he entered the
Army as surgeon, and lost his life at the battle of Fredericksburgh. Since the purpose
"of publication was resumed, the task has fallen upon the chairman of the committee
having charge of the printing.
With such a mass of material, much of which had never before been catalogued in
any regular way, if at all, errors and omissions must be expected to occur ; but it may
be claimed that the foundation has been laid of a work which it will be comparativelj-
easy to mature and complete.
If all persona who are cognizant of publications that have been omitted will send.
346 Public Libraries in the United States.
] 320, $3.50 ; Vol. II, 1836, $9 ; Vol. Ill, 1857, $4 ; Vol. IV, 1860, $3 50 ;
Vol. V, 1874, $4 ; Vol. VI, 1875, $4; aud Proceedings of the society from
iisovember, ]813, to date ; for sale at the rooms of the society, with the
exception of the Proceedings for October, 1814, August, 1820, and
August, 1831, which are out of. print.
The society has, besides its library, collections of Indian implements,
revolutionary and ante revolutionary relics, coins, paper money, etc.
The number of bound volumes in the library is 60,497. It is especi-
ally rich in American history, including local and personal history, and
early newspapers. The manuscript collection is large aud varied. The
Mather and Bentley manuscripts are the most notable. The collection
of periodicals embraces many early American periodicals and some early
foreign ones, with considerable modern magazine literature, and a large
number of ephemera. The yearly accessions to the library for the last
five years have averaged 1,500 books and 6,700 pamphlets. No printed
catalogue has been issued since 1837. There is, besides this, an office
catalogue, interleaved'. The library is free to the public for reference,-
but books can be taken from it only by special permission of the council.
The society owns a building worth from $25,000 to $30,000, and has
seven funds for specified purposes, amounting in the aggregate to
$80,303.20, and yielding a yearly income of $5,800.
S. F. Haven, librarian.
HOUGHTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND MINING INSTITUTE,
HOUGHTON, MICH.
This society, organized in March, 1866, has for its object " to procure
and preserve whatever may relate to general history, but more especially
a nieraoiandnin of thoin to the society, such deficiency may be supplied by the addition
of supiilemeutary pases.
The unexpected size of the catalogue, even after compression and the adoption of a
smaller type, has caused the two volumes to be unequal in size, though not more
unequal than is often the case with other publications.
The text of Vol. I is preceded by a memoir of the author, prepared by his grandson,
Hon. Benjamin Franklin Thomas; and brief notices of printing in Spanish, French, Dutch,
and Portuguese America come before the principal subject of the work— the history
of printing in English America, now the United States. A brief reference to the intro-
duction of the art in Nova Scotia and Canada is placed at the end. The appendix con-
tains a paper on printing in Mexico and Peru by Hon. John R. Bartlett, of Rhode
Island, and some collateral matters of interest that could not suitably be inserted iu
the body of the book. The number of pages iu this volume is 510.
In Vol. II the first portion (pp. 1-204) is devoted to a history of newspapers and
other periodicals, and is followed by a biographical list of booksellers in the colonies,
from the first settlement of the country to the commencement of the revolutionary
■war. The appendix includes a variety of notes, and a list of magazines and news-
papers published in 1810, when the original edition was issued, which Mr. Thomas
says he prepared with much care and labor. The catalogue of ante-revolutionary
publications and the index complete the volume, making 666 pages of text and 48
pages of index, or 204 more than Vol. I. The work is published iu two forms:
fii-st, as Archteologia, Vols. V aud VI ; second, as History of Printing iu America,
Vols. I aud II.— S. F. H.
Historical Societies in the United States. 347
to the natural, literary, and ecclesiastical history of the counties, towns,
villaofes, mines, and mining companies on and contiguous to Lake Supe-
rior." Membership is not limited, and the only requirements are election
and payment of $5. The present number of membersis forty-five. Meet-
ings, for discussions and addresses, are held monthly from November to
May. A specialty of the society is to collect specimens of minerals and
procure all evidences of ancient mining in the surrounding region.
The number of bound volumes in the library is 1,26(3 ; of pamphlets,
33l»; of manuscripts, 35; all of which have been obtained by gift. The
manuscript collection consists principally of papers read at the society's
meetings.
The society owns no property, other than its collections. None of the
officers receives a salary.
ii. Shelden, president; James B. Sturgis, corresponding secretary.
MICHIGAN STATE FIONEEB SOCIETY,^ LANSING, MICH.
This society organized in April, 1874; has 236 members. There is no
limit to membership, and the only requisite is the payment of $L a >ear.
There is one annual meeting, on the first Wednesday in February.
The specialty of the society is State and local history, and biography.
It is entirely dependent on contributions for the increase of its library,
which consists at present of 2 bound volumes, 26 pamphlets, and 91
manuscripts. By grant of the State legislature the society has an in-
come of $500 a year for the years 1875 and 1876 ; beyond this its income
is derived solely from dues of members. The collections are now by law
deposited in the State library, in care of the State librarian, but are to
be transferred to rooms in the State capitol, when that building is fin-
ished.
Oliver C Comstock, president ; Ephraim Longyear, corresponding
secretary.
MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ST. PAUL, MINN.
This society, organized November 15, 1849, admits any respectable
resident of Minnesota to membership on payment of $25. There are at
present 180 active, 53 corresponding, and 25 honorary members, making
a total of 258. Regular meetings are held monthly, and occasionally
special meetings are called for the delivery of addresses or the reading
of papers.
The publications of the society are two volumes of Collections, and
two parts of a third volume relating to the history of Minnesota, which
may be obtained by exchange.
The objects of the society are to collect and preserve material relat-
ing to the history, antiquities, and statistics of Minnesota, the North-
west, and, generally, of America ; to rescue from oblivion the memory of
' Couuty pioD'^er societies have been organized ia many couuties in the State, thir-
teen of the naost important of which have become tributary to the State society. —
Editors.
348 Public Libraries in the United States.
its early pioneers, and to obtain and preserve narratives of their exploits,
perils, and liardy adventures ; to preserve memorials of its Indian tribes,
their customs, religion, and history, and to publish, from time to time,
the result of its efforts in collecting historical information concerning
Minnesota.
The library contains 6,411 bound volumes, 9,372 pamphlets, and sev-
eral hundred manuscripts; nearly all of which have been obtained by
gift. For the past ten years there has been an average yearly increase
of 233 bound volumes. The specialty of the library is Minnesota history.
The collection in this department is claimed to be " absolutely com-
plete," containing." every work bearing directly or indirectly on what is
now Minnesota." The manuscript collection relates wholly to Minnesota
and the Northwest. The most valuable portion consists of the journals,
diaries, and letter books of traders and Array officers, bslouging to a
period many years before the territory was organized. The collection
of publications of kindred American societies is quite full. There is no
printed catalogue. The library is only for reference, and is free to all.
The society has no building, but owns two lots worth $15,000, on
which it is proposed, ac some future day, to build. It has a permanent
fund of $1,200 and an annual income of $2,500, derived from a State
grant. The only salary paid is $1,500 to the librarian. The library and
collection of pictures, Indian curiosities, etc., are kept in rooms furnished
by the State in the capitol. Tiie building is considered fire proof, and
the society has also a large fire proof vault for tbe protection of works
of especial rarity and value.
Eobert O. Sweeny, president; J. F. Williams, secretary and librarian.
MISSOURI HISTORICAL SOCIE^TY, ST. LOUIS, MO.
This society, organized in 1868, has 200 members. The terms of mem-
bership are the payment $5 initiation fee and $5 yearly dues. Meetings
for discussions and addresses are held monthly.
The objects of the society are: the establishment of a library and a
cabinet of antiquities, relics, etc. ; the collection of manuscrii)ts and
papers possessing historical value; to provide for the complete and
scientific exploration and survey of such aboriginal monuments as exist
within the limits of the State and the Mississippi Valley ; and, in par-
ticular, to collect and preserve sucli historical materials as shall serve
to illustrate the settlement and growth of the city of St. Louis, State of
Missouri, and Mississippi Valley.
The number of bound v^olumes in the library is 150; of pamphlets,
200; of manuscripts, about 50. The collection is free to the public for
reference.
The society has no building, but owns a lot valued at $10,000. The
annual income is about $1,000, derived from initiation feL^s and member-
ship dues.
John B. Johnson, M. D., president; W. H. H, Russell, corresponding
secretary.
Historical Societies in the United States. 349
NEW HAMPSHIRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, CONCORD, N. H.
This society was oroanized in 1S22, and has 144 resident active mem-
bers. Membership is not limited. The terms are, election and pay-
ment of an initiation fee of $5, and of such annual tax as may be levied,
not exceeding $3. The fiscal year begins the third Wednesday in June.
The regular meetings of the society are held quarterly, at which histori-
cal papers are usually read ; and an address is delivered annually.
The publications of the society are: Collections, 8 volumes; for sale
at $2 and $2.50 each, except, three volumes now out of print. The so-
ciety has also seven volumes of Provincial Papers of New Hampshire,
published by the State and given to the society for sale ; price, $5 a
volume.
The specialty of the library is the history of New Hampshire. The
number of bound volumes is about 5,000. No enumeration has been made
of pamphlets and manuscripts. The correspondence and other manu-
scripts of Daniel Webster have recently been given to the society,
and are deposited in its library. The collection includes most of the
publications of other historical societies. Nearly all the books have
been received by gift. The library is dependent for its increase on gifts
and exchanges. The yearly accessions average 300 volumes and 500
pamphlets. There is uo printed catalogue. The library is free to the
public.
The society has a permanent fund of $1,889, and owns a building
valued at $5,000. The income of the society is about $300 a year, de.
rived from interest on permanent fund and assessments on members.
None of the officers receives a salary.
Hon. Charles H. Bell, president; Nathaniel Bouton, D. D., corre-
sponding secretary.
NEW HAMPSHIRE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, CONTOOCOOK, N. H.
This society was organized November 19, 1873, and has 34 members.
The conditions of membership are election by unanimous vote and pay-
ment of $4 a year. Meetings are held quarterly.
The publications of the society are : Who invented the American
Steamboat? by W. A. Mowry ; 8°, pp. 28; and An Exposition of
the Philomathic Club, organized at Hopkinton, N. H., November 19,
1859, with a catalogue of the curious and antique articles in its posses-
sion, by Rev. Silas Ketchum; 8°, pp. 388. These are for sale by the
society, and are also for exchange. Publications of the society not in
print, are: Historical Collections of the New Hampshire Antiquarian
Society, prepared and compiled under the direction of the Historical
Committee ; Vols. I and II, (one such volume is prepared each year,)
and one volume of Scrap Collections, historical and biographical.
Besides its library, the society makes a specialty of collections, which
number as follows : 1. All implements and manufactures which illustrate
350 Public Libraries in the United States.
earlier periods, 550 ; 2. Implements and antiquities of the North Ameri-
can Indians, 166 5 3. Coins, ancient and modern, foreign and domestic,
657; 4. Geology, mineralogy, and metallurgy, 1,500; 5. Natural history,
1,226 ; 6. Foreign curiosities, 328.
The specialty of the library is books and pamphlets printed in, or re-
lating to, New Hampshire, and by New Hampshire authors, and of these
there are 806. The library contains, altogether, 2,028 bound volumes,
4,300 pamphlets, 1,512 manuscripts, and 6,696 newspapers. The
pamphlets and newspapers are from all parts of the world, and are in
twenty-five dittereut langnages. The manuscript collection comprises
historical papers dating from 1692 to 1820, of which there are 500 ; the re-
mainder comprises addresses, sermons, literary papers, old account
books, etc. The books and other collections have been acquired prin-
cipally by gift. The library is free to the public for reference.
The society owns no building and has no permanent fund. Its yearly
income is $346, besides gifts. None of the officers receives a salary.
Darwin C. Blanchard, president ; Rev. Silas Ketchum, secretary ; H.
A. Fellows, curator and librarian.
NASHUA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, NASHUA, N. H.
This society, organized in 1870, has 61 members. The terms of mem-
bership are election and payment of $3. Business meetings are held
once in three months; meetings for addresses and reading of papers,
on the second Monday of each month.
Besides its library, the society has a cabinet of minerals and a col-
lection of historical relics of local interest. The library contains
between 100 and 200 bound volumes, 25 pamphlets, and 25 manuscripts.
Nearly all of the books have been given, also the collections with the
exception of three cabinets of minerals, which were purchased. The
library is free to the public for reference.
The society owns no property. Its annual income is about $100,
derived from assessments of n»embers. There are also occasional gifts.
No salaries are paid.
O. C. Moore, president-; Henry B. Atherton, corresponding secretary.
NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, NEWARK, N. J.
This society, organized in February, 1845, has 519 members. The
conditions of membership are election and, for resident members, the
payment of $5 admission fee and $3 a year. Life membership may be
secured at any time after admission by the payment of $25. Regular
meetings for discussions and addresses are held in January and May.
The fiscal year begins January 1.
The publications of the society are: Collections, Vol. I, $4; Vol. II,
$1 ; Vol. Ill, $1.50 ; Vol. TV, $2; Vol. V, $2.50; Vol. VI, $2, and supple-
ment thereto, $1.50; and the Proceedings of the Society in 13 volumes,
$1.50 each. These are for sale in Newark, and are exchanged with other
societies and with individuals. Be.sides its library, the society has a
Historical Societies in the United States. 351
cabinet of articles more or less rare and curious, relating to historical
events and persona j?es.
The library contains 6,100 bound volumes, 5,200 pamphlets, and 2,500
manuscripts. Its specialty is New Jersey history; and about GOO vol-
umes, nearly all the manuscripts, and 200 bound volumes of newspapers
refer directly to this. Its list of publications of other historical societies
in the United States is quite complete. The books and other collections
have, with a few exceptions, been received by gift. The yearly accessions
average about 20;) books aud 250 pamphlets. The library is free to the
public for reference.
The society has no building, but owns a lot selected for building
worth $10,000, and invested funds, m iking altogether a permanent fund
of $12,000. Tlie yearly income is $1,900, derived from membership dues
and sales of publications.
Flenry W. Green, president; W. A. Whitehead, corresponding secre-
tary.
PASSAIC COUNT ¥ HISTORICAL SOCIETY, PATERSON, N. J.
This society was organized in 1867, aud has 50 members. The only
condition of membership is the payment of $1 initiation fee for men,
and 50 cents for women, and the same for yearly dues. Meetings for
discussions and addresses are held monthly.
The library comprises 300 bound volumes, 100 pamphlets, and 5
manuscripts, all of which have been given. No additions have been
made for the last two years. The catalogue is in manuscript. The
library is free to the public for reference.
The annual income of the society is about $25. No efforts are made
to collect dues of members.
The works produced by members of the society are Historical and
Statistical Memoranda, relating to Passaic County, N. J., and Roads
and Bridges in Passaic County, N. J., both by William Nelson, libra-
rian of the society. Of the first, only 20 copies were published ; of the
second, only 100 copies.
John J. Brown, })resident; Henry Waters, secretary.
VINELAND HISTORICAL AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, VINELAND, N. J.
Organized in 1864; has 50 members. The oul}^ requirement for mem-
bership is the payment of $L initiation fee. Meetings for discussions
and addresses are held monthly.
The library contains 200 bound volumes, 40 pamphlets, and 25 man-
uscripts, all donations. The manuscript collection consists of essays,
relating to the early history and geological formations of South Jersey
Besides its library the society has collections of local curiosities aud geo-
logical specimens, all of which have been given.
The society owns a small building, the first one built at Vineland,
valued at $100, and two village lots worth $500. The income is varia-
ble, being derived entirely from gifts.
David W. Allen, corresponding secretary.
352 Public Libraries in the United States.
ALBANY INSTITUTE, ALBANY, N. Y.
The library of the Albany Institute was founded in 1793 by the So-
ciety for tjhe Promotion of Agriculture, Arts, and Manufactures. The
institute itself was organized in 1824, and incorporated in 1829. The
conditions of raeuibership are election and for resident members the
payment of |5 per annum. The number of members is 204. Meetings
are held semi-monthly during nine months of the year. Addresses are
made and papers read at each regular meeting.
The publications of the society are : Transactions, 7 volumes, $2.50
a volume, and one volume of Proceedings. But few complete sets
remain in the hands of the institute; some of the volumes may, how-
ever, be had by exchange.
In addition to its library, the society has collections in natural his-
tory, which were formerly of considerable value, but are now over-
shadowed by the neighboring State Museum of Natural History; also
a collection of specimens of woolen cloths manufactured early in the
present century.
The library contains 6,000 bound volumes, 600 volumes of pamphlets,
and a few manuscripts. The specialty of the library is local American
history. The collection in this department includes the De Witt
Clinton newspaper files, 48 volumes. The collection of publications
of kindred societies embraces not only those of American but of
some of the principal societies of Europe. The books and other collec-
tions have been obtained principally by gift. The accessions to the
library average about 50 volumes a year. A printed catalogue was
issued in 1855 ; alphabetical, authors and subjects in the same alphabet,
with a brief classed catalogue as supplement. There is a manuscript
catalogue of the pamphlets, maps, etc. The collections are open to
members of the institute, who may draw books at pleasure.
The society owns neither building nor property. Its yearly income
is about $1,000, derived from membership dues. The only salary paid
is to the librarian, $200. No special precautions are taken to preserve
the collections from fire.
Numerous works have been produced by members of the society.
Among them are Joel Munsell's Annals of Albany, 10 volumes, 12", and
Historical Collections, 3 volumes, large S", Beck's Medical Jurispru-
dence, and other works. Want of space forbids an extended list.
J. V. L. Pruyn, LL. D., president; Leonard Kip, corresponding sec-
retary.
CAYUGA COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, AUBURN, N. Y.
This society, organized March, 1876, has a vice-president in each
town in the county. Persons may become members of the society by
paying $1 admission fee.
Charles Hawley, president ; B. B. Snow, secretary.
Historical Societies hi tlie United States. 353
LONG ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, BROOKLYN, N. Y.
This society, iacorporated April, 18G3, has for its objects : 1. The
collection of a general library of reference, especially complete in every-
thing which relates to American history ; composed in part, also, of
extensive and finely illustrated works of a class not embraced in circu-
lating libraries, or usually found in private collections. 2. The collec-
tion and publication of manuscripts and original matter not before
printed upon the history of this country. 3. The collection of histor-
ical paintings and engravings, relics and memorials. 4. The formation
of a museum of natural history, illustrating the fauna and flora of Long
Island.
The membership is about 1,100; one-third being life members and
the remainder members by annual subscription. The conditions of
membership are i)ayment of $5 initiation fee and $5 annual dues; and
for a life membership $50, including fee and annual dues. The general
meetings of the society are held on the second and fourth Tuesday
evenings of the mouth, from November to May, when papers of a his-
torical, literary, or scientific character are i)reseuted. Two committees
have recently been a{)poiuted — one to be called the archaeological and
numismatic committee, the other the historical and geographical com-
mittee— and it is proposed to hold regular meetings of each, for the
discussion of approi>riate topics. There is also a committee on fine arts
and one on natural history. The latter holds monthly meetings, at
which approi)riate papers are read.
The society possesses a number of paintings, mostly portraits of his-
torical personages, many interesting relics and memorials, and a col-
lection of coins, several hundred in number, some of them rare and of
much value. The museum of natural history contains classified speci-
mens representing the natural history of Long Island; and it is in-
tended to make this complete as a local collection.
The library contains 20,000 bound volumes, 25,000 pamphlets, and a
large collection of manuscripts, not enumerated, among which are the
Laurens Papers, 5 folio volumes, containing the correspondence of Henry
Laurens, president of the Continental Congress, and other eminent men
of the period ; 123 original letters of Washington, never yet printed; a
collection of Dutch manuscripts of the time of Stuyvesant; and papers
relating to Long Island, New York City, and vicinity, from the period
of the Dutch government to the present time. The library is especially
strong in American local history and family genealogy. The other his-
torical departments, especially of French and English history and biog-
raphy, are well furnished, and constant additions are being made by
purchase and gift. A department of works relating to Egypt, the Holy
Land, and Greece, has been founded by two ladies; and a department
of American biography by another. There is also a medical depart-
ment, established by members of the King's County Medical Society, to
which was added in 1869 the entire library of an eminent Brooklyn
physician, lately deceased.
23 E
354 Public Libraries in the United States.
One biiiidred and fifty quarterly, monthly, and weekly periodicals and
the prin( ipal daily newspapers are regularly received.
A separate room is provided for ladies, but all the rooms are open to
them.
It IS a plan of the society to publish valuable original manuscripts as
they come into its hands, and as it becomes possessed of the necessary
tiinds. It has published two volumes, as follows: Journal of a Voyage
to l!few York, and a Tour in Several of the American Colonies, in l()79-
'80, by Jasper Bankers and Peter Shiyter, translated from a Dutch
manuscript in the society's collection, octavo, pp. xlvii, 440 ; and The
Battle of Long Island, with Connected Preceding Events, and the subse-
quent American Retreat; narrative by Thomas W. Field, with authentic
documents; octavo, pp. ix, 550.
The society now occui)ies rented rooms, but owns a valuable lot, on
which it purposes to build a large and handsome building as soon as
the necessary funds can be secured, and ibr this purpose a committee
has recently been ap[)ointed. The society has a permanent library fund
of $54,000, and a yearly income of $10,000, derived from interest on in-
vestments and dues of members.
President, Richard S. Storrs, D. D.; corresponding secretaries, (home)
T. Stafibrd Drowue; (foreign) J. Carson Brevoort.
BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY, BUFFALO, N. Y.
The special object of this society, which was organized in 1862, is to
" procure and preserve historical material relating to Western New York
and its inhabitants, whites and Indians, from the earliest period." The
number of members is 746. The terms of membership are, for resident
members the payment of $5 annually ; for life members, payment of $50.
Regular meetings are held monthly, and additional historical club meet-
ings every two weeks during the winter. At all the meetings addresses
are delivered or papers read. The fiscal year begins January 1. There
are committees on statistics, local history, and Indian reminiscences.
The society has published nothing as a society; but papers contrib-
uted by its members have been in some instances published in pam-
phlet form. These may be obtained in exchange from the society.
The library contains 4,058 volumes, 4,430 pamj)hlets, and 130 mauu-
scripts. Its specialty is local and Indian history. The manuscript
collection embraces the records, journals, and correspondence of the
Holland Company, biographical sketches, letters and journals of early
settlers, city records, etc. There is no printed catalogue, but manu-
script catalogues, full and complete, of the books, pamphlets, manu-
scripts, relics, and curiosities. The accessions" to the library average 470
volumes a year. Nine-tenths of all the collections have been given.
The library is free to the public for reference, daily, Sundays excepted.
The society owns no building, but has a permanent fund of $5,784,
aud an annual income of $1,500, denved from membership dues and iu-
Historical Societies in the United States. 355
terest on fund. It is exempt from taxation by the law of the State.
Tlie onl}- salary paid is to the librarian, 8600. The building occupied
by the society is completely tire proof.
James Sheldon, president; George S. Armstrong, corresponding sec-
retary and librarian.
AMERICAN ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY, NEW YORK, N. Y.
The society was organized November 19, 1842, by Hon. Albert Gal-
latin and a few other gentlemen. The present number of members is 100.
Resident members pay on election an initiation fee of $5 and the same
amount as annual dues. Meetings are not held at stated periods, but
are called as papers are prepared. There are ten special committees of
five members each, viz : On North America; on Central and South
America; on Northern and Middle Europe; on Southern Europe; on
Asia and the East; on Africa; on philology; on the American Indians:
on stone, earthen, and metallic relics, etc. ; on books, pamphlets, etc.
The society has published Transactions ot the American Ethnolog-
ical Society, 2 volumes, 1845 and 1848, $4 per volume, which can be
had on application to the treasurer of the society. Part 1 of Volume
III of the Transactions was printed, but nearly all the copies were
destroyed by tire, and it has not been reprinted. The society has
printed bulletins at intervals. Arrangements had been made forthe pub-
licatioL of the Squier and Davis materials, but these were relinquished
to the Smithsonian Institution, and became No. 1 of its quiirto series.
Since then most of the ethnological publications have been printed by
the Smithsonian Institution, by Congress, or by book publishers tor the
respective writers.
The library consists of 1,000 bound volumes and pamphlets and a few
manuscripts. Most of the books are in the library of the New York
Historical Society, where an alcove is to be set apart for them. The
manuscripts consist of papers relating to ethnology, vocabularies, etc.,
including •' Vocabulario en lengua Cacchiquel, de Villacana," in 1692,
which has a preface entitled "Arte de lengua Cacchiquel," etc. The
collection of publications of kindred societies includes some of the pub-
lications of the Smithsonian Institution, the Antiquarian Society, the
Philosophical Society, the Koyal Geographical Society, the Asiatic So-
cietyj and the Geographical Society of Brazil. Most of the books have
been obtained by gift and exchange. In Volume II of the Transactions,
published in 1848, is a short list of books then belonging to the society,
but no regular printed catalogue has been issued, 'fhe library is solely
for reference, and is accessible only to members and students of ethnology.
There is also a cabinet of Indian relics.
The society has no funds except §50, known as " the Alofsen fund."
Its annual income covers current expenses only.
The list of works produced by members of the society is too long for
insertion, including the writings of Humboldt, Agassiz, Lepsius, Pres-
356 Public Libraries in the United States.
cott, Ticknor, Bancroft, Dr. Francis Lieber, Du Cbaillu, Cardinal Wise-
man, Schoolcraft, Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, and many other eminent
authors.
Alexander J. Cotheal, president and treasurer; Piof. Charles Kau,
corresponding secretary.
AMERICAN GEOaRAPHICAL SOCIETY,' NEW YOEK, N. Y.
The library of this society contains over 10,000 bound vcluraes relat-
ing to its special field, about 4,000 pamphlets, 3,000 maps and charts of
all countries, and about 1,000 manuscripts, consisting mainly of ad-
dresses and reports. The library has been collected and purchased from
time to time since the organization of the society by its various officers.
The accessions average 1,000 a year. There is as yet no catalogue.
The library is used only by members, of whom there are 1,800.
The income of the society, derived solely from dues and life member-
ships, varies from $10,000 upwards, and is all expended in the practical
working of the society.
Alvau S. Southworth, secretary.
AMERICAN NUMISMATIC AND ARCH^OLOGICAL SOCIETY, NEW YORK,
N. Y.
A few gentlemen of New York City, interested in the study of coins
and antiquities, founded this society in 1857. The number of members
is now 100. The terms of membership are payment of $5 initiation
fee and $5 annual dues ; or for a life member, |30. The number of hon-
orary members is limited to 50. Kegular meetings are held on the third
Tuesday of November, January, March, and May in each year.
The American Journal of Numismatics, now in its tenth volume, pub-
lished by this society for four years, has been transferred to the Numis-
matic Society of Boston, Mass.
The library, which is for the use of members only, contains about
l,t)00 books and pamphlets, of which there is, as yet, no catalogue; but
one is in preparation. The cabinet contains from 4,500 to 5,000 coins
and medals. There are specimens of nearly all the ancient coins, except
the Hebraic; and-^ there is a fair representation of Oriental, mediaeval,
and modern coins; also of American coins of the colonial and revolu-
tionary periods.
The society has a nominal permanent fund of $300, and its yearly
income is only sufficient to cover current expenses. No salaries are
paid.
Prof. Charles E. Authon, president; William Poillon, secretary.
AMERICAN PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY,. NEW YORK, N. Y.
This society does not limit its membership, and has at present 40 active
members. The fees are $2 a year. Meetings, at all of which there are
' Purtber iuformation respecting tbis society will be found in Sketcbes of Public
Libraries iu New York City, in Chapter XXXVIII, Part VII, of this report.
Historical Societies- in the United States. 357
discussions and addresses, are held monthly, and frequently semi-month-
ly. A special committee has in charge the formation ot a phonetic alpha
bet adequate to the needs of all living languages.
The library, the extent of which cannot be ascertained, has been ob-
tained entirely by donation.
The yearly income of the society is very small, and is derived solely
fropa membership dues.
Rev. xVaron Lloyd, president ; David P. Holton, M. D., secretary.
GENEALOGrICA.L AND BIOaRAPHlCAL SOCIETY,^ NEW YORK, N. Y.
This society, organized March IG, 1809, has a membership of 250.
The terms of membership are election, and, for resident members, pay-
ment of $10 initiation fee, and $5 annual subscription until the sum of
$50, with interest, has been paid. The payment of $50 at one time con-
stitutes a life member. Meetings are held twice a month, except during
the summer; addresses are delivered about once a month.
The society publishes quarterly the Xew York Genealogical and Bio-
graphical Record. Four numbers form a volume. Six volutues have
been published, beginning January, 1870. The price of the first volume
was $1 ; the others are $2 each.
The library contains 862 bound volumes, 2,GS7 pamphlets, and 97
manuscripts. The whole collection relates to local history, its specialty
being local genealogy and biography. The only catalogue is a manu-
script list of books kept by the librarian. Most of the books have been
obtained by gift. The yearly increase, since the first year of the forma-
tion of the library, has averaged 200 volumes and paruphlets. The
library is exclusiv^ely for reference, and is accessible only to members
and persons introduced by them.
There is a small invested fund, derived from life memberships. Its
yearly income is about $500, from dues and interest, besides subscrip-
tions to and sales of the Record. The latter are applied, as fast as
received, to the expenses of printing and publishing the Record. There
are no salaried officers.
Edward F. De Lancej', president ; Charles B. Moore, corresponding
secretary.
NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY,^ NEW YORK, N. Y.
This society has in its library 60,000 bound volumes. About one-half
its newspapers, extending from 1704 to 1875, are bound, and when the
binding is completed the collection will number 4,500 volumes. The
pamphlets have not been enumerated, but are said to weigh from two
to three tons. These are to be arranged gradually in chronological
1 Further iutbruiatiou respecting this society will be fouud in Sketches of Public
Libraries iu New York City, in Chapter XXXVIII, Part VII, of this report.
2 An extended sketch of this society will be fouud in Sketches of Public Libraries
n New York City, in Chapter XXXVIII, Part VII, of this report.
358 Public Libraries in the United States.
order, by subjects. The manuscript collection embraces the Gates'
Steuben, Golden, Duer, Lord Sterling, and Gen. Lamb papers, besides a
large miscellaneouscollectiou, which cannot be enumerated in its present
condition. The librarian is preparing a calendar catalogue of the whole*
The society has 2,000 members. It has no permanent fund, and the
amount and sources of its yearly income are not stated.
HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,^ CINCINNATI, OHIO.
This society was established in 1831, and, after a period of inaction,
was revived and reorganized in 1868. Only residents of the State of
Ohio may become corporate members. The terms of membership are
election and payment of an initiation fee and an annual subscription
of $10 each. The payment of $100 constitutes a life member. The
present number of members is 83. The fiscal year begins the first
Monday in December, when the annual meeting is held. Other regular
meetings are held each year as the executive board may determine.
The object of the society is the "collection and preservation of every-
thing relating to the history and antiquities of America, more especially
of the State of Ohio, and the diffusion of knowledge concerning them."
The library is composed exclusively of works on American history, and
contains 5,413 bound volumes, 17,393 pamphlets, and 35 volumes of
manuscripts. Nearly the entire collection has been presented. Both
books and pamphlets are fully catalogued. The library is used by
members of the society both as a reference and circulating library.
There is also a cabinet of Indian curiosities and mound builders' relics.
The society has no building, but occupies rooms in the Cincinnati
College. It has a permanent fund of $8,735, and a yearly income of
$1,265, All amounts received for life memberships are funded, and only
the interest thereof can be expended.
Gen. M. F. Force, president ; Robert Clarke, corresponding secretary.
WESTERN RESERVE AND NORTHERN OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
CLEVELAND, OHIO.
The object of this society, organized in May, 18G7, is to "discover,
procure, and preserve whatever relates to the history, biography, gene-
alogy, antiquities, and statistics of the Western Reserve, the State of
Ohio, and the Northwest." The membersliip is 145. The payment of
$100 constitutes a life member; of $5 a year an annual member. The
fiscal year begins the second Tuesday in May. Meetings are held only
when called.
The society has issued a number of publications relating to the early
history of Ohio and Michigan, none of which is for sale, but they are
exchanged with kindred societies.
'Au exteudod uketch of this society will be foaud iu Sketches of the Public Libraries
of Ciuciunati, iu Chapter XXXVIII, Part VI, of this report.
Historical Societies in the United States. 359
The library contains 2,275 bound volumes, 3,500 pamphlets, and 150
manuscripts, A general catalogue of the books and an index of manu-
scripts are being i)repared. The library is open to members and persons
who have special permission.
A specialty of the society is its museum of antiquities, principally
relating to the West, and including a fine collection of curiosities taken
from the mounds on the Mississippi River near Memphis. The museum
has recently been enriched by a collection of Babylonian and other
Oriental antiquities.
The society has a permanent fund of $10,000, and a yearly income
of $1,000 to $1,200, derived from interest on fund, dues, and gifts. The
librarian is the only salaried officer.
Col. Charles Whittlesey, president; C. C. Baldwin, corresponding sec-
retary.
LICKING COUNTY PIONELiR HISTORICAL AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY,
LICKING, OHIO.
This society, organized May 1, 1867, has 350 members, of whom 15i>
are active, 74 corresponding, 81 honorary, and 39 antiquarian. There
are no conditions of membership, except for active members a residence
of thirtj" 3^ears. There are no fees or assessments on members; meet-
ings are held auuuall}', at which papers ate read.
The society has published nine numbers of the Licking County
Pioneer Pamphlets, for sale by K. Clarke & Cj., Cincinnati.
A specialty of the society is its cabinet, containing a collection of
mound builders' relics, Indian relics and implements, petrifa(;tions,
minerals, old coins, and other curiosities.
The library contains 200 bound volumes, the same number of pam-
phlets, and 250 manuscripts, the last relating entirely to pioneer and
Indian history and works of the mound builders. The specialty of the
library is local, especially pioneer history and biogr.ipliy. Tae larger
proportion of the books and collections has been presented. The
yearly accessions to the library average 25 b()oks and 30 pamphlets ;
to the cabinet, 100 relics and specimens. The library is free to the
public.
The society owns no property, and its income is entirely from gifts.
None of the officers receives a salary.
P. N. O'Banon, president ; C. B. Giffin, corresponding secretary.
FIRELANDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, NORWALK, OHIO.
This society, organized July 4, 1857, limits its membership to residents
of the Firelands. The terms of membership are the payment of 25
cents yearly. There are nearly 700 members. The meetings are annual
and quarterly.
Eleven volumes of the Firelands Pioneer have been published, the
360 Public Libraries in the United States.
first in 1858, the last in 1864. The last five volumes can be had at
50 cents each, unbound, or 83.50 for the five, bound in one volume.
The object of the society is to collect and publish historical facts, es-
pecially such as relate to pioneer life in the State. The library con-
tains about 50 bound volumes, 100 pamphlets, and 50 manuscripts-
There is also a small cabinet of Indian and other relics. The collections
have been obtained entirely by gift and exchange. The library is for
the use of members.
The society has no property; and its income, derived from member-
ship fees and sale of the Pioneer, is small and irregular.
Philip N. Schuyler, president ; Samuel E. Carringtou, secretary.
'JOLEDO HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, TOLEDO, OHIO.
This society, organized in 1871, has 35 members. The only require-
ment for membership is the payment of $3 a year. Meetings for discus-
sions and addresses are held monthly.
The number of volumes in the library is not stated, but the yearly
accessions are said to average about 100 volumes. Collecting Indian
relics is made a specialty. All the books and curiosities have beeu ob-
tained by gift.
The society has neither building nor permanent fund. Its income
is derived solely from initiation fees and members' dues.
E. H. Fitch, president ; Rev. H. M. McCracken, secretary.
PIONEER AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ASTORIA, OREG.
The objects of this society, which was organized in 1871, are "to col-
lect, collate, and have published, sketches of the early discovery, settle-
ment, and settlers of the country, to collect and preserve all records of the
past and present history of Oregon and its several subdivisions, . . . and
to establish a public library and reading room." Membership is limited
to persons " who arrived upon this coast or were born in the country
prior to January 1, 1851." Members' dues are at the rate of 12^ cents
a month. There are 171 subscribing and 67 corresponding and honorary
members, making a total of 237. Two meetings are held during the
year, at both of which papers are read.
The library is fot the use of members only, and contains about 600
volumes and 100 manuscripts, all of which have been obtained by gift.
The income of the society is derived from members' dues and contri-
butions. None of the officers receives a salary.
Two members of the society, Hon. J. Gwin Thornton and AV. H. Gray?
have written, jointly, a History of Oregon.
T. P. Powers, president ; W. H. Gray, corresponding secretary".
OREGON PIONEER ASSOCIATION, BUTTEVILLE, OREG.
The objects of this association are " to collect, from living witnesses,
facts relating to the pioneers and history of the Territory of Oregon."
Historical Societies in the United States. 361
It was organized October 18, 1873, with 45 members; it has now a mem-
bership of 485, limited to persons who settled in the original Territory
of Oregon prior to January 1, 1853. The terms of membership are
payment of 81 admission fee, and the same amount as yearly subscrip-
tion. Womeu may become members without payment of fees. Regular
meetings are held once a year.
The association publishes its proceedings yearly, with historical
sketches, in pamphlet form, about 100 pages, for sale and for exchange
with other societies.
The library rooms are not yet opened, and there is no report of the'
number of volumes. A small manuscript collection relates entirely to
tlie history of the Territory, from the discovery of the Columbia River
to the admission of Oregon into the Union.
The association is to occupy rooms in the State house at Salem. Its
yearly income is $1,000, derived from fees, dues, and gifts. There are
no salaried officers.
Johi;i W. Grim, president; W. H. Rees, corresponding secretary.
HAMILTON LIBRARY AND HISTORirAL SOCIETY OF CUMBERLAND
COUNTY, CARLISLE, PA.
This society was chartered in April, 1874. The payment of §20 se-
cures a life membership; of $50 a perpetual membership. Meetings
are held monthly.
The library contains 500 bound volumes and 100 pamphlets. The
society has no building, but owns a lot valued at $2,000, and has besides
a permanent fund of $2,000. None of the officers receives a salary.
W. H. Cooke, M. D., president ; Capt. J. T. Zug, secretary.
LUTHERAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, GETTYSBURG, PA.
The chief object of this society, organized in 1846, is the collection of
the publiccitious of Lutheran ministers in this country, and of all such
documents as may illustrate the history of the American Lutheran
Church. No account is kept of the membership. Any contribution to
the treasury constitutes the giver a member. Meetings are held bi-
ennially, and addresses are delivered on these occasions.
The library contains 359 bound volumes, about 1,000 pamphlets, and
a manuscript collection, consisting of the original archives of the Gen-
eral Synod and of several district synods. Nearly all the books have
been presented. The yearly accessions average about 20 volumes and
50 pamphlets. The catalogue is in manuscript. The library is free to
all who desire to use it.
The income of the society is derived solely from collections at its reg-
ular meetings.
Charles A. Hay, curator.
362 Public Libraries in the United States.
DAUPHIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, HARRISBURa, PA.
This society, orgauized in May, 18G9, has QQ members. The only con-
dition of membership is the payment of $3 a year.
The library contains 100 bound volumes, over 200 pamphlets, some of
them of great value, 510 manuscripts, and 100 bomid volumes of news-
papers, among them the Carlisle Gazette, the first paper published west
of the 'Susquehanna, dating from 1786. The books have not yet been
catalogued. The use of the library is restricted to subscribers. The
yearly income of the society is $200, derived from subscriptions.
A. Boyd Hamilton, president; George W. Buchler, corresponding
secretary.
LINN^AN SCIENTIFIC AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, LANCASTER, PA.
This society was organized in 18G2. Its membership embraces 20
active, 10 contributing, 25 corresponding, and 2 honorary members,
making a total of 57.
The library contains 500 bound volumes, 800 pamphlets, and 417 man-
uscripts. Besi<les its library the society has other large collections, which
are insured for $2,000, but cost three or four times that amount. The
yearly income is $100.
J. Stauffer, secretary.
MORAVIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, NAZARETH, PA.
The special objects of this society, which was organized in 1857, are
the collection of works relating to the M(5ravian Church and the preserva-
tion of relics illustrative of ancient Moravian history. Membership is
secured by the payment of $1 a year, or for a life membership a fee of
$20. The number of members is 215. Meetings are held quarterly.
The society has published Transactions of the Moravian Historical
Society,, in nine parts, price $1 eacii.
The library comprises 1,039 bound volumes, 2,050 pamphlets, and 94
manuscripts, all of the last relating to Moravian history. The yearly
accessions to the library average 23 volumes; to other departments, 17
volumes. All the collections have been presented.
The society owns no building, but has a fund of $837, and a yearly
income of $275, derived from contributions.
The following works are by members of the society: Memorials of
the Moravian Church; Bethlehem Seminary Souvenir ; Nazareth Hall
and its Reunions, by William C. Reichel ; Life and Times of David
Zeisberger, and Moravian Manual, by Edmund de Schweiuitz; Mora-
vians in North Carolina, Levin T. lleichel; Sketches of Moravian
Life and Character, James Henry ; History of Bethlehem, John Hill
Martin ; Register of Moravians, 1727-54, A. Reinke.
E. T. Gruuewald, librarian.
Historical Societies in the United States. 363
AMERICAN BAPTIST HISTORICAL SOCIETY, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
This society was orgauized in 1861. Its object is to establish and
maintain in the city of Philadelphia a library of books and manu-
scripts relating to the history and doctrines of Christians in every pe-
riod and of every name, especially those maintaining Baptist principles.
The only condition of membership is the payment, at one time, of $10.
The number of members is 119. Meetings are held monthly.
The library comprises 9,315 bound volumes, 13,000 pamphlets, and
1,2G3 manuscripts, obtained by purchase in Europe and by gift. The
accessions to the library average 500 a year. There are two printed
catalogues, of 1872 and 1874. The library is free to the public for ref-
erence. Members may borrow books, except such as are very rare and
valuable, but manuscripts cannot be removed from the rooms.
The society owns no building. It has a permanent fund of $500, and
its yearly income, derived from donations, averages $300. The library
is fully insured.
Howard Malcom, D.Y}.^ president; James M. Pendleton, D. D., corre-
sponding secretary.
AMERK.'AN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, PHILADELPHIA, PA,'
This, the mother society in America, and once the center of science
of the United States, was organized May 25, 1743, and celebrated its
ceutennial in 1843. Its membership is limited to men who have distin-
guished themselves in some department of science or the arts. All are
members alike ; there is no distinction of honorary or corresponding.
Members residing within ten miles of the hall pay $5 annual fee. Only
paying members <;an vote, and none can vote who has not paid his
dues and been present at one meeting during the year. The present
number of members is 482. Meetings are held on the first and third Fri-
day of each month, except May, June, July, and August, when they are
held on the third Friday only.
The publications of the society are: Proceedings, octavo, published in
January and July, sent free to all members and corresponding societies,
(not for sale ;) and Transactions, quarto, subscription price $5 a volume,
published occasionally and sent free to a portion of the corresponding
societies'; sold also to apj)licants, at $5 each. Some early numbers of
the Proceedings are out of print, -also the last half of volume six. Trans-
actions, old series.
The society has a cabinet of curiosities, chiefly antiquarian, and Poin-
sett's Mexican collection. Its minerals are deposited in the Academy
of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia.
The library contains 20,000 volumes, 15,000 pamphlets, and over 100
volumes of manuscripts, most of them dating from the last century, and
1 Additional information respectinj^ this society will be found in Sketches of Public
Libraries in Philadelphia, Chapter XXXVIII, Part VIII, of this report.— Editoks.
364 Public Libraries in the United States.
iucluding Franklin's manuscript letters, records of expenses during the
revolutionary war, Zeisberger's Indian vocabularies, and others equally
valuable. The historical collection is large, but there is little relating
to local history. All departments of knowledge are represented, but
there is a lack of modern books. There is a complete series of Philo-
sophical Transactions of the Koyal Society and French Acadeinj^, and
nearly or quite complete series of the publications of all other learned
societies previous to 1840 and many since.
Most of the collections have been presented. The accessions to the
library average 400 volumes a year. A catalogue was published in 1824.
In 1863 was printed the first part, in 1868 the second part, and in 1876
will appear the third and last part of the complete catalogue. There
is also a manuscript catalogue raisonne. The library is free for refer-
ence to persons introduced by members or otherwise suitably recom-
mended. Members can borrow books, giving bond for their safe
return.
The society owns a building the value of which is variously estimated
at from $80,000 to $120,000. Its yearly income, amount not stated, is
derived from rents, interest on investments, and members' dues. The
only salaried officer is the librarian, who receives $700 a year. The
treasurer receives a commission on the funds in his hands.
Memoirs published by members of the society may be found in the
6 volumes, old series, and 15 volumes, new series, of the Transactions,
and the 14 volumes of the Proceedings. In late years the society has
published large and costly memoirs.
J. P. Lesley, fourth secretary and librarian.
friends' historical society, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
The chief object of this society, which was organized in December,
1873, is to collect and preserve books, papers, manuscripts, letters, and
relics illustrative of the history of the Society of Friends. Members,
of whom there are 41 active, besides several honorary, are required to
pay an entrance fee of $5, and the same amount as yearly subscription.
Members paying $50 at one time are released from further dues. Meet-
ings are held on the first Wednesday in each mouth.
The society has published A Sketch of the Life and Character of
John Fenwick, by John Clement.
The library contains about 500 bound volumes, a collection of pam-
phlets not enumerated, and a large number of manuscripts, composed
mainly of the correspondence of noted members of the Society of Friends,
and including autograph letters of Washington, La Fayette, Jefferson,
Patrick Henry, all the Presidents of the United States, and many other
noted persons of this country and Europe. The collection of local his-
tory, is especially full and interesting. The society has also on deposit
the record books, letters, manumission papers, bound volumes, and
pamphlets constituting the entire history of the Penusyh^ania Abolition
Historical Societies in the United States. 365
Society, from tbe day of its inception one hundred years ago. The
library is entirely the result of donations. It is closed during the
months of July and August, but for the remainder of the year is free
to the public for reference. No catalogue has, as yet, been prepared.
The society has neither building nor endowment. Its annual income,
derived from members' dues, is about $200. None of the officers re-
ceives a salary. The library, for the present, occupies rooms in the
building of the Pennsylvania Historical Society.
William J. Jenks, president; Nathaniel E. Janney, secretary.
GERMAN SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
This society, organized in 1764, began its library in 1817. The terms
of membersiiip are payment of an initiation fee of $5 and a yearly sub-
scription of $,4. The number of members is 1,000. Meetings are held
quarterly.
The society makes a specialty of collecting books and pamphlets
illustrative of German immigration, also German books printed in the
United States. Tbe library contains 16,000 bound volumes, of which
about one-half are in the German language. Most of the books have
been i resented. The accessions average 300 volumes a year. There is
no catalogue. A partial list of the historical works is contained in the
society's report for 1873. The library is free to members of the society
and accessible to others on payment of $5 annual subscription.
The society owns a building valued at $65,000. Its 3'early income
is $1,000, of which the sum of $700 is expended for books and binding,
and $300 for salaries and incidental expenses.
A. Loos, librarian.
THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA, PA.^
This.society, organized in 1824, does not limit its membership; for
which the only requirement is a yearly contribution of $5, ot for life
membership payment of $50. The number of members is 600. Four
stated and four occasional meetings are held during the year, at all
of which there are discussions and addresses.
Tbe society has published the following works: Braddock's Expedi-
tion; Contributions to American History; Kecord of Upland Court;
Minutes of Committee of Defense of Philadelphia, 1813-'14; Memoirs
of the Society, Vol. 1 ; Correspondence of Penn and Logan, 2 volumes ;
History of New Sweden, by Acrelius; Historical Map of Pennsylvania.
These volumes are published, at $3.50 each, by a publication fund the
subscription to which for life is $25. Subscribers have the right to
purchase back volumes at $2.50 each. The society exchanges with other
historical and learned societies in this country and in Europe.
' Further information respecting this society wiil be found in Sketches of the
Public Libraries of Philadelphia; iu Chapter XXXVIII, Part VIII, of this report.— Edi-
TOKS.
366 Public Libraries in the United States.
A specialty of the society is its collection of portraits, paintings, and
engravings of historical interest, and of Indian and other antiquities.
The library contains 16,000 bound volumes, 30,000 pamphlets, and
25,000 iolios of manuscripts. The collection of local history contains
614 volumes, and of family history 223 volumes. About one-thirtieth
of the books has been purchased, the remainder received by gift and
exchange. For the last four years the accessions' to the library have
averaged 800 volumes a year. There is no catalogue, either printed or
manuscript. A catalogue of the paintings, and other objects of inter-
est, was published in 1872. The library is free to the public for reference.
The society owns no building. It has permanent funds as follows:
Publication, $23,000; library, $5,000; binding, $3,300; building, $13,000;
legacies, all of which are held as permanent funds, $6,000; making a
total of $50,300. The yearly income is $3,400, derived from members'
dues and subscriptions. The only salaried officer is the assistant libra-
rian, who receives $900 a year.
The building occupied by the society is considered remarkably secure,
and some of the rooms are entirely tire proof. In these are kept the
manuscripts, rare books, and valuable collections.
John W. Wallace, president; John W. Jordan, corresponding sec-
retary.
NUMISMATIC AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
The membership of this society, instituted in 1857, is limited to 150.
Its library contains about 3,00U books and pamphlets and about 100
manuscripts, relating almost exclusively to numismatic and antiquarian
subjects. Its cabinet of coins and medals, including many very ancient,
numbers 7,100, and its cabinet of antiquities contains 450 relics. It
has also collections of engravings, autographs, maps, and miscellaneous
objects of value and interest. None but members of the society have
access to its library and collections.
The society has a permanent fund, but neither that nor its annual
income is made public.
Eli K. Price, president; Henry Phillips, jr., corresponding secretary.
PRESBYTERIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
The organization of this society in May, 1852, was due primarily to
the efforts of Samuel Aguew, of Philadelphia. Its objects, as declared
by its charter, are to form and maintain a library and to collect and pre-
serve historical facts concerning the Presbyterian Church in the United
States. Any person may become a member by the payment of $1 a
year. The paynjent of $10 constitutes a life member. The yearly
meeting of the society is held in Philadelphia the lirst Tuesday in May.
The library contains 7,000 bound volumes, about 20,000 pamphlets,
over 100 manuscripts, 300 volumes of newspapers, and 200 volumes of
magazines and reviews. Its specialty is Presbyterian history and litera-
Historical Societies in the United States. 367
ture. The collection of family history is especially noteworthy, and
corntains many works of rarity and great value. The additions average
from 500 to 600 volumes a year. A partial catalogue was printed a few
years ago, but there is no catalogue of the present library.
The society has neither permanent fund nor stated income, and is
supported entirely by donations. No salaries are paid.
Kev. John B. Dales, secretary.
WYOMING HISTORICAL AND GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, WILKESBAERE, PA.
Organized February 11, 185S. Members can be elected only by
unanimous vote. Tbe present number is from 75 to 100. Meetings,
with addresses, are held monthly.
The library contains 3,000 volumes, mainly historical and scientific
works, obtained by purchase and gift. Its specialty is the history of
Wyoming Valley. The only catalogue is in manuscript. The library is
only for reference, and is free to the public.
The society has a good geological collection, a cabinet of Indian curi-
osities, over 7,000 coins, a number of autographs, and many relics and
objects of interest relating to the history of Wyoming Valley from its
earliest settlement by the whites.
The society has no building, but owns a lot in the city of Wilkes-
barre worth at least $10,000. It also owns the Wyoming Monument
and grounds. Its annual income is derived from subscriptions. None
of its officers receives a salary.
Harrison Wright, secretary.
NEWPORT HISTORICAL SOCIETY, NEWPORT, R. I.
This society, organized February 14, 1853, and incorporated Novem-
ber 21, 1854, has about 100 resident, besides many corresponding and
honorary members. The terms of membership are payment of $3
entrance fee and a yearly subscription of $L. The yearly meeting of
the society is held March 18, the anniversary of the incor[)oration of
the first settlers of Rhode Island into a body politic. Regular meetings
are also held on the third Tuesday of February, May, August, and
November. There are several addresses in each year, and discussions
at every meeting.
The object of the society is " to collect and preserve the ancient man-
uscripts, monuments, and records, which illustrate the history of the
southern part of the State, and also whatever else relates to the topog-
raphy, antiquities, and the natural, civil, and ecclesiastical history of
the State of lihode Island." The library contains 201) bound volumes,
460 pamphlets, and 22 manuscripts, all of a historical description, and
obtained chiefly by gift. The manuscript collection includes letters and
papers relating to the trade of Newport, a record of the Newport post
office from 1753 to 1775, a record of the admiralty court of Rhode
368 Public Libraries in the United States.
Island from 1753 to 1760. and other papers of interest and value. The
library is accessible to any one interested in historical subjects.
The society has also a collection of Indian and local curiosities and
antiquities. It has neither building nor endowioeat, and its yearly in.
come is derived from members' dues and occasional contributions.
Dr. David King, president; George C. Mason, corresponding secre-
tary.
RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, PROVIDENCE, R. L
Organized in 1822; membership 150. No i)erson is eligible as a resi-
dent member who does not, at the time of his election, reside in the
State of Rhode Island. The terms of membership are payment of $5
admission fee, and $3 annual subscription. Meetings are held quarterly.
The publications of the society are: Roger Williams's Key into the
Language of America, $1 ; Gorton's Simplicitie's Defence against
Seven-Headed Policy, $2.50 ; Potter's Early History of Narragan-
sett, $2.50; Callender's Pearly Histoiy of Rhode Island, $2.50; Staples's
Annuls of Providence, $1U, (rare;) Stone's Arnold's Canada Expe-
dition, Revolutionary Corresi)ondence, and Edwards's History of Bap-
tists in Rhode Island, $3 ; Occasional Addresses by Gammell, Durfee,
Greene, Potter, Parsons, Arnold, Hall, and Sarmiento, 50 cents each ;
Annual Proceedings, 1872, 1873, 1874, $1 each ; for sale and exchange
by the society.
Besides its library the society makes a specialty of iaborigiual and
other antiquities, paintings, and engravings.
The library contains 0,000 bound volumes, 35,000 pamphlets, and
7,500 manuscripts, the latter consisting largely of historical and ge-
nealogical papers. The collection of publications of kindred societies
comprises several hundred volumes and pamphlets. The library is free
for reference. It has been obtained mainly by gifts. The accessions
average from 1,200 to 2,500 volumes a year.
The society owns its building and grounds, worth $30,000. These are
subject to municipal taxation. There is a permanent fund of $524.84,
and the average yearly income is $300, derived from entrance fees and
members' dues. There are no salaried officers.
Edwin M. Stone, librarian.
SOUTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, CHARLESTON, S. C.
This society, organized in 1854, had, owing to want of funds, made
scarcely the beginning of a library when its operations were suspended
on account of the late war, and it has been only recently revived. It
has now 50 members. The terms of membership are payment of $2 a
year. Meetings are held quarterly.
The society has published Historical Collections, Vols. I, II, III.
Vol. Ill is now out of print.
No report is made of the number of volumes in the library. The
Historical Societies in the United States. 369
manuscript collection is quite valuable, relating; chiefly to colonial and
revolutionary history. The larger part of it consists of the papers of
Henry Laurens.
F. A. Porcher, president.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF TENNESSEE, NASHVILLE, TENN.
Organized in 1855 ; re-organized in May, 1874. The terms of member^
ship are payment of an admission fee of $3, and a yearly subscription of
$2. There are 100 active, besides honorary members. Kegular meetings
are held bi-monthly. Discussions and addresses are only occasional.
The object of the society is to collect and preserve historical facts
concerning the discovery, exploration, and settlement of Tennessee and
adjoining States, and facts illustrating the history and characteristics
of the Indian tribes. It has a valuable collection of Indian antiquities,
a cabinet of coins and minerals, and quite an extensive museum of arti-
cles of historical interest, including a large number of portraits of the
historical characters of the State.
The library comprises about 1,000 bound volumes, from 400 to 500
pamphlets, and about 1,500 manuscripts, none of which are yet system-
atically arranged, so that no description can be given. The larger part
of the collection, however, relates to local history. The widow of Pres-
ident Polk has appointed the society custodian of Mr. Polk's correspond-
ence and manuscripts after her death. Nearly all the books have been
obtained by gift, and with the other collections are accessible at all
times to members, and to others on application to the president or sec-
retary.
The society has no building, but, by act of legislature, occupies per-
manently rooms in the State capitol. It has no permanent fund, and
its yearly income is from $200 to $300, derived from admission fees and
regular dues. None of the officers receives a salary.
Colonel Kamsey, president of the society, has published a large and
valuable work entitled Annals of Tennessee; and Col. A. W. Putnam,
late vice-president, a History of Middle Tennessee.
Col. J. C. M. Ramsey, president; Gen. G. P. Thrnstou, corresponding
secretary.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF GALVESTON, TEX.
This society, established in August, 1871, requires, as a condition of
membership, the possession of " more than ordinary literary attain-
ments." The number of members is 30. Meetings are held monthly.
The library consists of 20 bound volumes, 6 pamphlets, and 100 man-
uscripts; nearly all relating to local history, and all acquired by gift.
It is free for reference.
The society owns no building. Its yearly iucome is about $150, de-
rived from assessments upon members.
Hon. A. M. Hably, president ; secretary, D. G. Herbert.
24 E
370 Public Libraries in the United States.
MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, MIDDLEBUEY, YT.
Organized November, 1843. The number of members is 25. Mem-
bership is by election, and only residents of Addison County are eligible
as active members. An address is delivered on the anniversary of the
landing of the Pilgrims.
The specialty of the society is New Eagland and local history, es-
pecially of the towns of Addison County. The collections consist of a
few books and manuscripts, and aboriginal and military relics ; all
obtained by gift or exchange.
The following works have been published by members of the society :
History of the Town of Middlebury, to which is prefixed a statistical
and historical account of the county, by Samuel Swift, 1859 5 History of
Salisbury, John M. Weeks, 1860; History of the Town of Shoreham, Key.
Josiah F. Goodhue, 1861 ; History of the Town of Cornwall, Rev. Lyman
Matthews, 1862; History of the Town of Fairhaven, Andrew N.Adams.
Hon. John W. Stewart, president; Philip Battell, secretary.
VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY, MONTPELIER, VT.
This society was incorporated in 1838, and has been continued with
varied success. It has experienced several misfortunes, which culmi-
nated in the burning of nearly its entire collections at the time the
State house was destroyed, in January, 1857. From that time to the
present it has prospered, and during the past year unusually large ad-
ditions have been made to its collections.
The terms of membership are payment of $2 admission fee and $1 as
yearly subscription. The number of members is about 100. Eegular
meetings are held yearly.
The society has published two octavo volumes of Collections, over 500
pages each, $3.50 per volume ; and is also interested in the publication of
the Records of the Governor and Council of Vermont, 1775 to 1791, of
which three volumes have been published, uniform with the Collections,
and at the same price. These are for sale by the librarian, or forexchange
with kindred societies.
The specialty of the society is American, and more particularly State
history. The library comprises about 5,000 bound volumes, 3,000 pam-
phlets, about 500 manuscripts, and a very valuable newspaper collection,
including a complete file of the Richmond Whig during the late war,
and other records of that period. The manuscripts relate principally to
State history. There is also a small museum of curiosities. The society
relies almost entirely upon contributions lor the increase of its library.
A catalogue is in course of preparation.
The society has no building, but occupies rooms in the State house,
granted by the legislature for that purpose. It has no permanent fund.
Its income, derived from State aid and members' dues, averages $300 a
year.
W. H. Lord, D. D., president j Hiram A. Huse, secretary.
Historical Societies in the United States. 371
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, RICH3I0ND, VA.
Organized May 1,1869; re-organized August 14, 1873. The number
of members is 700. The only condition of membership is the payment
of a yearly subscription of $3. The payment of $50 constitutes a life
member. The society meets once a year, when an address is delivered.
The society has as yet published nothing save a series of papers in the
Southern Magazine, monthly, from January, 1874:, to July, 1875, inclu-
sive. The society began, in January, 1876, the publication of Southern
Historical Society Papers, which will be continued monthly.
The maiu object of the society is to " gather material for a true his-
tory of the late war between the States 5" and its efforts have thus far
been chiefly directed to securing authentic official reports published on
both sides. The library contains 125 bound volumes, 200 pamphlets,
and 1,300 manuscripts, of which 200 are official reports of battles, 100
are essays on war matters, and 1,000 papers of Confederate departments.
Nearly all of these have been presented. There is no printed catalogue,
but one partially completed in manuscript. The library is accessible to
all persons in search of historical information.
The society owns no building, but occupies rooms in the State capitol.
It has no permanent fund, but receives from W. \Y. Corcoran, of Wash-
ington, $500 a year. The yearly income from members' dues is about
$2,000. The only salaried officer is the secretary, who receives $1,200
a year.
Works have been published by members of the society as follows :
Narrative of his Campaigns, by General J. E.Johnston; Life of Stone-
wall Jackson, by Rev. K, L. Dabney ; Personal Eeminiscences, Anec-
dotes, and Letters of General K. E. Lee, by Rev. J. W. Jones; Life of
Lee, Life of Stonewall Jackson, Wearing the Gray, and a number of
romances, by John Esten Cooke; The Campaign of 1864, by General J.
A. Early; The Chancellorsville Campaign, by Col. William Allan and
Maj. Jed; Hotchkiss; Pickett's Men, by Col. Walter Harrison; Siege
of Savannah, by Col. C. C. Jones, jr.
Gen. J. A. Early, president ; Rev. J. W. Jones, secretary.
VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, RICHMOND, VA.
The history of this society is briefly summed up as follows : Organ-
ized as the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society, December,
1831; chartered March, 1834 ; dormant from 1837 to 1847 ; re-organized
January, 1848; suspended during the late war; resuscitated in 1867.
The number of members is 264. Any one may become a member by the
payment of $5 a year, and a life member by the payment of $50. The
society holds a yearly meeting, at which an address is delivered.
The publications of the society are: Collections of the Virginia His-
torical and Philosophical Society, pp. 87, 1833 ; The Virginia Historical
Register, a journal issued quarterly during the years 1848-53 ; An Ac-
372 Public Libraries in the United States.
count of Discoveries in tlie West until 1519, and of Voyages to and
along the Atlantic Coast of North America from 1520 to 1573 ; An
Address on the Life of Hon. B. W. Leigh ; The Virginia Constitution
of 1776 ; The Virginia Historical Reporter, volume I, part 1, 1854 ; part
2, 1855 ; part 3, 1856 : volume II, part 1, 1860 ; Washington's Private
Diaries; Letters of Thomas Nelson, jr., governor of Virginia. Of all
these, excepting the first two and the first part of volume I of the Vir-
ginia Historical Reporter, the society has copies for exchange.
The specialty of the society is Virginia history. The library contains
8,000 bound volumes, over 1,000 pamphlets, and 33 manuscripts; also,
a collection of autograph letters. The books have been obtained chiefly
by gift. The yearly accessions average from 100 to 200 volumes and
pamphlets. Any one may obtain access to the collections by applying
to the librarian.
In addition to the library there is a collection of historical portraits,
a cabinet of geological specimens, medals, and a number of colonial and
revolutionary relics.
The society owns no building, an d its endowment fund of $5,000 was
lost during the late war. Its yearly income is only $500 to $1,000, ow-
ing to irregularity in collecting members' dues. None of the officers
receives a salary.
The following works have been published by the late Thomas H.
Wynne, member, and formerly corresponding secretary, of the society :
Williamsburg Orderly Book; The Westover Manuscripts; Memoirs of
the Boiling Family of England and Virginia; The Vestry Book of
Henrico Parish, with account of St. John's Church ; Narrative of Col.
David Fanning of the Revolution. Works have been produced by other
members of the society, but no list of them has been prepared.
Hon. Hugh Blair Grigsby, president; R. A. Brock, corresponding
secretary.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF KOANOKE COLLEGE, SALEM, VA.
This society was organized in 1875, and has for its object the collec-
tion of facts relating to the political, religious, and social history of Vir-
ginia, and of the adjacent and Southern States. The number of active
members is limited to 25, and there are at present 16. Membership is
by election, and payment of an entrance fee of |1. Meetings for discus-
sions and addresses are held monthly.
The library contains 500 bound volumes, 250 pamphlets, and about 50
manuscripts, the latter bearing especially upon the later history of Vir-
ginia; The larger part of the collection has been presented.
The society has neither building nor funds. Its yearly income is $100.
None of the officers receives a salary.
Dr. J. J. Moorman, president; Wm. McCauley, corresponding secre-
tary.
Historical Societies in the United States. 373
WEST VIRaiNIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, MORGANTO-WN, W. VA.
The object of this society, which was established in September, 1869,
is to procure and preserve whatever relates to history of West Vir-
ginia. The terms of membership are payment of an initiation fee of
$2, and a yearly subscription of $1. The present membership is 270.
Meetings, at which there are discussions and addresses, are held twice
a year.
A special committee has been appointed to investigate the truth of
the reflection by Bantjroft upon the conduct of General Andrew Lewis
at the battle of Point Pleasant.
The collection comprises about 20 bound volumes, a collection of man-
uscripts relating chiefly to the early history of West Virginia, and a
collection of newspapers dating from 1753 to 1865; all of which were
presented.
The society has neither building nor endowment. Its yearly income
is $200, derived from members' dues. The only salary paid is to the
recording secretary, $25 a year.
Hon. Charles J. Faulkner, president; George C. Sturgiss, correspond-
ing secretary.
WISCONSIN STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, MADISON, WIS.
Organized January, 1849; re-organized January, 1851. It has about
50 active, several hundred corresponding, and a few life and honorary
members. The terms of membership are, for life members, payment of
$20 ; for acti<^e members, 12 a year. Meetings, at all of which historical
papers are presented, are held quarterly.
The society has published six volumes of reports and collections, and
several annual addresses in pamphlet form. Xone of these are for sale,
but are exchanged with kindred societies, libraries, and individuals.
The specialty of the society is the history of Wisconsin and the North-
west, including Indian history. The library contains 33,317 bound vol-
umes, 31,653 pamphlets, and over 300 manuscripts. Though mainly
devoted to American history, it possesses a very respectable collec-
tion of European history, and of general and scientific literature. The
manuscript collection consists chiefly of papers of local interest, de-
signed for future publication. The society receives regularly 185 peri-
odicals, and has quite complete sets of the leading periodical publica-
tions of this country and Great Britain. The library is especially rich
in American local history. Its department of New England local history
is probably larger than can be found elsewhere outside of New England.
There is also a large collection on American genealogy. The sets of pub-
lications of kindred societies are very complete. Nearly all the books,
newspapers, and magazines are bound, also a considerable portion of
the pamphlets. A printed catalogue was issued in 1873, in two volumes,
octavo — Vol. I, pp. 639; Vol. II, pp. 719 — and a supplement in 1875. A
374 Public Libraries in the United States.
supplemeut is to be issued every two years hereafter. A"bout lialf tb6
books have beeu purchased, and the remainder obtained by gift and ex-
change. The yearly accessions to the library average about 3,000 vol-
umes and pamphlets. The library is for reference only.
There is also a gallery of paintings and a cabinet of curiosities, antiq-
uities, and revolutionary relics. The collections are free to the pub-
lic. The society owns no building, but occupies rooms in the State
capitol. It has a binding fund of about $4,000, which will probably
not be drawn upon until the principal reaches $10,000. Its yearly in-
come is $3,500, a grant from the State, for the benefit of the library,
^^•hich does not include salaries, stationery, and other incidental ex-
penses, which are also paid by the State. The yearly dues of members
and donations all go to the binding fund. The corresponding secretary
receives $1,1200 a year; the librarian, $1,600 ; the assistant librarian,
$720; the cabinet keeper, $400, and the janitor, $1.75 per day, all paid
by the State ; and an assistant, $500, p^aid out of the yearly State grant.
Hon. Alexander Mitchell, president; Lyman C. Draper, corresponding
secretary.
HISTOEICAL SOCIETIES IN THE UNITED STATES.
The American Ethnological, ^Geographical, Oriental, and Philosophi-
cal Societies, the Albany (N. Y.) Institute, the Essex Institute, Salem,
Mass., and the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, Wilkes-
barre. Pa., which appeared in the list of scientific societies accompany-
ing Chapter VII, have been included in this table also, because they sus-
tain a peculiar and intimate relation to historical research in special di-
rections, and their libraries comprise valuable historical collections.
Historical Societies in the United States.
375
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Public Libraries in the United States.
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rt W H H t>
CHAPTER XIV.
YOUiNG MEN'S MERCANTILE LIBRARIES.
BY F. B. PERKINS
Boston Public Library.
Origin AND kakly history — Apprentices' libraries — Athenaeums — Young men's
associations and institutes — educational adjuncts — popular lectures —
Character of collections — Business management — Future prospects — Sta-
tistics.
The first libraries ia this country which were in any sense public were
those of the colleges; with a college there was always a library, and it
could be used more or less by a certain portion at least of the not very
great number of men scholarly enough to require such aid.
Dr. Franklin's establishment of the Philadelphia Library, in 1731, may
in like manner be reckoned the beginning of the period of proprietary
libraries, owned by shareholders, and if used by others, only so used by
favor. Even as thus limited, these libraries were calculated for much
■wider usefulness than college libraries.
The young men's libraries mark a further step in cheapening and pop-
ularizing knowledge. They were neither to be exclusively for the learned
like those of colleges, nor practically confined to the few who could invest
a significant sum of money in becoming owners of a collection ; but
■were adjusted to the requirements of that much more numerous class
of persons who were not permanently established citizens and who could
not afford more than a small annual fee.
Last comes the full development of the American administrative prin-
ciple.in libraries, that of supplying all at the common expense of all,
yet gratuitously to each. A free town library, according to this defini-
tion, seems to have existed in New York as early as the year 1700,
■s\hen the Eev. John Sharp, chaplain to the Earl of Bellamont, governor
of New York, bequeathed his books to the city for a public library.
After many years of neglect and misuse, this collection, however, be-
came fused with the proprietary Society Library; the time was too
early for the liberality of the project. Again, Governor Clinton, of
New York, in his message in 1S27, suggested the establishment of free
school district libraries in that State, which were subsequently imi-
tated elsewhere; but this movement did not bring out adequately the
best capabilities of a public free library system, being, indeed, mainly
378
Young Men^s Mercantile Libraries. 379
for childreu. Thus it remains to date the practical establishment of the
real public free library system from the origiu of the Boston Public
Library.
While these four successive classes of libraries exhibit each a constant
and decided advance in liberality of plan and in capacity of usefulness,
none has. become obsolete, but all four remain alive together, suiting
and benefiting diflferent classes, each in its own way.
Some such preliminary statement as this seemed necessary, in order
to show clearly what is the appropriate place and the distinctive char-
acter of the so-called "mercantile libraries.*' These are enumerated by
Mr. Jeweit^ in a more general class, which he calls "social libraries."
This class of "social libraries" includes, he says, "athenaeums, lyceums,
young men's associations, mechanics' institutions, and mercantile libra-
ries." And he says in the next paragraph, "In some States, almost
every town has, under some name, a social library."
As distinct from the other " social libraries," the mercantile libraries
may be described as primarily for the use of merchants' clerks j second-
arily, also, for all general readers. They are established in large towns ;
are not free nor owned in shares, but are open to all on payment of a peri-
odical fee; and they are managed by the business part of the community,
most commonly by the clerks. Probably the " apprentices' libraries"
might with sufficient propriety be considered under the same head, at
least so far as professional matters relating to libraries are concerned,
but they are not at this time specifically discussed. Libraries, however,
called by such names as " young men's institute," " young men's asso-
ciation," "lyceum," etc., so far as their character, purposes, and man-
agement are like those having the word " mercantile " in their title, are
naturally reckoned with them. Those of the Young Men's Christian
Associations are not so included.
Mercantile libraries as a class grew up as part of the great educational
movement of the second quarter of this century; a movement pretty
distinctly visible in the history of the period, and to which also belongs
the establishment in England of the " mechanics' institutions," of the
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, etc*; and in this country
the important series of educational movements which first received
their main impulse about the year 1837. Our two oldest mercantile
libraries are, that of Boston, established March 11, 1820, and that of
New York, whose foundation was determined on November 9 of the
same year. In the next year the Philadelphia Mercantile Library (now,
however, become a stock concern) was started. The Albany Young
Men's Association and the Detroit Young Men's Society were founded
in 1833; the Troy Young Men's Association in 1834; the Cincinnati
Y^oung Men's Mercantile Library and the Buffalo Young Men's Asso-
ciation in 1835; the Hartford Young Men's Institute (the successor of
the old proprietary Hartford Library Company, which was in existence
1 Notices of Public Libraries iu the United States, page 189. ~
380 Public Libraries in the United States.
before 1795) in 1833 ; the Baltimore Mercantile Library in 1839 ; and so
on, to a total number which cannot be stated with accuracy, but which is
not less than thirty, and might be made much larger by relaxing the
definition a little. The youngest of them all to; be baptized with the
good old name of " mercantile library," it is believed, is that at Gal-
veston, Tex., which was founded in the fall of 1870, and which in 1873
became a free public library. Another of the youngest of them, the
Brooklyn Mercantile Library, founded in October 1857, is one of the
most energetic and flourishing. This list is not, of course, offered as
complete, but only to show the dates of establishing some of the prin-
cipal mercantile libraries.
It is probable that any public library founded now is decidedly more
likely to be organized as a free town library, open to all without any
payment, than as a subscription or yearly fee library. It does not now
seem likely that many additional libraries will be joined to the existiag
class of mercantile libraries. There are even a few cases that indicate
a decrease in their number as not improbable. Such are those of mer-
cantile libraries whose revenues and strength of position generally have
been materially impaired by the establishment of a free public library
in the same community. It would not be difficult to prove that such im-
pairment may probably be avoided, on the obvious principle of using
business like ways of dealing with the emergency — a doctrine peculiarly
appropriate to institutions managed by business men. Without elabo-
rating in this place any details of a scheme for this purpose, it will do
to suggest that the great free public libraries do not exterminate but
rather tend to multiply the small business " circulating libraries," of a
few hundred volumes each, which newsdealers, booksellers, fancy goods
dealers, and the like, so often manage. And if this be the case, it is
quite certain that the mercantile libraries, if managed on the same
principle, need not fail any more than their smaller neighbors. That
princii)le is, to meet the business demand for reading. This requires
two things : first, to use the main efforts of the library in supplying
books that people want to read ; and second, to permit such modes of
paying (cash payments only are meant) for the use of the books as the
customers of the library may like best. Such management makes a
pork business successful ; so it does a bookselling business ; so it does
the small trading circulating libraries; and if this be true, much more
would it make the mercantile libraries successful, co-operating as it
would with the comparatively powerful position and influence which
they already possess.
In the meanwhile, however, the majority of our mercantile libraries
are, like the largest and most valuable and useful of them, the New York
Mercantile Library, the only important public circulating libraries in
their respective towns, and while nominally, in some sense, pertaining to
the mercantile class, or to the young men, generally, they are in fact open
to anybody who pays the moderate annual fee ; and they do a great and
indispensable service to the interests of literature.
Young Men^s Mercantile Libraries. 381
The intimate original connection of the mercantile or young men's
libraries with the general educational movement of the second quarter of
this century was most evident in the feature, common to all the earliest
of them, and still retairied to a considerable extent, of a school, or at least
an educational, department. This consisted most frequently of classes in
such studies as book-keeping, arithmetic, writing, and modern languages.
Sometimes gymnasiums, or classes in athletic exercise, were added.
The usual reading room has, in some cases, a chess room attached.
In some instances, cabinets of minerals, coins, or other objects of inter-
est have been begun, accordin g to the tendency to the study of natural
science at the period when the young men's libraries began. Classes
or societies for debate, and for exercises in declamation and composition,
have sometimes been formed. Thus these institutions, instead of being,
like the earlier proprietary libraries or the later free public libraries,
confined to the single function of furnishing books to readers, were
lilanned rather like a sort of business college, as if to furnish a general
higher education to those who had not been able to go as far as desira-
ble at school. The courses of lectures in connection with the mercantile
libraries, which have been a nearly constant feature, and are even
more prominent than any of those just enumerated, arose from this same
original school or collegiate character ; for when these libraries began
,to be established, the public lectures, or " lyceum lectures," as they
used to be and still are sometimes called, were supposed to be not mere
entertainments, as most of them now are, but actual courses of instruc-
tion, relatively as much so as the "Lowell lectures" at Boston. As the
l)ublic demand changed, however, and as the lectures in the market be-
came gradually mere amusements, the libraries came to make use of
them no longer as parts of their school system, but as means of re-
inforcing their finances. For a certain period, the annual course of
lectures was relied on as a source of income just as regularly and just
as safely as the payment of the regular subscriptions ; and other amuse-
ments, such as concerts, for instance, were sometimes interspersed with
them. Uf late years, the annual reports, however, show a very notice-
able diminution of profit, and in a good many cases a loss from this bus-
iness, insomuch that a considerable number of these libraries no longer
organize courses of lectures regularly every winter, but confine them-
selves to seizing any occasion al good opportunity to provide a single
lecture or a special series. The rest of these school departments, as the
classes for special instruction, the gymnasiums, chess rooms, and debat-
ing societies, in some instances still continue, and are of considerable,
though it cannot be said very extensive, service.
The nature of the collections of books in these libraries varies greatly.
Some of them founded on old and solid libraries, or commanding consid-
erable means, are of much positive value, at least for general culture,
though there is probably not one which has a complete apparatus for
investigating any single branch of knowledge. To a predominating
382 Public Libraries in the United States.
extent tbey are primarily, as they must necessarily be, collections of
popular literature.
The conditions on which their books are used, the modes of regfister-
ing the names of borrowers, and the delivery and return of books, the
details of service and business, present no special points for discussion,
being like the corresponding parts of the administration of other cir-
culating libraries, and modified in individual cases rather by the char-
acter of the management than by the designation of the institution
itself.
The chief difiBculty felt by these libraries — it may pretty safely be said
by alllibraries — is wantof money and of efficientaid from thepublic. For
this want there is, however, one clearly manifestreason peculiar to young
men's libraries. They are conducted by rapidly changing boards whose
members are often mere youths. Their affairs are taken in hand once
a year, and reported to and dealt with by a meeting of the mem bers, whose
votes, cast during an exciting canvass for officers of the library, may,
and frequently do, deciile the general policy and detailed measures of
the library for the coming year. Such methods do passably well in
associated enterprises, conducted by experienced business men, and,
indeed, no one who knows the history of the young men's libraries can
fail to admire the remarkable degree of good sense and good business
management with which they have been conducted. Yet there is some:
times a good deal of troublesome and not very handsome intriguing at
the annual elections to oust one party or person, or to introduce another.
Sometimes the executive force is changed in a similar manner. Some-
times, on the other hand, there is too much apathy, and the machine
moves only in a slow and rusty way in the hands of managers disin-
clined or unable to give it the requisite care and energy. And it is
natural and unavoidable that the older citizens, when applied to, as they
are from time to time, for money with which to enlarge such a library,
should hesitate to intrust an important property in personal or real
estate, or both, wholly to such a collection of young people. Accord-
ingly, where such measures have been accomplished, it has in some cases
at least, been by means of associating a body of older men with the
younger ones, with a special control over the merely property interests of
the library. Such a double organization is that of the New York Mer-
cantile Library Association, where the library itself and its conduct are
in the hands of the merchants' clerks, while its real estate business
and the income of the same are controlled by the Clinton Hall Associa-
tion, which consists of old and conservative men of business. This sort
of May and December conjunction causes more or less friction, but, on
the whole, the institution gets along remarkably well ; and while nobody
dreams that the young men want to do anything wrong or foolish, the
presence and authority of the old ones make it reasonably certain that
they could not if they did, at least to a fatal extent.
For increasing the prosperity and usefulness of the mercantile libraries,
none but general methods can be suggested, namely, to push them as
Young Men's Mercantile Libraries.
38^
energetically aud wisely as possible. Tlie friends of institutions estab-
lished with forms and habits of their own, do not often relish the idea
of changiuj; them. It is, accordingly, not worth while to seek any
changes in such mercantile libraries as are meeting with reasonable
success. Where, however, the prospects of a mercantile library are not
so encouraging as might be desired, the present state of public senti-
ment warrants the belief that a revival would not improbably result
from changing it into a free public library. This can always be done in
such a way as to respect and preserve the traditions of the older insti-
tution. And while, on the one hand, there might be some detriment
from the change, there doubtless would be, on the other, an advantage
so great as to be decisive wherever it could be fully secured. This advan-
stage is the identifying the ownership of, responsibility for, and interest in
the library, not with any one class, no matter how intelligent and re-
spectable, but with the whole community. This, of course, points to
putting the library on exactly the same basis as other municipal con-
cerns; indeed, it makes the library a part of the government; a part
surely more creditable and worthy of encouragement than the jail or
the poorhouse.
[Following will be found tables of Mercantile, Young Men's Associa-
tion, and Young Men's Institute Libraries, showing the date of organi-
zation of each and the number of volumes in each, according to the
latest returns.
Most of the athenneums, mechanics' institutes, and apprentices' libra-
ries are similar in character and purpose, in many respects, to the classes
above mentioned, and it has been thought proper, therefore, to add the
statistics of the more important of these. Further details respecting
all of them will be found in the general table of statistics in Chapter
XXXIX of this report.— Editoks.J
Mercantile Libraries.
Arkansas Little Rock ...
California Sau Francisco .
Illinois Peoria
Maine Dexter
Portland
ilaryland Baltimore
Massachusetts Boston
Missouri Hannibal
St. Louis
Xew Hampsbire . ..Portsmouth...
New York Brooklj'n
Kew York
Ohio Cincinnati
Pennsylvania Philadelphia. .
Pittsburgh
Mercantile Libiary ! 18C'
Mercantile Library ! 1853
Mercantile Library , 1855
Mercantile Library i ieC7
Mercantile Library ! 1851
Mercantile Library 1 1839
Mercantile Library | 1820
Mercantile Library I 1871
Mercantile Library ! 1346
Mercantile Library I 1852
Mercantile Library ! 1857
Mercantile Library ! 1820
Young Men's Mercantile Library 18^5
Mercantile Library i 1821
Young Men's Mercantile Library ! 1847
3, 024
41,5C3
9,155
050
5,031
31,032
21, 500
2,219
42, 013
2,000
50, 257
160, 613
36, 193
125, 66S
13, 012
384 Public Libraries in the United States.
Young Men's Associations.
Place.
Name.
0.=
a..2f
1
it
1838
1826
1867
1848
1866
1833
1833
1841
1835
1834
1866
1847
10, 000
4,510
4,400
Georo'ia Atlanta,
Augusta
Youug Men's Library Association
12, 790
13, 000
4 680
New York Albany
Buffalo
Buffalo
Youn" Men's Association
27 597
Troy ..
Youn" Men's Association
21, 424
Ohio Norwalk
4,300
15, 000
Athenceums.
Place.
Name.
jl
a -3
1^
Maine Rockland
Athensenm
1850
1844
1856
1807
1857
1848
1834
1850
1871
1810
1864
1859
1817
1829
1828
1860
1814
1836
f852
1870
1847
4,000
2,261
3 000
Saco
Athensenm
Massachusetts BlacUstone
Athenaeum and Library Association
3,657
8,700
4 903
Nantucket
Athenaeum
Athenaeum
3 782
Pittsfiekl
18, 000
20, 000
7,306
4,670
11 607
Salem
Weatfield
Minnesota Minneapolis
Athenaeum
Athenaeum
Athensenm and Mechanics' Association
Ohio Zanesville
6,000
4,000
20 000
Athenasum and Historical and Mechanical
Society.
Athenaeum
Philadelphia . .
12, 000
Athenaeum
9,200
3, 050
Windsor
Athenaeum
Young Men's Mercantile Libraries.
Mechanics' and Apprentices' Libraries.
385
1°
California San Francisco .
Maine Lewiston
Portland
Massachusetts Boston
Lowell
Worcester . . .
Michigan Detroit
Kew Hampshire ...Portsmouth..
New York Buffalo
New York . . .
Pennsylvania Lancaster
Philadelphia .
Philadelphia .
Rhode Island Newport
Providence.
Mechanics' Institute
Manufacturers' and Mechanics' Library
Mechanic Apprentices' Library
Mechanic Apprentices' Library
Middlesex Mechanics' Association
Charitable Mechanic Association
Worcester County Mechanics' Association..
Mechanics' Society
Mechanics' Association
Mechanics' Institute
Apprentices' Library
Mechanics' Library
Apprentices' Library Company
Mechanics' Institute of South wark ,
Mechanics' and Manufacturers' Library As-
sociation.
Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers
1855
1861
1835
1820
1842
1820
1826
1865
1820
1828
1820
1852
1791
24, 108
5, 300
4,200
4,500
12, 782
4,000
4,450
3,500
2,800
4,504
53. 000
4,000
21,000
3,550
3,000
6,750
25 E
CHAPTER XV.
'HE LIBRARIES OF YOIIXG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS.
BY CEPHAS BRAIXERD.
Young men's christian associations — Their number and membership — Number
AND extent of LIBRARIKS AND READING ROOMS— PURPOSES— CHARACTER OF READ-
ING—GERMAN ASSOCIATIONS — CaTHOLIC YOUNG men's ASSOCIATIONS — STATISTICS.
LIBRARIES OF YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS.
The first Young Men's Christian Association in the United States was
organized at Boston, Mass., in 1851. There are now, according to the
latest returns received, 478 associations, with an aggregate membership
of 62,180. One hundred and eighty associations, with an aggregate
membership of 43,612, report libraries containing altogether 164,188
volumes ; 139 report libraries valued in the aggregate at $227,268 ; 201
report reading rooms, with an aggregate average attendance of 9,145
readers daily.
The largest library reported is that of the Association at Washington,
D. C, which, together with that of the Washington Library, deposited
in the same rooms, contains about 15,000 volumes.
The active membership of these associations is almost wholly composed
of young men, a majority of w^hom are clerks and artisans. The man-
agement is in the hands of a small body of Christian men, who seek,
through the agencies of the associations, the moral, mental, and social
elevation of those who come within their reach. These societies have
been steadily growing in numbers and influence for the last quarter of
a century, and notably since 1865. Two and one-half millions of dollars
have, within the last ten years, been permanently invested in fifty-oiie
association buildings and some fifty building funds. Seventy-five
trained men are now constantly employed in their executive work and
administration. They are not isolated societies, but are connected in
State organizations, and finally in a single co-operative agency, which
embraces the English speaking part of the continent. Through these
general combinations, by means of committees and paid agents, they are
united in efforts to increase the power of existing associations and to
form new ones. While the moral welfare and advancement of the mem-
bership are sought most earnestly, and as a paramount object, the
agencies for education are not neglected. There is scarcely an associa-
tion which does not have its annual course of lectures, while those in
the larger towns and cities sustain classes in those branches of practical
knowledge which are especially available in business pursuits. The
greater proportion of the libraries are circulating libraries, but two of the
386
Libraries of Young Alen's Christian Associations. 387
largest are used simply for reference and reading in the library room.
The small collections of 100 volumes and less are composed almost
wholly of books of biblical reference for the use of the members of the
association and the Sunday school teachers of the community.
In the purchase of books the first aim of an association is to supply
the means for Bible study, and this portion of their collections is always
in advance of the other. They then seek to obtain books most useful
to the young men who frequent their rooms, in the line of their business
employments. They then add histories, biographies, travels, poetry, and
those works of fiction and general literature which are not considered
objectionable.
The use made of these books may be illustrated by the statistics of a
reading and reference library of about 10,000 volumes for the year 1874,
(excluding therefrom the use of dictionaries and encyclopedias:) His-
tory, II J per cent. ; biography, 4 per cent. ; travels and geography, 31
per cent. ; Bibles and biblical works, 6 per cent. ; theology, 31^ per cent. ;
general literature, 18 per cent. ; poetry and the drama, 7 per cent. ; fie.
tion and tales, 29J per cent. ; arts and sciences, 17 per cent. These
figures indicate unmistakably a decided preference for the better class
of reading. They offer a fair example of the reading in all the libraries.
It is believed that the library of the New York Association, which
embraces 10,552 volumes, is the most valuable of its class in the coun-
try. The books have been selected with the utmost care, are of the best
English editions, when those have been obtainable, and are, for the
most part, excellently bound. This collection is quite complete in stand-
ard history and theology. Much attention has been given to the depart-
ment of art, particularly in the matter of engraving, and the progress of
that art is illustrated by a series of 8,000 engraved portraits begin-
ning at a very early period and brought down to the time when the art
reached its most perfect development. The library room of this associa-
tion has shelves for 25,000 volumes.
The reading rooms of the associations are always free to the general
public. Some are particularly complete in the various departments of
periodical literature.
It is considered of the first importance that both the libraries and
reading rooms should be kept open at hours when they will be con-
veniently accessible to the young men of the community. Some of them
are open during a large portion of each Sunday, though this is far from
being an invariable practice among these societies.
In no case are these collections of books mere libraries ; they do not
stand alone, but are part of a complex machinery, all of which has a
unity of design in seeking, largely by the personal effort of individu-
als, the elevation and best welfare of the young men of the community.
The library of the young men's christian association is, in many
towns, the only one open to the public, and hence it has been the aim
of those who are active in the association movement to encourage and
foster every exhibition of the book gathering spirit.
388
Fuhlic Libraries in the United States.
[Of the 478 associations before mentioned 23 are known as German
Young Men's Christian Associations, their membership being composed
of persons of that nationality.
Besides these, there are in the United States a number of Catholic
Young Men-s Associations which possess libraries and reading rooms for
the use of their members. The statistics of these are but imperfectly
reported, there being as yet no central organization like that of the
Young Men's Christian Associations. The oldest of these associations
reported is that known as the Catholic Philopatrian Literary Institute
of Philadelphia, which was organized in 1850. Among the largest are
those of the Catholic Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio, organized in 1860, and
the Catholic Library Association of Fort Wayne, Ind., organized in 1871,
which contain 3,000 volumes each.
Reports from nine Catholic associations show that they possess libra-
ries containing, in the aggregate, about 18,000 volumes.
Following will be found a table showing the date of organization and
number of volumes in library of the more important associations of both
classes before mentioned. The statistics of others will be found in the
general table in Chapter XXXIX of this report. — Editors.]
Talle of principal libraries of Y4)ung Men's Christian Associations and Catholic Young
Mm's Associations.
California San Francisco . . ,
Dist of Columbia.. "Washington
Illinois Chicago
Indiana Fort Wayne ,
Massachusetts Boston
Boston
New Jersey N ew Brunswick .
Trenton
New York Albany
Albany
Brooklyn
Elmira
New York
Ohio Cincinnati
Pennsylvania Bethlehem
Erie
Hairisbnrgh.
Lancaster
Philadelphia . .
Philadelphia..
Williamsport .
Ehode Island Bristol
Providence ...
Tennessee NashvilUi
Virginia Richmond
Young Men's Christian Association
Washington City Library
Young Men's Christian Association
Catholic Library Association
Young Men's Christian Association
Young Men's Christian Union
Young Men's Christian Association
Young Men's Christian Association
Young Men's Catholic Lyceum
Young Men's Christian Association
Young Men's Christian Association
Young Men's Christian Association
Young Men's Christian Association
Catholic Institute
Young Men's Christian Association
City Library, Young Men's Christian Asso
elation.
Young Men's Christian Association
Young Men's Christian Association
Catholic Philopatrian Literary Institute...
Young Men's Christian Association
Young Men's Christian Association
Young Men's Christian Association
Young Men's Christian Association
Young Men's Christian Association
Young Men's Christian Association
s
U
1853
5,000
1865
15, OOO
1867
2,670
1871
3,000
1851
4,785
1852
3, 6:{5
1868
3,000
1856
3,404
1871
2,000
1857
2,000
1854
8,000
1858
5,200
1852
10, 552
1860
3,000
1867
2,000
1867
5,650
1855
2,100
1872
3,000
1350
2,000
1854
5,310
1866
2,000
1863
2,070
1853
4,000
1870
4,500
18c5
3,600
CHAPTER XVI.
FREE LIBRARIES.
BY J. P. QUIXCY.
Relation of the citizex and the state to free librabies — Incentives to thor-
ough READING — Selection of books — Use and abuse of fiction- Value op
special and complete catalogues — Educational influences and advantages
— Individual endowments and contributions.
The free library, regarded from the alcoves by those responsible for
their supply and arrangement, necessarily suggests studies in the details
of administration. The citizen for whose convenience this wonderful
institution has come into being, as he presents his card at the desk and
summons the author whose instruction he needs, as naturally considers
the central principle which it illustrates and the subtile influences it is
already diffusing in the world.
There are certain eminent philosophers who have emphatically an-
nounced that the sole duty of the state is to administer justice. Legis-
lation should not attempt to improve and uplift the citizen, but be satis-
fied in providing him with a policeman and a penitentiary. They assure
us that private enterprise will best furnish the community with what-
ever civilizing and ennobling influences it may lack. Even the public
school, we are told, is a blunder of which the logical outcome is a state
church, with an annual item of "faggots for heretics" to be assessed
upon all tax-payers. It would not be wise for any moderate dialectician
to question the construction of the syllogisms which have brought
really great men to these dismal conclusions 5 but I have sometimes
thought that it would be pleasant to take an evening walk with one of
them (Mr. Herbert Spencer, for instance) through the main street of a
New Eugland town, and see if he would recognize any tendency to the
evils that he had predicted. He would be shown the ancient barroom
(happily closed) which an unfettered priv^ate enterprise once provided
as the sole place of evening resort. Some of the older inhabitants
might be summoned to give their recollections of this central rallying
place. It was the social exchange of the community, every night ablaze
with light, inviting all male passers-by to try the animal comforts of
spirits and tobacco. Even persons of local respectability, having no-
where else to go, were wont to stray in and stupefy themselves into
endurance of the vulgar jests of the barkeeper and the chorus of brutal
389
390 Public Libraries in the United States.
talk that must prevail when whisky is abundant and women are left
out. Our distinguished thinker would learn that »this tippling house
had been closed by the fiat of a government which no longer permits
the open bar to flaunt its temptations in the face of men ; and not only
was the liberty of the liquor dealing citizen thus outraged, and his
private enterprise remorselessly put down, but this same government
(going on from bad to worse) audaciously exceeded its proper functions
by opening a spacious library, heated and lighted at the general cost.
Instead of the barkeeper and his satellites, we find modest and pleasing
young women dispensing books over the counter. Here are working-
men, with their wives and daughters, reading in comfortable seats or
selecting volumes to make home attractive. If we should estimate in
dollars the saving to the community of that government action which
theorists have condemned, the result would be most gratifying. To the
moral advance which in this case had been initiated by substituting a
public institution for a private enterprise, there would be no want of
fervent testimony. Of course one could not ask an inexorable logician
to abandon those compact formulas about the limits of state action,
which are the best of labor saving inventions to all who can accept
them. We could only set against the philosopher's reasoning what a
poet has called "the unreasoning progress of the world;" and we may
rejoice that no American citizen who has studied the actual workings
and perceived the yet undeveloped capabilities of his town library is
likely to be disturbed by the deductions of a merely verbal logic. He
is familiar with at least one form of this dreaded government interfer-
ence, which not only expresses the collective will of the people, but
constantly tends to inform and purify its sources.
The diminution of human eftbrt necessary to produce a given result is
nowhere more strikingly exhibited than in one of our free libraries. One
is tempted to parody the Celtic paradox, that one man is as good as
another and a great deal better too, by saying that a public library is just
as good as a private one, and for the effective study of books has decided
advantages over it. A student is much more apt to fix and record
the results of reading if the book is not owned. The volumes which
stand on his private shelves may be mastered at aiiy time, which turns
out to be no time, or rather they need not be mastered at all, for there
they are, ready for reference at a moment's notice, but the books bor-
rowed for a few weeks from the public library he is compelled to read
carefully, and with pen in hand. The one secular institution which
encourages self-development as an aim should be especially favored in
the times upon which "we have fallen. Who has not had moments of
skepticism touching the solid advantages to humanity of the mechanical
triumphs our generation has seen '1 They have created a host of new
desires to be gratified, of unimagined luxuries to stimulate the fierce
competitions which thrust the weakest to the wall. But we cannot help
entertaining :\Ir, Mill's painful doubt whether all the splendid achieve-
PUBLIC LIBRAPvY CONCORD, MASS.
Free Libraries. 393
ments of physics and chemistry have yet lightened the toil of a single
human being. We read that the railroads are rapidly extending the
cattle plague and the cholera, and that Mr. Adams told the Comte de
Paris that, had the ocean telegraph been laid a few years earlier, the
frightful calamity of a war between England and America could not
have been avoided. If we would bind these Titans in wholesome service
to the higher interests of our race, it must be done by a commensurate
expansion of the means of popular education. It will not do to ignore
the fact that their advent has greatly increased the difiiculties of main-
taining a healthy poliiical system. It is only by constantly extending
knowledge that we may take good heart, and accept the situation. The
best use to which we can put the stage coach of our ancestors is to carry
us to the railroad, and we can best employ their precious legacy of the
free school as a conveyance to the free library.
There is one question concerning the functions of free libraries upon
which different opinions are held by estimable persons. Should an in-
stitution, supported by tax-payers to promote the general interests of
the community, hasten to supply any books which people can be induced
to ask for by unscrupulous puffs with which publishers fill the papers ?
It must, of course, be admitted that there may be good reasons why
the libraries of wealthy cities should preserve single copies of every-
thing that comes to hand. Silly, and even immoral, publications may
offer illustrations to the student of history, and give him valuable aid
in reproducing the life of the past. But the smaller libraries, which
cannot aim at completeness, have not this excuse for neglecting to exer-
cise a reasonable censorship upon books, and for seeking only to adapt
their supplies to a temporary and indiscriminatiug demand. Surely a
state which lays heavy taxes upon the citizen in order that children
may be taught to read is bound to take some interest in what they read ;
and its representatives niaj^ well take cognizance of the fact, that an
increased facility for obtaining works of sensational fiction is not the
special need of our country at the close of the first century of its inde-
pendence.
Physicians versed in the treatment of those nerve centres, whose
disorder has so alarmingly increased of late years, have testified to the
enervating influence of the prevalent romantic literature, and declared
it to be a fruitful cause of evil to youth of both sexes. The interesting
study of the effects of novel reading in America, to be found in Dr.
Isaac Ray's treatise upon Mental Hygiene, should be familiar to all
who are responsible for the education of our people. Senator Yeaman,
in his recent work upon government, exclaims:
The volumes of trash poured forth dailj', weekly, aud moothly, are appallinjT. Many
minds, which, if confined to a few volumes, would become valuable thinkers, are lost
in the wilderness of brilliant aud fraj^raut weeds.
It has been very hastily assumed that if our young people cannot
obtain the sensational novels which the}' crave, they will make no use
394 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
of the towu library. But this is not so. Boys and girls will read what
is put in their way, provided their attention is judiciously directed, and
the author is not above their capacity. I am, fortunately, able to ad-
duce direct testimony to a truth which will appear self evident to many
who are thoroughly in sympathy with the masses of our people and
have studied their requirements.
There is a free library in Germautown, Pa., sustained by the liberality
of a religious body, and frequented by artisans and working people of
both sexes. It has been in existence for six years, contains at present
more than 7,000 volumes, and takes the extreme. position of excluding all
novels from its shelves. A passage from the report for 1874:, of its
librarian, Mr. William Kite, is commended to the attention of those who
affirm that libraries have no interest for the ma.sses of our people uuless
they administer sensational fiction in heroic doses :
In watcbiug the use of our library as it is more aufl more resorted to by the younger
readers of our coiumunity, I have been much interested in its influence in weaning them
from a desire for works of fiction. On first joining the librarj"^, the new comers often
ask for such books, but failing to procure them, and having their attention turned to
works of interest aud instruction, in almost every instance they settle down to good
reading and cease asking for novels. I am persuaded that mnch of this vitiated taste
is cultivated by the purveyors to the reading classes, and that they are responsible for
an appetite they often profess to deplore, but continue to cater to, under the plausible
excuse that the public will have such works.
A letter from Mr. Kite (dated November 11, 1875) gives most gratify-
ing statements concerning the growth and success of the Friends' Free
Library. I take the liberty of quoting the following extracts, as bearing
upon the matter in hand :
As to'the question of inducing readers to substitute wholesome reading for fiction,
there is no great difficulty about it. It requires a willingness on the part of the care-
takers to assume the labor of leading their tastes for a time. A very considerable
number of the frequenters of our library are factory girls, the class most disposed to
seek amusement in novels and peculiarly liable to be injured by their ftilse pictures of
life. These young people have, under our State laws, an education equal to reading
average literature. . . . According to our gauge of their mental calibre, we offer
to select an interesting book for them. They seem ofteu like children learning
to walk; they must be led awhile, but they soon cater for themselves; we have
thought but few leave because they cannot procure works of fiction. . , . We
receive great help, in rightly leading our young readers, from our juvenile department.
Perhaps the name hardly conveys the nature of the books, for it contains many works
intended to give rudimentary instruction in natural history and science, and does not
contain children's novels, Sunday school or others. It is safe to say that relaxation in
the sense spoken of as belonging to novel reading is obtained by our readers in the use
of books of travel, of which we have a rich collection.
In further illustration of what seems to me to be the better American
opinion upon the matter under consideration, I quote from the last report
(1875) of the examining committee of the Boston Public Library. That
committee was composed of well known aud responsible men, who may
be presumed to have given due consideration to the language they
sanction. The italics in the following extract are mine :
Free Libraries 395
There is a vast rauge of ephemeral literature, excitiog andfascinating, apDlogetic of
vice or confusing distinctions between plain right and wrong; fostering discontent
with the peaceful, homely duties which constitute a large portion of average men and
women's lives; responsible for an immense amount of the mental disease and moral
irregularities which are so troublesome an element in modern society — and this is the
kind of reading to which multitudes naturally take, which it is not the business of a town
library to supply, although for a time it may be expedient to yield to its claims while
awaiting the development of a more elevated taste. Notwithstanding many popular
notions to the contrary, it is no part of the duty of a municipality f to raise taxes for
the amusement of the people, unless the amusement is tolerably sure to be conducive
to the higher ends of good citizenship. . . . The sole relation of a town library to
the general interest is as a supplement to the school system; as an instrumentality of hiyher
instruction to all classes of people.
No one has ever doubted that the great majority of books in a free
library should be emphatically popular in their character. They should
furuish reading interesting and intelligible to the average graduate of
the schools. And there is no lack of such works. The outlines of the
sciences have been given by men of genius after methods the most sim-
ple and attractive. History and biography in the hands of competent
authors fascinate the imagination and give a healthy stimulus to thought.
The narratives of travelers, beautifully illustrated as they so often are
at the pre.sent day, are thrilling enough to gratify that love of wild
adventure which is at times a wholesome recoil from the monotonies of
civilization. Some.of the great masters of romance interest, and at the
same time elevate and teach. What theologian has shown the power
of secret sin to inthrall the human heart as Hawthorne has shown
it in the Scarlet Letter ? Can Milton's noble Ode on the Morning of
Christ's Nativity reach the average ear like the lovely Christmas
Carol of Charles Dickens ? Few persons could think it desirable to
exclude all fiction from their town library. But it is one thing to admit
certain works of imagination of pure moral tendency, which have proved
their vitality by living at least a year or two ; it is quite another thing
to assume that the town library is to be made a rival agency to the
book club, the weekly paper, the news stand, and the railroad depot, for
disseminating what are properly enough called " the novels of the day."
Granted that fiction is an important ingredient in education, it is not
the ingredient which is especially lacking in American education at the
present time, and which the public funds must hasten to supply.
It may be thought that I am taking needless pains to emphasize
views which all leaders of opinion willingly accept. Unhappily this is
not the case. A gentleman, whose honorable military services always
secure him the public ear, declared, in a recent address, that free libra-
ries should distribute the literature known as "dime novels," seeing
that these productions, although " highly sensational," are " morally
harmless." The fallacy, as it seems to me, is almost too transparent for
exposure. Morally harmless to whom, and under what circumstances I
Many physiologists believe that, to certain persons at certain periods of
life, the moderate use of alcoholic stimulants is not only morally harm-
396 Public Libraries in the. United States.
less but pbysically beneficial. Would it be well, then, for our towns, at
the collations some of them give to parents and pupils at the end of the
school year, to place plentiful supplies of wine and spirits upon the
tables? Nobody will deny that an occasional dime novel may be mor-
ally harmless to the middle aged mechanic at the close of his day of
honest work. He is amused at the lurid pictures of the every-day
world he knows so well, takes care to put the book out of the way of
his children, and finds himself none the worse for his laugh over the
bloody business of the villain and the impossible amours of the heroine.
But now let us look at the testimony of Jesse Pomeroy, the boy mur-
derer, at present under sentence of death. Mr. J. T. Fields, in a lecture
of which I find a notice in the Boston Journal, (December 14, 1875,)
reports a conversation held with this miserable youth :
Pomeroy, in the course of the interview, said that he had always been a great reader
of blood and thunder stories, having read probably sixty " dime novels," all treating of
scalping and deeds of violence. The boy said that he had no doabt that the reading
of those books had a great deal to do with his course, and he would advise all boys to
leave them alone.
If it is held to be the duty of the State to supply boj's and girls with
dime novels, and the business of the schools to tax the people that
they may be taught to read them, public education is not quite as de-
fensible as many persons have supposed.
It would be foolish to draw any definite line respecting the selection
of books for free libraries, and to declare it worthy of universal adop-
tion. The gentlemen of the Boston committee, while proclaiming the
principle which these institutions should embody, imply that it is pro-
visionally expedient to furnish the literature whose tendencies they so
unequivocally condemn. I am not concerned to dispute their conclu-
sion. The question deserves very grave consideration, and its decision
may wisely differ in different communities. Libraries already organized
may for a time be fettered by precedents that were hastily established.
It may be best that their managers should not directly oppose existing
prejudices, but should gradually gain such spots of vantage ground as
may be held against unreasonable attacks. Some of our librarians have
already entered upon an important line of duty, and offer wise guidance
to their communities in the art of effective reading. The efforts of Mr,
Winsor and other pioneers in this direction should be met in a spirit of
thorough and cordial appreciation. They have recognized the fact
that they are not servants to supply a demand, but that (within limits)
they are responsible for the direction of a new and mighty force. It
is to be hoped that the directors of our smaller libraries will gradually
attain conceptions of public duty which will prevent them from court-
ing a temporary i^opularity by hastening to supply immature and unreg-
ulated minds with the feverish excitements they have learned to crave.
There is a silent opinion ready to sustain those who will associate with
the town library an atmo^iphere of pure ideas and generous traditions.
ROXBURY BRANCH BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY.
Free Libraries. 399
We cannot evade a responsibility which has been placed upon us of
this passiuisf generation. One of the most promising institutions yet
born into the world must be bequeathed to our successors as an instru-
ment always working in the direction of moral and social development.
As not without connection with the subject just dismissed, I desire
to protest against the very common assumption that the number of
books a library circulates serves to measure its usefulness to the com-
munity sustaining it. Even if we reach this conclusion by reckoning
only the works of real value which are called for, it may be wholly fal-
lacious. If such a test is to be recognized, the noble work that has been
done in cataloguing will often appear to be superfluous. I am sure that
many persons consulting the Boston Public Library will agree with
me that its peculiar advantage lies less in the great number of its books,
than in the fact that exhaustive catalogues guide the student to just the
book he wants; he is not co;npelled to swell statistics of circulation by
taking out ten books that were not wanted in order to find the volume
of which he stands in need. A little reflection will make it evident that
the circulation credited to a free library may throw very faint light upon
the one important question of the manner and spirit in which its privi-
leges have been used. To set everybody to reading in all leisure hours
is not necessarily the best thing that the institution can do for us. Much
of its highest usefulness must reach the tax-payer indirectly, and
through vicarious channels. Our people are an exceptionally good
medium for the transmission of intellectual force. The free library will
benefit many of its supporters through the minister's sermon and the
physician's practice ; the editor's leader will lead toward sounder con-
clusions; the teacher will learn, not only something worth communi-
cating, but the best methods of imparting knowledge orally to opening
minds. An educational centre may confer no slight blessing upon out-
lying dependencies by leading to the recovery of the lost art of conver-
sation, as quickening as vulgar personal gossip is enfeebling to the
human mind. It is plain that no attainable statistics will measure the
work of the town library. There are no figures that will tell us, even
approximately, what portion of the intelligence of the community would
have lain dormant without it. How many individuals of exceptional
capacity have been encouraged in thinking and acting more wisely than
the mass of their fellow-citizens, we can never know. We must take for
granted what is incapable of direct demonstration. But it is important
to remember that as intellectual eflbrt is kindled fewer books may be
wanted. Excessive indulgence in miscellaneous reading is soon found
to be incompatible with any real assimilation of knowledge. Statistics
are desirable so long as we do not credit them with information which
they cannot give. It is certainly possible that the usefulness of a free
library may increase in inverse ratio to the circulation of its books.
It is yet too soon to estimate the wonderful results to which this gift
of literature to the masses of the people is destined to lead. It will
400 Pitblic Libraries in the United States.
act and react upon our successors in ways that we cau scarcely antici-
pate. Mr. Froude has contended that the transition from the old indus-
trial education to the modern book ed ication is not for the present a
sign of what can be called progress. Bat this is only sayiug that all
fruitful principles bring temporary disorder in their train. Something
may be urged in behalf of the discipline that went with apprenticeship,
when contrasted with the smattering of unvitalized knowledge which
was all that some of the earlier experiments in public education seemed
able to supply. But the moment the public school is supplemented by
a public library, its capacity is increased an hundredfold. And this
should be recognized by some modification of the ends at which our earlier
schools, the schools of the masses of the people, direct their energies.
When good books could be obtained only by the wealthy, there was
some excuse for crowding a child's memory with disconnected scraps of
knowledge. But now that the free library is opened, sounder methods
are demanded. The miscellaneous examining must give place to a train-
ing that tends to develop the reflective and logical faculties of the mind.
Our classical schools, the schools of a small class, defend their narrow
course of study with the plea that it is their special work to fit for the wider
opportunities of college. It is fast bscoming the work of the schools
of our governing majority to fit for the people's college, the town library.
Many years ago, Macaulay declared the literature then extant in the
English language of far greater value than the literature extant in all
the languages of the world three centuries before. The noble contri-
butions that this literature has received during the last score of years
throw a new emphasis upon the statement. When our public instruc-
tion gives the power of leading English with ease, and of writing it
with some knowledge of the delicacies of its vocabulary, when it is
perceived that its true end is to facilitate and systematize the use of pub-
lic books, the cost of popular education will be repaid in a social advance-
ment which now seems in the dimmest future.
The free library will tend to establish some better pro^wrtion between
the work which must be done in America and the means provided to do
it. It will give the man of origiuaMty an opportunity of finding the
sympathy and support which are somewhere waiting for him. Under
its hospitable roof the pamphlet may again assume a ministry of instruc-,
tion not held of late years. Much valuable investigation is done by
men who have neither the time to write books nor the money to publish
them. Let them remember that a few hundred copies of a pamphlet
are cheaply produced, and, di^stributed among the free libraries, will
reach those who are prepared to take an interest in the matter discussed.
It is no slight privilege to secure that small circle of sympathetic read-
ers who can be picked from the crowd in no other way. And these
publications, when good work is put into them, are no longer ephemeral.
Bound into volumes, and catalogued under the subjects of which they
treat, they remain to shed whatever light may be in them upon difficul-
Free Libraries. 401
ties with which the world is tormented. The politician, trammeled, it
may be, with the fetters of his party, the journalist, not always emanci-
pated from allegiance to temporary expediencies, easily reach the gen-
eral ear. A new means of communication with the people is opening
for the independent thinker who may in the end direct them both. It
will not be the least service rendered by the free library if men of moral
force, who may hold unpopular opinions, are able to touch the pores
through which the public is receptive.
It is to be hoped that each free library will gradually become the
cejQtre of the higher life of its community, and will successfully ai)peal
to private liberality for an increasing attractiveness. A few wealthy
men have already seen that there is no surer way of benefiting their
neighborhoods than by providing permanent library buildings, capable
of giving the pleasure and education which fair forms and beautiful col-
oring afford. It were well to set apart some room in such an edifice for
the display of pictures and other works of art, and to establish the cus-
tom of lending objects of interest for free exhibition. The usage of giv-
ing the first and best of everything to the sovereign is too good to aban-
don to the " efiete despotisms of Europe." It wilt bear transplantitig.
Why should not every one of us acknowledge gracefully the claims of
the general public? When the prosperous citizen treats hiiiist'lf to a
work of art, let it tarry a month at the town library on the Wiiy to its
private destination. It will give its possessor a healthier enjoyment for
subjection to this popular quarantine. And not the wealthy alone, but
all classes of the coramuuity should be encouraged to give some service
to their library. When the state bestows a privilege, it creates an obli-
gation which it is courteous to acknowledge. Any one who takes a few
good newspapers, or can borrow them of his neighbors before they are
used for kindlings, may make a valuable gift to his town library. By
giving a few moments every evening any one can prepare and index a
scrap book which will always be associated with its donor as a volume
absolutely unique, and of permanent interest. Mixed with masses of
foolish and frivolous matter, much of the best thought of the da}' finds
its way into the newspapers. Finance, free trade, the relations of capi-
tal and labor, and other important subjects of research, are illustrated
not only by the essays of able journalists, but by th^e crisp correspond-
ence of active men whose business brings them face to face with the
short-comings of legislation. The millionaire who, by spending thou-
sands, should present the four Shakspere folios to his town library,
would be thought to have honorably connected his name with the insti-
tution ; but the man or woman who gives four folio scrap books filled
with the best contemporary discussions of a few great topics of human
interest, is a far more useful benefactor.
To the statesman, to the student of history, as well as to the general
reader, the work will gain in value as the years go by. It seems doubt-
ful whether the multitudinous records of the times that are thrown
26 E
402 Public Libraries in the United States.
daily from tlie press can be accommodated within the walls of any
institution. But to preserve judicious selections, capable of easy refer-
ence, will always be a high form of literary usefulness.
When Thomas Hobbes declared that democracy was, only another
name for an aristocracy of orators, he never conceived of a democracy
which should be molded by the daily journal and the free library. To
this latter agency we may hopefully look for the gradual deliverance of
the people irom the wiles of the rhetorician and stump orator, with their
distorted fancies and one-sided collection of facts. As the varied
intelligence which books can supply shall be more and more wisely
assimilated, the essential elements of every political and social question
may be confidently submitted to that instructed common sense upon
which the founders of our Government relied. Let us study to perfect
the workings of this crowning department in our apparatus for popular
education. Unlike all other public charities, the free library is equally
generous to those who have and to those who lack. It cares as tenderly
for the many as for the few, and removes some of those painful con-
trasts in human opportunity which all good men are anxious to rectify
CHAPTER XVII.
PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN MANUFACTURING COMMUNITIES.
BY WILI^IAM I. TLETCIIER,
Assistant Librarian Watkinson Library of Reference.
Mill libraries — Social libraries — Endowed free libraries — Prr.Lic i-rke
LIBRARIES — Buildings— General MANAGEMENT — Catalogues — Details oi man-
agement— Choice of books^
Nowhere does the public library system find a better field than in
those communities which are largely engasjed in manufactures. The
density" of the population, the scarcity of books in private ownership,
the dreariness and the dangers of boarding house life, the generally un-
employed evenings of most of the people, offer conditions eminently
suited to give a public library success and usefulness. Tliese facts
have been recognized early in the history of most of our manufacturing
towns, and attempts have been made to establish libraries on some public
or semi-public basis. Four classes of libraries have resulted from these
attempts.
T. MILL LIBRARIES.
Some of the larger manufacturing corporations have established
extensive libraries for the use of their employes. That of the Pacific
Mills, in Lawrenc3, Mass., is a gooJ example of this class. To its
establishment the corporation contributed generously, but it is now
maintained by a contribution of one cent a week from each employe.
This assessment is deducted from the wages by the paymaster, in
accordance with an agreement entered into by each employe on entering
the service of the corporation, and as the average number of hands
employed is from four thousand to four thousand five hundred, the sum
thus realized is sufficient to support the library. It is open every
evening for the drawing of books, and for the use of its well furnished
reading room. The library now contains some G,000 volumes, and
while there is sufficient light reading to furnish entertainment for those
who seek nothing more, there is also a large and growing accumulation of
the best books in all departments of literature which are adapted to
the needs of a circulating library. No one familiar with the workings
of this great mill can fail to see the benefit of the library in cultivating
among the operatives literary tastes and ambitions, and an esprit du
403
404 Public Libraries in the United States.
corps of great value to all the interests of the corporation. The same is
true of the many other instances of libraries of this class.^
II. SOCIAL LIBRARIES.
Libraries of this class are not peculiar to manufacturing towns, as
they have been nowhere else so successful as in the large cities, where
they are, in most cases, known as mercantile libraries. But the manu-
facturing towns have nearly all had their library societies, which have
filled an important place in the cultivation of literary tastes, and in pre-
paring the way for the more modern system of free libraries. Most of
the present free libraries hare, in fact, been formed on the nucleus fur-
nished by a social library, and would probably have never come into
existence without the spur to public effort which is found in the gift of
such a nucleus. Social libraries seem now to have had their day, and,
even where they have not been superseded by free libraries, are appar-
eUftly losing ground in the presence ot the general expectation of better
things.
III. ENDOWED FREE LIBRARIES.
To the honor of the men who have labored at the foundation of our
great manufacturing interests, and have received large wealth as their
merited return, it is to be observed that they have, in many instances,
spent this wealth with a liberal hand for the benefit of the people-
Their benefactions have often taken the form of a gift or bequest for
^the establishment or support and enlargement of a public library-
What could be a better use of wealth acquired by the application of
superior skill and intelligence to manufactures, than to employ it in dif-
^ The following from O. A, Archer, librarian of the Blackinton (Mass.) Library, aflfords
another illustration of the good a public library will do in a community largely com-
posed of operatives in manufactories :
" On first settling in the village, about eighteen years ago, I found a large number
of men and boys who had nothing to read, and they spent their evenings in lounging
at the village store. I offered to loau them books from my private library, which offer
was eagerly accepted. The demand was soon greater than the supply, and I determined
to commence collecting a library for the use of the public. A small sum was raised by
subscription in the outset, and although our additions have not since been large, we
have kept the library in good condition, and have managed to obtain from time to time
such new works as the character of our readers seemed to demand.
" The patrons of the library are mainly operatives, who, after a day of toil, require
reading largely of a light character, as a means of relaxation ; hence a large part of our
books are of the best class of fiction. The average factory girl takes amazingly to
Mary J. Holmes, Marion Harland, and the like, while many of the men read Irving,
Scott, Dickens, and Thackeray. Books of travel are favorites, especially with the
young folks, while the works of Miss Alcott and Sophie May are in great demand. In
order to make a library in a given locality of real service to the people, much discrim-
ination is needful in selecting books that will be read. A thousand Volumes of Greek
and Roman classics, or scientific works, would be of very little use in a small factory
village. Still, the aim with us is to get the best of every class, and gradually work
in books of a higher class, as the demaud for them is created." — Editors.
Public Libraries in Manufacturing Communities. 405
fusing intelligence among those who have contributed to its accumula-
tion by honest toil ? Such things as these are the most serious obsta-
cles in the way of those who would array labor against capital as
against a natural enemy.
In a few cases a bequest 'has furnished all the means for the establish
ment and support of a library, making it a free gift to the people. Tli;it
beneficence is doubtless better directed which is so applied as to make
its usefulness and av^ailability depend on more or less effort on the part
of the beneficiaries. Thus, the gift of a building will stimulate effort in
the matter of furnishing its shelves with books ; or the supply of books
in one important department will excite ambition to keep the other de-
partments up with it. A town which makes the liberality of individ-
uals a reason for not doing anything in its public capacity in any depart-
ment of education or progress, is sure to foil behind those which act on
the principle that effort to procure a good thing greatly enhances it^
value.
IV. PUBLIC FREE LIBRARIES.
This expression is used for want of a better to characterize those
libraries which are maintained as a part of the regular educational sys-
tem, free to all, and supported by taxation. Tliis is without doubt the
character of the public library of the future, the outcome of all the
experiments of the past. Only twenty-five years have elapsed since
the bill permitting the laying of rates for the maintenance of ]mblic
libraries passed the British Parliament, and a similar one was adopted in
the Massachusetts legislature. Many of the States have enacted laws
encouraging the establishment of public libraries, and every year adds
to the number.
That the large manufacturing towns, both in England and in this
country, have been among the first to avail themselves of the privilege
of supporting a public library at the public expense, shows the special
adapted ness of the sysiem to such communities. Probably no Ameri-
can town or city can show so good a record of unanimity in this matter
as did the city of Manchester, England, which voted to lay a rate for
library support by a majority of almost exactly one hundred to one. It
should be stated that the library at Manchester was not established by
rates alone, but enjoyed a generous endowment. The public libraries of
Manchester, as the institution with its branches is called, are in the very
front rank of success and usefulness, their yearly circulation now being
not far from half a million of volumes.
Let it be admitted, then, that this is the form which public libraries
should take to achieve the highest success, especially in a manufac-
turing community, and let ; 11 eflbrts to ])romote their establishment be
made in the direction of inciting, encouraging, and helping the people
to help themselves in this matter. Leaving this branch of the subject,
which is of too general application to be dwelt on at length in this
paper, it will next be iu order to consider some of the details of library
administration in manufacturing towns.
406 Public Libraries in the United States.
BUILDINGS.
lu an industrial comiDUTiity the library should be placed where it will
be the most likely to attract the attentiou and induce the visits of the
large class who would not go far in search of it. The corner of impor-
tant streets in the heart of the town is the proper place for it. The
natural desire to remove it from the bustle of business and place it in
some quiet, secluded spot should be sacrificed to more practical consid-
erations when there is a conflict. For the same reason it is doubtful
whether it is wise to maintain so high ii standard of excellence in the
construction of a building as has generally been done. While aesthetic
considerations should not be lost sight of, and the building should by
no means be unsightly, it is more important that it should be practi-
cally adapted to its uses, and its capacity not be reduced to small limits
on account of the expensive style of the work. In many places the
desire to secure an elegant building according to the conventional stand-
ards has caused the long postponement of the erection of any building
at all, while in others the expense of the work when done has seriously
impaired the resources available for books and the support of the librarj'
The library is more than the building, and must not be sacrificed to it.
The attenipts at adherence to the Gothic or any other ancient style of
architecture in buildings for modern public libraries have not been suc-
cessful, and cannot be in the nature of the case. At the same time, the
expense attending such attempts is unduly large. Another point in-
volving large expense has been the desire to put up absolutely fire proof
structures. This matter is of importance where the preservation of
rare and costly books is concerned, but in regard to such libraries as
we are considering there is little occasion for solicitude, as the books
can generally be readily replaced, and insurance, which can be had at
low rates, will furnish all needed security. In one of the cities of New
England, there is a library built at a cost of nearly $100,000, which is
a model of substantial elegance and architectural beauty, but which is
admitted to be practically unsuited to the requirements of the case.
Had one-half of the money been expended in a plai n structure contain-
ing rooms arranged throughout primarily with reference to use and con-
venience, probably it would have furnished better and ampler accom-
modations than the present building ; while the rest of the moneyj
invested as a book fund, would at once place the library on an inde-
l)endent footing.
Especially, in such communities as we are now considering, is it a
mistake to have the library on the second floor, surrendering the ground
floor to other uses. The same arguments which favor placing the build-
ing in a central situation, eas^^ of access, apply equally to this point. At
least the reading room and the circulating department should be on the
street level. The main library may be placed on the second floor, and
reached (for use in the room) by a separate entrance, while a few thou-
sand volumes of the books most called for are kept in the delivery room
Public Libraries in Manufacturing Communities. 407
below, which should couimuuicate with the library by easy stairs or a
dumb-waiter. la small libraries, two attendants could do all the work
by this arrangement as well as though the delivery of books were done
in the library proper, as is the case in too many of our public libraries;
where it almost, if not quite, prevents the use of the library room for
purposes of study. The great desideratum is, that in making the plans
for a library building, the internal arrangements should be devised by a
person practically acquainted with the workings of such a library as the
building is intended to accommodate, and not by architects or building
committees without such experimental knowledge.
GENERAL MANAGEMENT.
In a manufacturing community it is a matter of great importance and
of no less difficulty to so conduct the public library that it siiall be a
favorite resort of all classes. It must neither repel the masses by high
standards and an atmosphere of dignified respectability which will give
it the odor of aristocracy, nor lose its hold on people of culture and re-
finement by descending to low standards and becoming the meeting
place of a disorderly rabble. Where the artisan and laboring classes
are in the majority their interests should be looked after more jealously
than those of any other class, but it may, with proper care, be done in
such a way that both of the extremes mentioned will be avoided. Good
order, decorum, and cleanliness may be enforced without the employ-
ment of severe and obnoxious restrictions. People disinclined to these
virtues may be dealt with firmly but kindly, and the library become the
means of introducing a wholesome reform it)to their lives in all depart-
ments. The simple keeping of library books in clean paper covers is
worth more than a little for its educational influence. Few persons will
detect themselves soiling a clean book without experiencing a sense of
shame salutary in its tendency; while the receiving a book from the
library in a soiled and dilapidated condition will do little to instil that
respect for the very outside of a book which ought always to be felt. The
expense of re-covering the books as often as they are soiled and worn is
but little ; on the average they will need covering once for every ten
times they are drawn, and the whole cost of covering will not exceed
one cent each.
The character of the attendants and their bearing towards the patrons
of the library deserve close attention in a library having a large con-
stituency of comparatively uncultivated people. To the good breeding
and knowledge of books which will make them acceptable to the literary
portion of the community, they should add that affability, kindness, and
sympathy with even the poorest attempts at culture whicli will make
them useful and agreeable' to all. When the library is thronged with
applicants for books, so that special attention to one will wrong others,
the work must of course be done in a mechanical manner, with a view
to rapidity of execution rather than anything else. But even then
408 Public Libraries in the United States.
courtesy and politeness should not be forgotten, and when there is
leisure for it, applicants for books should receive the best assistance
the attendants can render in the form of information not furnished by
the catalogues, or general aid in making selections. Even the subor-
dinat e attendants, so far as they stand between the books and the people,
should have at least a taste for books and an appreciation of their
own position. Cheapness is not the most desirable quality in library
work.
CATALOGUES.
The only thing to be said on this point that has special reference to
industrial communities is to insist on the catalogues being made with
an eye not to bibliographical and scholarly excellence alone, but also
and especially to the wants of the coinm on people. Nothing further is
necessary than to refer to the recent class lists of the Boston Public
Library as models of catalogues which meet this requirement. Under
the name of each author is given a brief account of the person, and
under each subject title of importance we have not only a list of the
works on the subject, but also a note gi ving hints as to their compara-
tive value and special excellencies, and referring to review articles and
other sources of further information.
DETAILS OF MANAGEMENT.
With the shifting population of a manufacturing town it is necessary
that some efficient means be employed to protect the public library
against the loss of books by loans to irresponsible persons. The means
employed for this purpose are various. Sometimes a deposit of money
equivalent to the value of the books borrowed is required from all per-
sons not possessing busin ess reponsibility.and credit. A more common
system is that in use in Manchester, England, and in many places in
this country, by which every borrower is required to deposit a certificate
signed by some well known and responsible person guaranteeing the
library against loss. The advantages of this system are found in its
entire impartiality, the lightness of the burden imposed by it on appli-
cants, and the almost perfect security it affords when well carried out.
In all places where it has been tried it seems to have given great sat-
isfaction. Another system well adapted to manufacturing communities
is that in which the guarantee certificates are signed not by respectable
citizens at large, but by the members of a regularly constituted board
of reference, consisting of the clergymen, school boards, and city offi-
cials. In this case the certificates are not genuine guarantees against
loss, but simply evidences of the acquaintance of the person signing
with the applicant and the facts cited in the form of application.
This system has worked well and given good satisfaction in places
where it has been tried, though it would seem to be inferior to the
other in some respects. The difficulties arising from frequent changes
Public Libraries in Manufacturing Communities. 409
of residence without uotice beiug given at the -library, require that a
new registration should be occasionally made.
Experience shows that the losses of books by public libraries are due
to the carelessness far oftener than to the wrong intent of borrowers.
The few cases of attempt to defraud which a librarian meets with are
comparatively easy to deal with, but the carelessness which causes so
many delinquencies is the source of continual difficulty, and is the
greatest trial of the librarian who strives after accuracy and method. It
is probable that if figures could be compared on this point, it would be
seen that the people in manufacturing towns are more readily subjected
to library discipline, if the expression may be used, than those whose
business and daily lives are less a matter of routine. The employes in
our large mills and other establishments learn habits of regularity and
punctuality, and also of obedience to rules, which are wanting in many
classes of our population. Bat in manufacturing towns more need
exists of precautions to guard against losses through removals, as such
removals are very frequent. To show how unstable is this population,
the fact may be cited that one of our large corporations, employing four
thousand hands, reports that it employs and discharges every year a
number equal to or even greater than the whole number employed.
Such a state of things as this demands of the public library two things :
first, the best possible system of keeping account of the books loaned ;
and, second, constant vigilance and promptness in the carrying out of
the system. The system of recording loans by means of separate slips,
one for each entry made, kept in numerical order in a drawer having
compartments for the separate days, which system was first introduced
in the Boston Public Library, and has now been adopted either with or
without some modifications in nearly all the leading libraries, has
proved to be far superior to any other yet employed. Its great excel-
lence is in the fact that the retention of books over time is shown by
the record, without the least expenditure of time or labor in searching
for such facts, making it possible to serve a notice by mail on persons re-
taining books over time within twenty-four hours after they become due.
If the mail notice, in any case, should fail to reach the party addressed,
the fact would soon be known to the librarian, and a messenger put on
track of the book within a very few days, by which means, books bor-
rowed by persons who have even moved out of town can generally be
recovered.
Another recommendation of such a system as this, is found in the fact
that it will inspire in the patrons of the library a respect for its rules and
management, which will be most salutary and useful. But even such a
system is of little value if its administration is not as faithful and ener-
getic as the system is thorough. Left to young and incompetent assist-
ants, it will break down under the weight of errors in the record, and
consequent difficulties with borrowers. Except where a thoroughly com-
petent assistant can be employed to take charge of this department, the
410 Public Libraries in the United States.
chief officer of the library shonkl give it his constant personal snper-
vision. Tn the case of such libraries as we are now considering, the
circulating department should be recognized as altogether the most
important, and the best talent employed in the library should be
devoted to its care and improvement. A great deal will be gained in
the direction of interesting the public in the library and in its intelligent
use, if it is made apparent that the management of the library is ac-
tively in sympathy with the popular department, and makes that the
object of its chief solicitude. If, on the other hand, the librarian with-
draws himself to the seclusion of a private office, and devotes his efforts
to the collection and building up of a library which shall conform to
his personal ideas of excellence rather than to the wants of the commu-
nity, gratifying his own tastes as he would in regard to his own private
library, the institution will certainly fail of doing the work it ought,
above all else, to do. And this brings us naturally to the consideration
of the
CHOICE OF BOOKS.
Xo question connected with public libraries has been so much dis-
cussed, or is of such generally recognized importance, as that of the
kinds of reading to be furnished. On the one hand, all kinds of argu-
ments— from the political one, that it is not in the province of gov-
ernment to furnish the people with mere recreation, to the religious
one, that it is wicked to read nov^els — have been urged against the
admission of any but the very highest order of fictitious works;
while, on the other hand, the sweeping assertion is made by some
that the public library cannot refuse to supply whatever the public
sentiment calls for. The mean between these two extremes is doubt-
less the true view of the case. The managers of the public library
are no less bound to control and shape the institution in their charge
so as to produce the best result than are the managers of the school
system. To say that calls for books should be accepted as the indi-
cations of what should be furnished, is to make their office a merely
mechanical and perfunctory one. In such communities as we are espe-
cially considering, adherence to such a principle as this would make
the library a mere slop shop of sensational iiction. But in avoiding the
Scylla of unlimited trash, the Charybdis of too high a standard must be
equally steered clear of. Those who deprecate the free supply of such
fictitious works as the public demands, are generally in favor of the entire
exclusion of fiction of a sensational cast, a course which will unavoid-
ably result in alienating from the library the very class most needing
its beneficial influence. The old recipe for cooking a hare, which begins
with ''first catch your hare," may well be applied to the process of ele-
vating the tastes of the uncultivated masses. Let the library, then,
contain just enough of the mere confectionery of literature to secure the
interest in it of readers of the lowest — not depraved — tastes; but let
this be so dealt Out as may best make it serve its main purpose of a
Public Libraries in Manufacturing Communities. 411
stepping stone to something better. To be more definite, we would
recommend that the library contain one or two sets of the works of that
galaxy of female authors whose names always appear in the focus of
such a discussion as this, and of their compeers of the other sex ; while
such authors as Mrs. Craik, Mrs. Stowe, Mrs. Whitney, Miss Alcott (we
purposely mention these rather than tlie masters of fiction, as better
adapted to replace the others) are duplicated to a much greater extent.
Then by care in the matter of advising readers whose most desired
books are "all out," very much may be done to give them an introduc-
tion to these writers, who will, in many cases, win them to a higher
level of reading.
This result will also be furthered by such an arrangement of the
catalogue that books of an inferior order cannot be looked for with-
out encountering the titles of those of greater value. This is one
of the strongest arguments against furnishing a separate catalogue or
list of works of fiction ; that it makes it possible for a reader to forget
that the library contains anything else.
It will naturally be made a leading object of the public library in aii
industrial community to furnish scientific and mechanical books adapted
to assist artisans in their special callings, particularly in fitting them-
selves for advancement and promotion, and improving the quality of
their work. Just at this time, when special efforts are being made to
save to the country the large sums annually sent abroad to remunerate
foreign workers in the arts of design, by thorough and wide spread in-
struction in those arts among ourselves, all works which can be had
bearing on these and kindred subjects will be sought. Facilities should
be furnished for the making of copies from books of engravings, etc., and
the freest use of all works on the fine arts allowed that is consistent with
their proper preservation. Bat there is little need of dwelling on points
so obvious ; and we will turn to another not so generally recognized —
the importance of providing, even in manufacturing communities, for lib-
eral literary culture. We ought to have said especially in manufacturing
communities, for there is greater need here than in those places in which
private libraries abound, and the English classics at least are to be found
in nearly every house. After all that can be said, the real mission of
the public library is to furnish, not recreation, not the means of earning
a better living, but culture ; and whatever we have said as to its mission
being limited by the wants of the people must be understood to mean
by their real wants, not their fancied ones. " Culture," says Matthew
Arnold, " is indispensably necessary, .... the poor require it as much
as the rich, .... and culture is reading; bat reading with a purpose
to guide it, and with system. He does a g03d work who does anything
to help this ; indeed, it is the one essential service now to be rendered to
education." This is the service rendered by the public library if it
not only supplies books, but educates the people in their use. And no-
where is there more occasion to give prominence to this latter function
of the library than in manufacturing communities.
CHAPTER XVIII.
PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND THE YOUNG.
BY WIL-LIAM I. FXiETCHER,
Assistant Librarian Watkinson Library of Reference.
USK OF LIBRARIES BY THK YOUNG — RESTRICTIONS AS TO AGE DISCUSSED — PaREKTAL
SUPERVISION — The library and the school — Choice of juvenile books —
Cultivating a taste for good reading.
What shall the pablic library do for the young, and how ? is a question
of acknowledged importance. The remarkable development of "juvenile
literature" testifies to the growing importance of this portion of the com-
munity in the eyes of book producers, while the character of much of
this literature, which is now almost thrust into the hands of youth, is
such as to excite grave doubts as to its being of any service, intellectual
or moral. In this state of things the public library is looked to by some
with hope, and by others with fear, according as its management is
apparently such as to draw young readers away from merely friv^olous
reading, or to make such reading more accessible and encourage them
in the use of it; hence the importance of a judicious administration of
the library in this regard.
One of the first questions to be met in arranging a code of rules for
the government of a public library relates to the age at which young
persons shall be admitted to its privileges. There is no usage on this
point which can be called common, hut most libraries fix a certain age,
as twelve or fourteen, below which candidates for admission are ineligi-
ble. Only a few of the most recently established libraries have adopted
what seems to be the right solution of this question, by making no re-
striction whatever as to age. This course recommends itself as the
wisest and the most consistent with the idea of the public library on
many grounds.
In the first place, age is no criterion of mental condition and capacity.
So varying is the date of the awakening of intellectual life, and the ra-
pidity of its progress, that height of stature might almost as well be
taken for its measure as length of years. In every community there are
some young minds of peculiar gifts and precocious development, as fit
to cope with the masterpieces of literature at ten years of age, as the
average person at twenty, and more appreciative of them. From this
class come the minds which rule the world of mind, and confer the
greatest benefits on the race. How can the public library do more for
Ali
Public Libraries and the Young. 413
the intellectual culture of the whole commuriity than by setting forward
in their careers those who will be the teachers and leaders of their gener-
ation? In how many of the lives of those who have been eminent in
literature and science do we find a youth almost discouraged because
deprived of the means of intellectual growth. The lack of appre-
ciation of youthful demands for culture is one of the saddest chapters in
the history of the world's comprehending not the light which comes
into it. Our public libraries will fail in au important part of their
mission if they shut out from their treasures minds craving the best,
and for the best purposes, because, forsooth, the child is too young to
read good books.
Some will be found to advocate the exclusion of such searchers for
knowledge on the ground that precocious tastes should be repressed in
the interests of physical health. But a careful investigation of the facts
in such cases can hardly fail to convince one that in them repression is-
the last thing that will bring about bodily health and vigor. There
should doubtless be regulation, but nothing will be so likely to conduce to
the health and physical well being of a person with strong mental crav-
ings as the reasonable satisfaction of those cravings. Cases can be
cited where children, having what seemed to be a premature develop-
ment of mental qualities coupled with weak or even diseased bodily
constitutions, have rapidly improved in health when circumstances have
allowed the free exercise of their intellectual powers, and have finally
attained a maturity vigorous alike in body and mind. This is in the
nature of a digression, but it can do no harm to call attention thus to
the facts which contradict the common notion that intellectual precocity
should be discouraged. Nature is the best guide, and it is in accordance
with all her workings, that when she has in hand tlie production of a
giant of intellect, the young Hercules should astonish observers by feats
of strength even in his cradle. Let not the public library, then, be found
working against nature by establishing, as far as its influence goes, a
dead level of intellectual attainments for all persons below a certain age.
But there is a much larger class of young persons who ought not to
be excluded from the library, not because they have decided intellectual
cravings and are mentally mature, but because they have capacities
for the cultivation of good tastes, and because the cultivation of such
tastes cannot be begun too early. There is no greater mistake in morals
than that often covered by the saying, harmless enough literally, " Boys
will be boys." This saying is used perhaps oftener than for any other
purpose to justify boys in doing things which are morally not fit for
men to do, and is thus the expression of that great error that immorali-
ties early in life are to be expected and should not be severely depre-
cated. The same misconception of the relations of youth to ma;turity
and of nature's great laws of growth and development, is seen in that
common idea that children need not be expected to have any literary
tastes ; that they may well be allowed to confine their reading t(j> the
414 Public Libraries in the United States.
frivolous, the merely amusing. That this view is an erroneous one
thought and observation agree in showing. Much like the caution of
the mother who would not alloV her son to bathe in the river till he had
learned to swim, is that of those who would have youth wait till a cer-
tain age, when they ought to have good tastes formed, before they can
be admitted to companionship with the best influences for the culti-
vation of them. Who vill presume to set the age at which a child may
first be stirred with the beginnings of a healthy intellectual appetite on
getting a taste of the strong meat of good literature ? This point is one
of the first importance. 2To after efforts can accomplish what is done
with ease early in life in the way of forming habits either mental or
moral, and if there is any truth in the idea that the public library is
not merely a storehouse for the supply of the wants of the reading pub-
lic, but also and especially an educational institution which shall create
wants where they do not exist, then the library ought to bring its' in-
fluences to bear on the young as early as possible.
And this is not a question of inducing young persons to read, but of
directing their reading into right channels. For in these timesthere
is little probability that exclusion from the public library will prevent
tljeir reading. Poor, indeed, in all manner of resources, must be the
child who cannot now buy, beg, or borrow a fair supply of read-
ing of some kind ; so that exclusion from the library is likely to be
a shutting up of the boy or girl to dime novels and story papers
as the staple of reading. Complaints are often made that public libra-
ries foster a taste for light reading, especially among the j'oung. Those
who make this complaint too often fail to perceive that the tastes in-
dulged by those who are admitted to the use of the public library at the
age of twelve or fourteen, are the tastes formed in the previous years of
exclusion. A slight examination of facts, such as can be furnished by
any librarian of experience in a circulating public library, will show how
little force there is in this objection.
Nor should it be forgotten, in considering this question, that to very
many young peopte youth is the time when they have more leisure
for reading than any other portion of life is likely to furnish. At the age
of twelve or fourteen, or even earlier, they are set at work to earn their
living, and thereafter their opportunities for culture are but slight, nor
are their circumstances such as to encourage them then in such a work.
We cannot begin too early to give them a bent towards culture which
shall abide by them and raise them above the work a-day world which will
demand so large a share of their time and strength. The mechanic,
the farmer, the man in any walk of life, who has early formed good
habits of reading, is the one who will magnify his calling, and occupy
the highest positions in it. And to the thousand!^ ot young people, in
whose homes there is none of the atmosphere of culture or of the appli-
ances for it, the public library ought to furnish the means of keeping
pace intellectually with the more favored children of homes where good
Public Libraries and the Young. 415
books abonnd and their subtle influence extends even to those who are
too young to read and understand them. If it fails to do this it is hardly
a fit adjunct to our school system, whose aim it is to give every man a
chance to be the equal of every other man, if he can.
It is not claimed that the arguments used in support of an age limi-
tation are of no force ; but it is believed that they are founded on ob-
jections to the admission of the young to library i)rivileges which are
good only as against an indiscriminate and not properly regulated ad-
mission, and which are not applicable to the extension of the use of the
library to the young under such conditions and restrictions as are re-
quired by their peculiar circumstances.
For example, the public library ought not to furnish young persons
with a means of avoiding parental supervision of their reading. A reg-
ulation making the ^«:ritten consent of the parent a prerequisite to the
registration of the name of a minor, and the continuance of such con-
sent a condition of the continuance of the privilege, will take fiom
parents all cause for complaint in this regard.
Neither should the library be allowed to stand between pupils in school
and their studies, as it is often complained that it does. To remove this
difficulty, the relations of the library to the school system should be
such that teachers should be able to regulate the use of the library by
those pupils whose studies are evidently interfered with by their mis-
cellaneous reading. The use of the library would thus be a stimulus to
endeavor on the part of pupils who would regard its loss as the probable
result of lack of diligence in their studies.
Again, it must be understood that to the young, as to all others, the
library is open only during good behavior. The common idea that chil-
dren and youth are more likely than older persons to commit offenses
against library discipline is not borne out by experience ; but were it
true, a strict enforcement of rules as to fines and penalties would pro-
tect the library against loss and injury, the fear of suspension from the
use of the library as the result of carelessness in its use, operating more
strongly than any other motive to prevent such carelessness.
If there are other objections to the indiscriminate admission of the
young to the library, they can also be met by such regulations as read-
ily suggest themselves, and should not be allowed to count as argu-
ments against a judicious and proper extension of the benefits of the
library to the young.
CHOICE OF BOOKS.
But when the doors of the public library are thrown open to the
young, and they are recognized as an important class of its patrons, the
question comes up, What shall the library furnish to this class in order
to meet its wants ? If the object of the library is understood to be simply
the supplying of the wants of the reading public, and the young are consid-
ered as a portion of that public, the question is very easily answered by
416 Public Libraries in the United States.
saying, Give them what they call for that is not positively injarioiis in
its tendency. Bat if we regard the public library as an educational means
rather than a msre clubbing arrangement for the economical supply of
reading, just as the gas company is for the supply of artificial light, it
becomes of importance, especially with reference to the young, who are
the most susceptible to educating influences, that they should receive
from the library that which will do them good ; and the managers of the
library appear not as caterers to a master whose will is the rule as to what
shall be furnished, but rather as the trainers of gymnasts who seek to
provide that which will be of the greatest service to their men. Ko
doubt both these elements enter into a true conception of the duty of
library managers; but when we are regarding especially the young, the
latter view comes nearer the truth than the other.
In the first place, among the special requirements of tlis young is
this, that the library shall interest and be attractive to tliem. The
attitude of some public libraries toward the young and the uncultivated
seems to say to them, " We cannot encourage you in your low state of
culture; you must come up to the level of appreciating what is really
high toned in literature, or we cannot help you." The public library
being, however, largely if not mainly for the benefit of the uncultivated,
must, to a large extent, come down to the level of this class and meet
them on common ground. Every library ought to have a large list of
good juvenile books, a statement which at once raises the question, What
are good juvenile books? Thisisoneof the vexed questions of the literary
world, closely allied to the one which has so often been mooted in the press
and the pulpit, as to the utility and propriety of novel reading. But
while this question is one on which there are great difiereiices of opin-
ion, there are a few things which may be said on it without diffidence or
the fear of successful contradiction. Of this kind is the remark that
good juvenile books must have something positively good about them.
They should be not merely amusing or entertaining and harmless, but
instructive and stimulating to the better nature. Fortunately such
books are not so rare as they have been. Some of the best minds are
now being turned to the work of i)roviding them. Within a few months
such honored names in the world of letters as those of Hamerton
and Higginsou have been added to the list which contains those of
" Peter Parley," Jacob Abbott, " Walter Aimwell," Elijah Kellogg,
Thomas Hughes, and others who have devoted their talents, not to the
amusement, but to the instruc;ion and culture of youth. The names of
some of the most popular writers for young people in our day are not
ranked with those mentioned above, not because their productions are
positively injurious, but because they lack the positively good qualities
demanded by our definition.
There is a danger to youth in reading some books which are not open
to the charge of directly injurious tendencies. Many of the most popu-
lar juveniles, while running over with excellent "morals," are unwhole-
Piiblie Libraries and the Young. 417
some mental food for tbe yonng, for the reason that they are essentially
untrue. That is, they give false views of life, making it consist, if it be
worth living, of a series of adventures, hair-breadth escapes; encounters
with tyrannical schoolmasters and unnatural parents; sea voyages in
which the green hand commands a ship and defeats a mutiny out of
sheer smartness; rides on runaway locomotives, strokes of good luck,
and a persistent turning up of things just when they are wanted, — all of
which is calculated in the long run to lead away the young imagination
and impart disconteut with the common lot of an uneventful life.
Books of adventure seem to meet a real want in the minds of the
young, and should not be entirely ruled out ; but they cannot be included
among the books the reading of which should be encouraged or greatly
extended. In the ])ublic library it will be found perhaps necessary not
to exclude this class of juvenile books entirely. Such an exclusion is
not here advocated, but it is rather urged that they should not form the
staple of juvenile reading furnished by the library. The better books
should be duplicated so as to be on hand when called for; these should
be provided in such numbers merely that they can occasionally be had
as the " seasoning" to a course of good reading.
But the young patrons of the library ought not to be encouraged in
confining their reading to juveniles, of no matter how good quality. It
is the one great evil of this era of juvenile books, good and bad, that
by supplying mental food in the forui fit for mere children, they post-
pone the attainment of a taste for the strong meat of real literature;
and the public library ought to be influential in exalting this real litera-
ture and keeping it before the people, stemming with it the current ot
trash which is so eagerly welcomed because it is new or because it is
interesting. When children were driven to read the same books as their
elders or not to read at all, there were doubtless thousands, probably
the majority of all, who chose the latter alternative, aud read but very
little in their younger years. Tbis class is better off now than then by
the greater inducements offered them to mental culture in the increased
facilities provided for it. But there seems to be danger that the ease
and smoothness of the royal road to knowledge now provided iu the
great array of easy books in all departments will not conduce to the
formation of such mental growths as resulted from the pursuit of
knowledge under difficulties. There is doubtless more knowledge; but
is there as much power and muscle of mind?
However this may be, none can fail to recognize the importance of
setting young people in the way of reading the best books early in life
And as the public library is likely to be the one place where the masters
of literature can be found, it is essential that here they should be put
by every available means in communication with and under the influence
of these masters.
It only remains now to say that, as we have before intimated, the
public library should be viewed as an adjunct of the public school sys-
27 E
418 Public Libraries in the United States.
tern, and to suggest that ia one or two ways the school may work
together with the library in directing the reading of the young. There
is the matter of themes for the writing of compositions ; by selecting
subjects on which information can be had at the library, the teacher
can send the pupil to the library as a student, and readily put him in
communication with, and excite his interest in, classes of books to which
he has been a stranger and indifferent. Again, in the study of the his-
tory of English literature, a study which, to the credit of our teachers
be it said, is being rapidly extended, the pupils may be induced to take
new interest, and gain greatly in point of real culture by being referred
for illustrative matter to the public library.
CHAPTER XIX.
HOW TO MAKE TOWN LIBRARIES SUCCESSFUL.
BY F. B. PERKINS,
Boston Public Library.
Business capacity and management essential — Mateiual — Choice and pur-
chase OF BOOKS — Periodicals — Details of maxagkment — Catalogues — Keg-
istration — Library manners — Maintenance —Women as librarians — Execu-
tive DUTIES.
To begin with, businesslike management is tlie whole story.
A public library for popular use should be managed not only as a lite-
rary institution, but also as a business concern. The business depart-
ment of educational and literary institutions is too often overlooked or
undervalued. Yet it is vain to expect the solid and permanent success
of such institutions without good business management. Perhaps this
truth may not be so fully recognized in the case of libraries as in that
of other institutions for mental improvement; but those who are familiar
with the inside history of great charities and missionary and educa-
tional enterprises — Bible and tract societies, for instance — know very
well that neither faith nor works (in the religious sense of the words)
would keep them going very long without accurate bookkeeping, reg-
ular hours, and efficient business supervision.
The success of the Methodists has been confirmed in extent and deter-
mined in character as much by the extraordinary abilities of John
Wesley, the business man, as by his energy and zeal as a preacher of
God's word. The commercial success of the Methodist Book Concern,
which is a kind of financial heart in the organization of this powerful
and peculiarly practical religious denomination in the United States, is
a direct legacy from the practices of Mr. Wesley, and a living proof this
day of the importance of the considerations here urged.
In like manner the prosperity of a college — more particularly of a
young one — depends as much on its business management as on the
literary attainments of its faculty. A really able business man might
make a new college successful where learning and studious research
alone might even sink it. There are a few cases where our colleges
have become so large and rich that thej" have taken on what may be
called a proper organic life. Harvard or Yale, for instance, lives on so
large a scale that, like a strong nation, either could long withstand bad
management, for the reason that no one man can quickly wreck so large
419
420 Public Lihraries in the United States.
and strong a life; and the vitality of the whole, outlasting the one
weak member, makes up, after he is dead or dismissed, for the harm he
does while in office.
A great library may for a time withstand very poor business manage-
ment ; because its great accumulation of permanent literary treasures
may be growing more valuable from year to year, even without addi-
tions, and this value will outlive any one man. But a small library,
which is not a treasure house for scholars, but rather a drinking basin
for wayfarers, depends, if not even from month to month, certainly from
year to year, upon the continual watchfulness, tact, and alertness with
which not the wishes of learned men, but the public demand for enter-
taining reading, is understood and met and gratified and managed. A
great lake has its natural sources of supply ; the pitcher on the table
must be filled every day. The large library is valuable for what it has
in it; and to a considerable extent its collections remain valuable even
though its revenues be scanty, its statt" weak or incompetent, its man-
agement illiberal, discourteous. But the small circulating public library,
like a retail shop, depends upon prompt gratification of the demands of
the day. It is not valuable for what it has, but it must keep itself
interesting by getting what it has not. It cannot wait for the resort of
scholars and students ; it must attract readers for pleasure, rest, and
amusement. It is not old learning, but new entertainment, that it must
furnish; as well as learning, it must have popularity ; as well as instruc-
tion, it must, primarily, furnish entertainment; while waiting for the
scholarly few, it must attract the many, and even the ignorant, frivolous,
and thoughtless.
Under this general doctrine, it is not difficult to state some of the
chief points which must be regarded in so organizing and conducting a
town library as to make it successful. These belong under three heads,
viz : material, management, and maintenance.
I. MATERIAL; OR, CHOICE OF BOOKS.
The first mistake likely to be made in establishing a public library is
choosing books of too thoughtful or solid a character. It is vain to
go on the principle of collecting books that people ought to read, and
afterwards trying to coax them to read them. The only practical method
is to begin by supplying books that people already want to read, and
afterwards to do whatever shall be found possible to elevate their read-
ing tastes and habits. Most of those who read are young people who
want entertainment and excitement, or tired people who want relaxation
and amusement. For those who do not read, it is desirable that the
habit of reading should be formed. A habit of reading is more neces-
sary than any particular line of reading, because it is the one indis-
pensable previous requisite ; and to form the habit, easy reading — that
is, i>eading such as people want, such as they enjoy — must be furnished
first, and afterwards that which requires more etibrt.
How to make Town Libraries successful. 421
There is a good deal of fear and dislike among certain classes ot
serious people, of novels and '•'■ trash." This feeling is to a certain ex-
tent well founded. There is no doubt that the scoundrelly books of
which Jack Sheppard is the best known, have done a good deal of
harm. Nor will any luindwell grounded in the old fashioned modesty of
English Christians, ever give in to the folly of the modern French
notion that literature, and art too, have qothin.? to do with morals ; and
that anything that can be represented is a pro[>er subject for representa-
tion to all, either in picture or in print, ami a proper subject for con-
templation by all. It cannot be too much regretted that some American
men and women, otherwise apparently of decent enough character, and
publishers who would express tlie utmost indignation at any imputa-
tions on their respectibility, are of late years yielding to the temptation
to introduce this element into our cleaner literature. No contempt can
be too indignant, no anger too bitter, for the folly, if not the crime, of
such systematic befouling of minds for the sake of gain.
All such baneful literature should be as inexorably excluded from the
public library as arsenic anil laudanum and rum should be refused to
children. This criterion is not difficult to apply, and it is demanded by
all considerations of Christian civilization. It should exclude such
books as Rabelais, the Decameron, the Heptamerou, the Contes drola-
tiques of Balzac, and such rascally French novels as Fanny and the
Woman of Fire, all which books are sold in English translations. for
money by otherwise respectable American publishers. It should also
exclude the thief books and other fictions provocativ^e of crime, so many
of which are also sold by respectable publishers.
Few, indeed, are those who will object to this exclusion of ribald and
immoral books from public circulating libraries. Indeed, even this
brief statement of the case is made not so much because it is needed as a
precaution, as in order to clearly define the line beyond which readers
must not be indulged, and up to which they should be. The line is that
of immorality, and it permits silliness.
" Silly reading," " trash," at least what is such to many persons, must
to a considerable extent be supplied by the public library. And those
who intend to organize a library for the public, for popular reading,
and who intend to exclude such " trash," might as well stop before they
begin. But what is trash to some, is, if not nutriment, at least stimulus,
to others. Readers improve; if it were not so, reading would. not be a
particularly useful practice. The habit of reading is the first and in- ,
dispensable step. That habit once established, it is a recognized fact
that readers go from poorer to better sorts of reading. No case has ever
been cited where a reader, beginning with lofty philosophy, pure religion,
profound science, and useful information, has gradually run down in his
reading until his declining years were disreputably wasted on dime
novels and story weeklies. The idea is ridiculous, even on the bare
statement of it. But the experience of librarians is substantially unan-
422 Public Libraries in the United States.
imous to the contrary: that those who begin with dime novels and
story weeklies may be expected to grow into a liking for a better sort
of stories ; then for the truer narrative of travels and adveutare, of biog-
raphy and history, then of essays and popular science, and so on up-
ward.
If those who cannot make use of any better reading than novels and
stories and jokes are not furnished with these, they will not read at alb
and this is a worse alternative. And to exclude such reading from a
public library will, in general, reduce the extent otits use to one-quar-
ler of what it would otherwise be. The records of our libraries show
that about three fourths of the reading in them is light reading, and
but little alteration in this proportion results from the greater or less
proportion of novels and other light books to the whole collection.^
In thus arguing for a policy of indulgence and help to the immature,
it is not, however, intended to recommend any neglect or injustice
towards the strong, who are capable of enjoying better things. Equally
indispensable with milk for babes and thin broth for the feeble, is strong
meat for men. By the side of the stories should be as good a supply of
reference books and of solid standard literature as the means of the library
will allow. A good English dictionary, a good general encyclopie lia,
a biographical dictionary, a chronological work or two, a good atlas,
a gazetteer, and such further and more special books of that sort as can
be aftbrded, should be among the very first to be obtained.
Along with the books, there should always be supplied as large a
number of periodicals as possible, and these, like the books, should
range "from grave to gay,- from lively to severe," and should be
so assorted as to suit every class of the community. Scientific, me-
chanical, professional, agricultural, or other specialist periodicals can
usually be aflbrded by a public library in greater numbers than by
a private citizen, and in a population so intelligent as ours, it is pretty
certain that there will be in every community some in one or another
line ot life who will be gratified and also benefited by such a supply.
Among the lighter class of these periodicals should be as liberal a
proportion as practicable of the literary, and particularly of what may
be called the picture book magazines and newspapers, both for adults
and for the young. For reading these periodicals, a reading room should
be connected with the library where possible; where it is not, they may
be circulated as books, but for shorter periods and under more stringent
guards, because they are so much more liable to loss and injury.
These two halves of the right doctrine being laid down, namely, about
light reading and reference books, the list of books to be bought must
of course be left to the wisdom of the managers of the enterprise.
Great assistance can, however, almost always be obtained by consult-
ing some professional librarian, if such is accessible, and particularly
' For statistics sliowiug the couipanitive circulatiou of ditftjieut classes of books iu
some public libraries, see Chapter XXXVII, Library Reports and Statistics.— Eon ous
Hoiv to make Town Libraries successful. 423
if oue be selected who has managed, or helped manage, a successful
library.
1q purchasing the books, care should be taken to make use of a fair and
healthy competition among the booksellers. The natural temptations
of a private bargain or a monopoly, might sadly decrease the number
of volumes supplied per dollar, or might seriously injure the average
value of works selected. By obtaining bids from several substantial
houses it can readily be seen who will deal on the best terms. An in-
telligent agent can often make advantageous purchases in person, but
a small library cannot atford to pay for such services. If there be time,
second hand stocks can frequently be searched to advantage, and
auction sales attended ; but in this case the risk of getting defective or
overworn volumes must be guarded against. It will probably be well
to deal directly with firms whose lists are so extensive as to afford a
considerable number of the books required, as such direct dealing should
be made to save one or more profits. A judicious economy, by these and
other means, will be found a very popular feature in starting a library,
as its constituents are certain to be gratified if a large number of vol-
umes are furnished for the money.
II. MANAGEMENT ; OR, ORaANIZATION AND SERVICE.
First, as to the mechanical part. Here, as before, the business doc-
trine should be applied. That is, all the mechanical details of the in-
ventory or record system, the shelving, and the receipt and delivery ot
goods, viz, books, should be, first, thorough ; and second, simple.
Even the smallest public library will require, however, something like
the following set of records :
1. Daybook and ledger.
2. File of book invoices, to be kept separate from other vouchers.
3. Accession list. This may also serve as a shelf list, until the library
becomes too large.
4. Catalogue.
5. Eecord of delivery and return of books.
Other lists and entries of various kinds will be found necessary from
time to time, such as letter books and lists of books sent to binder. A
few specifications will be useful under the above five heads:
The daybook and ledger should be kept by whoever is responsible for
the receipt and disbursement of the funds of the library ; and should
show the whole of its business in exact detail to a cent by balancing
accurately from quarter to quarter and year to year like the books of
any other properly managed business; and they should contain the
materials not only for drawing off the usual accounts for a trial balance
and balance sheet, but for special library accounts such as fines. Keceipts
for fines and other petty cash business should be noted in full by the
librarian invariably at the moment of transaction, and this daily record
duly posted and preserved itself besides.
424
Public Libraries in the United States.
This sort of retail business accuracy will be found from year to year
a very great help to the popularity of the library, at least among people
who are habitually careful, who own property, who can greatly assist the
institution if they choose, and who will be much more inclined to do so
if they can see not only that a good deal is done with the money spent,
but exactly how every cent is spent.
The file of invoices or receipts for books bought should be numbered
in the order of the purchases, and this file will thus show when and
where each purchased volume in the library ^as procured.
The accession catalogue is, in fact, an inventory of goods in the order
of purchase. In it should be entered, first, the first book or lot of books
bought or presented ; second, the second book or lot, and so on, with
references to corresponding invoices and other requisite facts, thus con-
stituting a history of the origin of each accession to the library. The
items required in this accession catalogue are :
1. An accession number, beginning with 1, and ending with a num-
ber for the last volume added, which last number will of course show,
not how many volumes are in the library now, but how many have been
put in ; deduct those lost or unaccounted for at the periodical exami-
nation, and the remainder is the actual number ot volumes in the
library. In the case of a set or series, one line in tlie accession cata-
logue will accommodate the whole; as, "201 to 332. Edinburgh Review."
2. Invoice number, referring to the invoice iu which the book is
charged.
3. Date of receipt of book.
4. Title, (very short.)
5. Remarks. Names of donors may be entered here.
Other items are often added, but these will serve the purpose, as the
additional ones are such as must be sufficiently entered elsewhere.
The book used may be ruled and headed by hand or made to order.
The latter will be necessary where the number of books is considerable ;
for a few hundred, or even a thousand or two, the former may serve.
The following form is a specimen :
1
u
6
1
H
Date of re-
ceipt.
Title of book.
Remarts.
1
1
Gift.
2
1875, Jan. 1
1875, Jan. 2
1875, Jan. 4
Web8ter'.s Dictionary
12
Bible
Catalogue. — Hardly any details can here be given on this subject,
which runs easily into an astonishing number of petty rules, and admits
of a great variety of opinions and practices.
A small library can be competently catalogued iu a shorter and sim-
X>ler way than a large one.
How to make Town Libraries successful. 425
III proportion as the library becomes large, valuable, and frequented,
the librarian will find a card catalogue for his own official use more and
more indispensable.
The catalogue can be sufficiently well Driuted at the nearest printing
office usually, even (with a little ingenuity and good will on the part of
the foreman) if it is a country newspaper office without the usual requi-
sites for book w^ork; and it is on every account best that this, like all the
other business of the library, should be done at home as far as possible.
It is indispensable, practically, that the alphabetical method of cata-
loguing, and not the classification method, should be followed, for the
l)laiu reason that the English alphabet is a key whose use is familiar to
a great many more people than the use of any classification by subjects
or scheme of universal knowledge.
It is extremely desirable that books .should appear in the catalogue
three times — that is, in three difierent places in the alphabet — viz: at
1. The author's name.
2. The title of the book.
3. The subject of the book.
The reason of this is that the customer of a library, unless one of those
helpless nuisances who come in with a feeble grin, and say, "1 want a
nice book," will want either —
1. Such a one's book. (For instance, " I want to get Mr. Darwin's last
■work; I don't remember the name exactly.")
2. A book called so and so. (For instance, " I want to get Ecce Homo.")
3. Something about such and such a subject. ("Can't you give me
something about women's rights?")
For novels, histories, biographies, and some other sorts of books, the
third item is not necessary. If one of the three must be omitted, it
should be the third. Two entries for each book should be retained, unless
in extremity of necessity ; and, if but one can be had, it should be the
author's name, and, of course, the title of an anonymous book.
The titles, on the principle of the smaller the simpler, need not be
more than about twice as long as those in the accession catalogue. They
need give only author's name, a very short title, number and size of
volumes, place and date of publication, and shelf mark; for instance :
McLenuan, J. F. Primitive marriage. 12uio. Edin., 1865 , 3.25
The second or title entry for this book would be thus, being still
shorter than the main entry :
Primitive marriage. J. F. McLeunan ....3. 25
And the third or subject entry would be under the head of Marriage,
with other books on the subject, thus:
Marriage.
— Cnrej', M. Domestic happiness 16. 32
— McLennan, .T. F. Primitive marriage 3. 25
— Woolsey, T. D. Divorce ' 1. 50
The "3. 25" at the right-hand margin means that the book is to be
426 Public Libraries in the United States.
found in place No. 25, on shelf No. 3. " E Jin." means Edinburgh. Four
letters are almost always enough to show where the book was published.
One style of type in a catalogue is twice as good as two. If there
is no card catalogue, the librarian should enter the accession number of
each book in a copy of the printed catalogue kept for the purpose.
This preserves an easily traced history of the book by reference from
the book itself or the catalogue, to the accession catalogue, and from that
to the files of invoices and letters.
Each book, before being circulated, should be permanently identified
by marks on it as the property of the library, as having entered the
service at a particular time, and as belonging in a particular place.
This is commonly to be accomplished by the book plate, securely gum-
med or pasted inside the cover, and containing the library seal or other
device, the accession number, the shelf mark, and the date of accession.
These items may be written in, if desirable ; and when a book is rebound
they should be so recorded as to be sure to get into it again when it
gets its new coat on.
An embossing stamp, to strike the name of the library" into the tex-
ture of title pages, plates, and any other requisite parts of the volume,
is very useful.
Brown paper covers are probably desirable in small libraries, but it
would be better if people would use the books so politely as not to
require them. There seems to be an increasing notion with librarians
that to circulate the books without these dingy overcoats of itself makes
people use them more carefully. The experiment is very easily tried, a
small label being put on the back of the volume to show its shelf mark.
So much for what might be called the inventory department, which
includes the means of identifying the property of the library, of tracing
its history, and determining its place on the shelf. The next point is
very naturally that for wTiich the book has a place on the shelf, namely,
how to get it off, keep track of it while away, and get it safe back.
This includes the registration and delivery service.
Neither of these would be required if everybody would do right. As
it is, however, there are a certain number of thieves, book mutilators,
and careless persons (besides accideuts) who would seriously diminish
the extent and value of the library if precautions were not taken against
them. A list must therefore be kept, either in an alphabeted book or
(a better plan) on slips or cards, like a card catalogue of books, of all
those who are entitled to use the library, and each such person should
receive a card certifying to such right, to be shown and stamped
if necessary (and it will be necessary where much business is done)
whenever a book is taken away or brought back.
Books may be delivered in numbers and for periods as may be pre-
scribed, to persons thus registered only. What is called the " ledger
system" may do for small constituencies, to record deliveries and returns
Hoiv to make Town Libraries successful. 427
of books; that is, one pag^e or part of a page may be devoted to each
taker, iu a ledger for the purpose, and, when such taker receives a book,
the shelf mark and date may be entered on that page. A still more
compendious fashion is, however, found to serve every purpose of both
registration and delivery in circulating libraries (which are wholly busi-
ness speculations) in our large cities, to wit : as each successive cus-
tomer comes up, his name and address are written on a dated page,
daybook fashion, and the accession number of the book, and the num-
ber in that day's issues, opposite it. The numbers of the month and day
and this same issue number, are noted inside the cover of the book, and
that is all. This, with the additional requirement of a deposit when-
ever necessary, would very likely serve the turn perfectly well, and if
it should be found insuflBcient or be outgrown, a more elaborate plan
could be substituted. All it requires is a large blank book with a date
column at each side of the page, and if Mr. John Smith takes out Mc-
Lennan's Primitive Marriage, the entry in the blank book would be by
the accession number thus: "1875, Feb. 28, 130, J. Smith. 53 Con-
gress St., 2,340," and inside the cover of the book, "2 | 28 \ 130." If
the book is reported lost, the accession catalogue, No. 2,346, shows at
once what the book was, and the invoice column will show where to
look for its cost, and therefore what Mr. Smith should pay. And if it
is returned, the "2 | 28 | 130" in it shows where to look iu the ledger in
order to check the book as returned, viz: it was the 130th book delivered
on the 28th day of the second month ; and, also, if kept too long, how
many days' fine is due. And if nothing is heard from Mr. Smith, the
ledger also shows where to look for him, viz : 53 Congress street.
Whenever the extent of the business done makes it necessary, a sys-
tem as elaborate as that employed for the 80,000 persons who use the
Boston Public Library may be a[)plied ; but the smaller the sinipler.
Supposing the machinery of the library thus set up and ready for
operation, we have next to consi.ler how it should be operated. The
principles which make any ordinary business successful, are, if possible,
still more closely applicable here than in la,\ing in the stock to be fur-
nished, or in preparing the mechanism for furnishing it. A sour face,
gruff and disobliging manners, sharp or contemptuous answers, con-
tentiousness, slowness to gi\*e information or to wait on customers, will
Ijromptly and deeply wound the usefulness of the library. Many ludi-
crously foolish questions are put to librarians, and it sometimes almost
seems as if the unreasonable and the scolds resorted by preconcerted
agreement to the librarian's desk to plague him with their complaints,
their fault finding, their impertinence, and their sneers. But it will not
do for a salesman to give way to the Old Adam any more than for a
Christian ; nor will it do for a librarian. .Perfection is hardly to be ex-
pected, but it should be followed after ; and a perfect librarian is bound
to be courteous and kind, attentive and accommodating, not only to the
polite and considerate, but also to the evil and the unthankful.
428 Public Libraries in the United States.
At the same time, all rules and regulations must be steadily, though
civilly, euf'oreed, not as an exertion of the librarian's authority, but as a
law which both librarian and borrower must equally obey. Fines must
sometimes be collected, and the delivery of books refused in conse-
quence of non-payment or other delinquency. All manner of attempts
to obtain illegal privileges, to avoid complying with regulations, to de-
fraud the library of books or of money, must be met, though fortunately
not so frequently in a small community as in a large one; and this enforce-
ment of law and resistance to imposition, as well as the regular library
service for good citizens, it is the librarian's duty to perform not merely
with justice and accuracy, but with conciliating kindness. The library
ought not only to give out and take back books, but it ought to keep
all its friends and to make new ones. It is very true that Moses him-
self, with all his meekness, would find to-day, if he were running a
public circulating library, more Korahs, Dathans, and Abirams to im-
pute bad sentiments and manners to him, than of old troubled the camp
of Israel. But such is society ; and those who cannot meet detraction
with courtesy, and the detractors themselves with civility and attention,
are not fit to be politicians, missionaries, or librarians.
It will be found a great convenience to have in the sight ot borrowers
a shelf of the last twenty or fifty wqvj^ ac(;essions t^ the library, and,
where it is safe, to permit the borrowers to examine these. In some
communities, the liberty could not be safely granted, but where it is, the
scrutiny will save a great many questions and a good deal of trouble.
There should be a public book or other open record for entering the
names of books wanted which are not in the library, and these should al-
ways be got.if possible; duplicates of books eagerly sought for should be
obtained to the utmost extent that the means of the library will permit ;
and the same of popular periodicals. These two instances came un 'ej*
the generi^l rule, that, so far as circumstances permit, the library should
do whatever is asked of it.
The duties of the public in dealing with the library must not be en-
tirely passed over. If the friends of the library clearly understand
these duties, and habitually use their influence to promote the observ-
ance of them, a public sentiment will gradually be created and main-
tained which will be a great encourageihent and assistance to the
institution on all hands, and an important confirmation of its popularity
and success.
Unreasonableness is the only fault which people need to guard against
in dealing with a library. I am unreasonable if I complain and find
fault upon finding that some one else has the book I want; or upon
being required to specify what book I want in the regular way ; or upon
being confined to just such privileges as everybody else enjoys : or upon
being required to pay a fine for keeping a book too long, or for return-
ing it in an iujured condition ; or upon being required to pay for it if I
How to make Town Libraries successful. 429
spoil it or lose it. So I am if I plague the librarian by trying to make
him (or her) pick out books for me instead of doing it myself; as Bel-
shazzar first required Daniel to tell him what his dream was, and after-
wards what it meant.
These specimens will sufficiently show what ought not to be done by
the public, and these, as well as all other wrong doings, will be prevented
by observing the one plain rule of considerate courtesy in dealing with
the library. This rule, while it will prevent injustice and undeserved
annoyance, will, at the same time, permit that free criticism and sug-
gestion that all may justly practise, which is not merely the right of
the public, but a favor to the library, and which every judicious friend
of the institution will welcome.
III. MAINTENANCE.
The circumstances of the case must determine how each library is
(financially) created and maintained. But there is one. excellent prac-
tical rule, already proved healthy and efficient in its application to
common schools, which ought to be applied to public libraries as far as
possible. It is this: That the community as such (that is, by public
money, not through fees paid to the library) should pay something for
its privileges. Unrestricted gifts to the public, like unrestricted charity
to paupers and beggars, are almost certain to be undervalued if not
abused. In our best school systems, the receipt of the State money by
a town for school purposes depends more or less on the energy with
which the town raises money of its own. God helps those who help
themselves. The state finds it safe to imitate the divine example in
this particular ; and so in the case of libraries. A State grant for the
purpose, to depend on the raising of a proper yearly amount by the
town, is the most American, that is, the most direct and effective,
method of promoting the library department of our systems of public
education. On precisely the same principle, private gifts for the same
purpose should be upon the same condition. This plan secures not only
beginning but continuance; not only birth but healthy life. It is com-
paratively easy to produce a revival, either in religion or literature, and
thus to found a church or a library ; the real task is to maintain it
in its proper growth and health afterwards.
At a!iy rate, it is desirable that a fair sum should be raised yearly for
the support of a public circulating library by the community which uses
it ; for this recurring exertion will keep the public attentive, will incite
the tax-payers to get some reading for their money, and will in every
way maintain the inestimable American practice of making the individual
citizen mind his own (public) business, by watching, managing, and using
what he owns and pays for.
In the not unusual case, however, where acertainsumof money can be
had to set the library going, without any certainty about the future, an
obvious policy should be pursued in hopes of establishing a permanent
430 Fuhlic Libraries in the United States
public support. It is this : to reserve as much as is safe from the first
expenditure, and to apportion this reserve, for a year or two years, so as
to furnish during that time a good supply of fresh books as they come
out. When this reserve is exhausted, if the community has not by that
time learned to value its fountain of reading enough to maintain it by
the necessary yearly tax, it is a community where probably a library
is misplaced, or at least impracticable.
As large a proportion as practicable of the yearly income of the libri-
ry should be invested in books.
The least satisfactory feature of our present library systems is the
excessive proportion which the annual cost of administration bears to
the whole annual expenditure for the library. This state of things should
be remedied as soon as possible by means of mechanical appliances in
library service, of better arrangements of book rooms, and by other suf-
ficient contrivances of that American ingenuity which has thus far done
pretty well in devising means of escape from much greater difficulties.
Women should be employed as librarians and assistants as far as possi-
ble, as the nature of the duties is, to a great extent, and in many cases,
suited to them. W^here the work is too heavy, men must be employed
instead. Precautions will sometimes be needed against curious troubles
arising from the fact that women in such places often do not get along
with other women as well as men do. A good board of trustees, or other
supervisory authority, can, however, remedy this sort of friction by ad-
monition, or, if necessary, by a change in the service. It is worthwhile
to try several different librarians or assistants, if the additional trouble
results in discovering exactly the right one at last ; and it will be found
an excellent motive in the librarian's own breast to be clearly aware that
actual success, as well as formal good behavior, is required in order to
continuance in office.
Wherever the librarian, or some other competent person in or out of
the library board, is able and willing, a yearly or occasional lecture,
course of lectures, or other public performance, and perhaps special
courses of lessons, may result in benefit to the library. But it has not
been found that it is worth while to have such operations obligatory all
tlie year, or every season. Good opportunities should be seized, and,
in their absence, efforts should not be wasted.
Tlie natural division of associate enterprises into executive and ad-
visory departments is as necessary in a successful library as in an
insurance company, a bank, or a government. If the librarian is com-
petent, he should be the trusted executive of the library, and behind
him should stand a board of trustees or directors, or other consulting
and legislative body. If he is not competent, the president of the board,
or some other member of it, formally or informally a[)pointed, should
act. Such executive should be allowed, under full responsibility, ade-
quate i)owers. Unless tin'-re is some reason to the contrary, the libra-
rian should act as secretary to the board, as in that place he can inform,
suggest, and advise, as cases may require.
CHAPTER XX.
READING IN POPULAR LIBRARIES.
BT JUSTIN WINSOR,
Superintendent of the Boston Public Library.
nAUACTER OV READING CONSIDERED — PaSTIME READERS — NATURAL TENDENCIES OP
RKADING TOWARDS ELEVATION OF TASTE — OPPORTUNITIES OF LI1JUARIAN8 — YOUTH-
FUL READERS.
People who look wise, and sbake their heads, and talk about public
libraries being after all not an unmixed good, are the greatest encomiasts
which the system has, because they imply that they diifer from most
I)8ople, and that the practice of imputing unqualified good to libraries
prevails, when nobody thinks of assigning such a condition to the pul-
pit, the bar, or trade.
These censorious llatterers refer to the character of the reading that is
put into such libraries and is drawn from them by the mass of readers,
and they estimate the value of that reading wholly from their own wants
and predilections, and without any regard to the immense variety of
minds and character which fortunately makes up communities.
If the good inflaences largely predominate, most advocates of libraries
will be content, and they are not altogether strenuous that the good
should be positive in all cases, being quite happy if a negative benefit
is brought about.
It is a very easy matter to form a library to suit the wants of specific
conditions of people ; but it is not so easy to gather such books as will
aflford the greatest and most varied interest to all sorts of readers.
What will hawn some will work no harm to others, though it may do
them no more good than to grant them a pastime, and it is with this
object that three quarters of the reading of people not professedly
bookish is carried on; and whether it be desirable or not, the pastime
readers are the most of the people to whose wants public libraries of
the popular sort minister.
Books can neither instruct nor amuse if they are not within the com-
prehension, or" it is perhaps better to say, within the literary sense of
their readers. One may understand a book, but it does not allure him
■from other things, unless it responds to his intellectual wants, or runs
upon the plane of his mental traiuing. When we consider the vast
multitudes of people who are destitute of literary culture — and they
may be none the worse citizens, and many even may be bright think-
431
432 Public Libraries in the United States.
ers — we need not be disappointed that so many read what, in a literary
sense, are poor books ; and that so few read for other reasons than to
refresh themselves after sterner work.
It is not very considerate to establish anything like a fixed standard
of good for all people, whether in dietetics or literature. There is doubt-
less a universal goodness in literature as bread is in diet; but no one
wants to live on bread solely, and it is the variety, and to a consider-
able extent, condiments and relishes in food and in books, that give
health to the appetite and vigor to the digestion. These critics cannot
understand why the epicure eats the trail with the woodcock. They
call what is unpalatable to them or mawtisli to their ideas trash, for-
getting that this much abused word represents a quality which is not
positive, but only relative, and is like the freezing point, which depends
upon the substance to be frozen. Water is useful and iron is useful,
but they solidify at such different temperatures that they are not equally
useful in the stomach.
This doctrine of the average mind and procrustean lengths in educa-
tion, is unfortunately one that cannot easily be discarded in our schools,
where a few teachers are to instruct many scholars; but in libraries,
where the teachers are dumb, and are not annoyed by whispering, each
reader can have his own mentor, and there is not a little gratiticatioa
in the emancipation from rule which is thus produced. There is also
some significance in the up and down traveling of the trash point ac-
cording to the quality of the pupil.
Thus it is: A spurns as trash what elevates B, who looks down on
the highest reading 0 is capable of, and s ) on till you get down to the
mere jingle that amuses a half idiot, who is happy because he can Un-
derstand something above the caterwauling of the roofs. If this prin-
ciple is understood, the whole question lightens up. It is by no means
to be inferred that, however we take things, we must leave them as we
find them. Librarians do not do their whole duty unless they strive to
elevate the taste of their readers, and this they can do, not by refusing
to put within their reach the books which the masses of readers want,
but by inducing a habit of frequenting the library, by giving readers
sucli books as they ask for and then helping them in the choice of books,
conducting them, say from the ordinary society novel to the historical
novel, and then to the proofs and illustrations of the events or periods
commemorated in the more readable of the historians. Multitudes of
readers need only to be put in this path to follow it. This can be satis-
factorily proved by statistics in any well administered library where the
records of circulation are kept in a way to be a guidance rather than
an obstacle to the librarian.
But the proofs do not show all, and only the librarian knows what
allowance must be made for several interfering influences. Most of the
frequenters of a popular library drop off when you have begun to have
thie most effect upon them, because they have attained au age when
Reading in Popular Libraries. 433
business first begins to engross their attention, and they confine their
reading to a newspaper on week days and to a chance number of a peri-
odical on Sundays. Librarians know that if these influences can be
resisted, and the young man can continue to frequent the library,
he can be helpfully advanced in his reading. Again, every year many
young readers begin their experiences with the library. They find all
the instructive reading they ought to have in their school books, and
frequent the library for story books. These swell the issues of fiction,
but they prevent the statistics of that better reading into which you
have allured the older ones, from telling as they should in the average.
A reasonable conclusion, then, is, that the mass of readers in popular
libraries crave pastime only ; but they can be made to glide into what
is commonly called instructive reading quite as early as it is good for
them.
28
CHAPTEE XXI.
ART MUSEUMS AND THEIR CONNECTION WITH PUBUC LIBRARIES
BY PROF. H. S. FRIEZE, L,L,.D.,
University of Michigan.
What has already been done — America behind other countries in art ejjuca-
XiON — MUSECMS of ART SUBSERVE NATIONAL INDUSTRIES — INFLUENCE ON ARCHITEC-
TURE— Recreation — Educational and refining influence — Aut museums
PRACTICABLE IN LARGER TOWNS — MaY BE COMPARATIVELY INEXPENSIVE — VOLUN-
TARY effort — Connecting art museums and libraries — Places to obtain
AND cost of copies OF W ORKS OF ART.
WHAT HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE.
The collection of paintings and statuary connected with the Library of
the Boston Athenaium has for many years formed one of the principal
attractions of that city, and has been a source of instruction and imi)rove-
raent both to the inhabitants and to thousands of visitors from abroad.
It has been the school in which many American artists have received
their first impulses and their earliest inspirations.
The writer of this article owes his first impressions of the power of
painting and sculpture to his occasional visits in early life to this gal-
lery; where the Apollo, the Laocoon,and the Diana first opened his mind
to the wonders of ancient sculpture, and the Cleopatra of Gaido, the
Flora of Titian, and the masterpieces of Washington Allston, became
indelibly fixed in his memory. Many an American traveler, while enjoy-
ing the lavish wealth of ancient and modern art displayed in the great gal-
leries of Europe — absorbing, as they do, the greater part of the tour-
ist's time, and contributing more than anything else to the pleasure of
travel — looks back with gratitude to the comparatively small and hum-
ble art museum of the Boston Athenteum as the training school to
which he owes in a great degree his power to appreciate the rich treas-
ures of sculpture and painting in the Old World.
Not that other collections, or occasional exhibitions of a kindred char-
acter in othercities, especially in New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and
Chicago, have not also done much for the improvement of our national
taste ; but the gallery of the Boston Athenaeum was the earliest Ameri-
can collection of works of art designed to form a permanent exhibi-
tion possessing a high degree of excellence. It is also the only art
museum in our country connected with a public library ; and on this
account claims particular notice in an article on this subject.
434
Art Museums and their connection with Public Libraries. 435
WE ARE BEHIND OTHER COUNTRIES IN ART EDUCATION.
It is a matter of surprise that the idea of establishing museums of
art, whether or not in connection with public libraries, has not been
adopted more geiierally by the cities of our land, or, at least, by private
corporations of citizens. We entertain a just pride in the excellence of
our popular education, especially as compared with the state of popular
education in England. During the last decade, however, England has
been making rapid progress in educational work of every kind, and es-
pecially in opening to her youth of every class and rank facilities for
the study of art. In this direction she is decidedly in advance of us.
She has opened museums of industrial and fine art in connection with
free libraries as a new and legitimate instrumentality for educating and
elevating the people. Already the beneficial effects of this movement
are perceptible, not only in the improved tastes and manners of the
large numbers who visit the museums and libraries for the purposes of
study, reading, and recreation, but also in the improved training of
young persons for the arts and trades.
THEY SUBSERVE THE NATIONAL INDUSTRIES.
For this subject has also its economical aspect; and the growing-
superiority of continental manufactures, especially of those fabrics
whose value depends largely on excellence in design acquired by the
workmen of the continental nations in their schools of art and design,
has awakened England to the importance of opening similar opportu-
nities to her youth, and of thus affording to her manufacturers the
means of competing successfully with France, Germany, and Switzer-
land. As an illustration of the estimate put by some communities on
the practical and economical value of art study the example of the Swiss
canton of Berne may be cited. In this canton the art of carving in wood
is recognized as a branch of national industry, and is accordingly fostered
by the public authorities. Thus, such of the youth as exhibit remark-
able gifts for art are educated at the public expense in schools of de-
sign either at home or abroad ; and thus the greatest possible amount
of taste and skill is acquired by the inhabitants of the Bernese moun-
tains and valleys for the production of those tasteful works in wood
carving, those elegant articles of furniture, figures of animals, and
artistic ornaments in wood, which have made their way throughout
the world, and which yield no small return to the ingenious skill of these
secluded mountaineers.
No argument, indeed, should be needed at the present day to prove
that sesthetic culture, at least to some extent, that some degree of
development in the way of artistic taste and skill, is necessary to the
progress and perfection even of the industrial arts. Not only the
buUder and the engineer, but the mechanic, the calico printer, modelers,
designers, workmen of almost every kind, are better prepared for good
436. Public Libraries in the United States.
aud successful work by some acquaintauce either with the principles
of art or with works of art.
And so, a due regard even to the material interests of the nation, and
to the successful prosecution of our national industries, should awaken
in every community a lively interest on this subject. We should not
rest contented with a state of culture in this direction inferior to that
which has been attained by England, and far inferior to that enjoyed
by some of the nations of the Continent.
THE NATIONAL ARCHITECTURE WOULD BE IMPROVED.
Among the most direct advantages to be expected from the founding
of popular museums of art, is the improvement of the national taste in
architecture and architectural decoration. And certainly there is noth-
ing in our external civilization which more emphatically calls for im-
provement. It is a frequent criticism, aud altogether too just, that many
of our professed architects, some would say a majority of them, are im-
perfectly acquainted both with the principles of construction and of
architectural propriety. If the buildings which are erected according
to their plans 'do not fall upon our heads, they will stand too often as
unsightly monuments of a vicious taste. But so long as the people ^t
large remain without the means of art culture and of testhetic develop-
ment; without access to those forms of true symmetry and beauty, and
those models of excellence in every art which it is the aim of a museum
to bring together, there will be no demand or vocation for the genuine
architect; because the people, that is the employers, will in general
determine the style of their dwellings and public buildings, and will
accept only the designs which square with their own tastes. Corpora-
tions and building committees do not, on the whole, exhibit a judgment
superior to that of the community which they represent. The architect,
therefore, must often modify his design to meet their requirements
As a rule he can carry out no plan which rises above the level of
their intelligence. Hence, in the too general lack of*the right kind
of knowledge, and of the correct standard of taste, almost every
village and city is disfigured more or less with architectural mal-
formations. Hence, our "Carpenter's Gothic," "Carpenter's Doric,"
and our crude combinations of Komauesque and Byzantine, and Greek
and Gothic; and hence the nondescript designs, consisting of incon-
gruous reminiscences of all styles, foisted upon us as "original" Ameri-
can architecture, which, perhaps, in truth it may be called. A more
correct taste, however, is beginning to make its way, though it is still
in advance of the times. Immense sums are still expended upon piles of
brick, iron, stone, stucco, and wood, whicli have absolutely no architect-
ural character but that which is akin to the meretricious rococco style of
two centuries ago; structures which, if they escape the fire, will be looked
upon hereafter as painful deformities, though, perhaps, too costly to be
pulled down. They abound in incongruous members, false combina-
Art Museums and their connection with Public Libraries. 437
tions, inapposite decorations, mnltiplied aud jumbled together for the
sake of vicious display and foolish expense. Millions have been thrown
away in this vulgar parade of costly building; mostly, however, in
the direction of domestic architecture, for excessive outlay on public
buildings is not in general the tendency of our times. We have not
yet reached the period when the patriotism of citizens will lead them to
be more ambitious for the sumptuousness of civic buildings than of
their private dwellings.
Now the correction of such errors of judgment is to be found in a
more general cultivation of art. Men of genius should find in the uni-
versities aud polytechnic schools of the country every needful help to a
complete education in the principles of architecture and of the other
arts which are inseparable from it. Then the taste of the public must be
cultivated in the same direction, though not necessarily to the same
degree, by the employment of kindred means. Otherwise, well educated
architects will find little employment, will have but little influence, and
will be set aside for those of superficial attainments, whose ideas will be
more in harmony with those of the community.
Jt was the cultivating influence of such men of true art as Adam Craft,
Peter Fisher, and Albrecht Diirer, which led the citizens of old Nurem-
berg to adopt that simple, elegant, and substantial domestic architecture,
which has been lately reproduced in the residences of the new and
beautiful Marien street of the modern part of that interesting city.
This old architecture, so truthful, so free from sham, and from flashy
display, has been adopted for the new city because none has been found
so appropriate to the place, and nothing in itself superior, if equal.
If we are to have types of architecture truly original and American,
and worthy of our country, and destined to endure, they are to grow
up in various localities, under the influence of the peculiar circumstances
of the place, its climate, its native materials, and particular wants; all
controlled by the tastes both of architects arid communities thoroughly
imbued with the principles of genuine art.
But while economical considerations would of themselves justify the
founding of art museums for the benefit of the public at the public ex-
pense, these are by no means the only arguments in favor of their estab-
lishment.
INNOCENT AND IMPROVING KECREATION.
Most of our principal cities are laying out large sums on parks and
pleasure grounds, for the purpose of affording better opportunities to
their crowded populations for healthful recreation and enjoyment. And
here, too, a large share of attention is most properly bestowed on art
in the direction of landscape gardening. The gratification of the eye
and of the (esthetic sense here also is not neglected. But all this ex-
penditure is lost to most of the people for one-half of the year on account
of our long winters. Yet if the principle of providing at the public ex-
438 Public Libraries in the United States.
pense for the innocent recreation of the citizens is recognized as correct,
some elevating means of enjoyment should be afforded for the winter
as well as for the summer months. What an unfailing resource is the
Louvre or the London gallery in the hours when recreation is needed,
and when an inclement sky forbids all out-door enjoyment ! Such a
resource, no matter though it be on a smaller scale, is within the reach
of every considerable city in our land.
EDUCATIONAL AKD REFINING INFLUENCE.
But above all, there is the educational advantage. We are willing
to be taxed for the support of common schools ; some States tax them-
selves for universities ; almost every city is taxed for one or more high
schools, and many for the support of public libraries. But the same
mind that finds* its aliment in schools, and books, needs also for one of
its best faculties the nutriment afforded by the creations of the artist.
Without this aid that faculty remains dormant. Its power to enhance
the value of individual and social life is lost. Now, can any just reason
be given why the aesthetic faculty should be left out of our plans for
public and popular education? why money should be expended for in-
structive books, and not also for instructive and elevating works of
artr
^The followiug extract from a letter by the late John Stuart Mill, iu 18(39, to a com-
mittee of the American Social Science Association, (Journal of Social Science, No. 5,
1873, pp. 137, 138,) is given because of its pertinence to the subject under discussion,
though it was written especially to encourage art education in public schools :
"The multiplication of casts of the finest works of ancient sculpture, i« very useful
as one among many means of educating the public eye. Both in art and in nature, a
certain degree of familiarity is necessary, not merely to the intellectual appreciation,
but to the enjoyment of the higher kinds of beauty. Every one who takes pleasure in
a simple tune, has the capacity of fully enjoying Weber and Beethoven, but very often
he derives little or no pleasure from a first hearing of them. It is a great inistake to
thinkjthat children are not benefited by living and growing up among models of beauty.
They are, on the contrary, more benefited than any one else, though not, at the time,
conscious of the benefit. I can trace a great influence in my own development to the
accident of having passed several years of my boyhood iu one of the few old abbeys
which are still inhabited, instead of a mean and graceless modern house, and having at
the same time and place been familiar with the tapestries from Kaphael's cartoons,
which peopled my imagination with graceful and dignified forms of hum9,n beings.
"There is a great want of this training of the perceptions and taste in our modern
societies, but it is not by any one help or stimulus that the want can be supplied. The
great desideratum in America, and, though not quite in an equal degree, I may say in
England too, is the improvement of the higher education. America surpasses all
countries in the amount of mental cultivation which she has been able to make uni-
versal ; but a high average level is not everything. There are wanted, I do not say a
class, but a great number of persons of the highest degree of cultivation which the
accumulated acquisitions of the human race make it possible to give them.
"From such persons, in a community which knows no distinctions of ranks, civiliza-
tion would rain down its influences upon the remainder of society, and the higher fac-
ulties having been highly cultivated in the most advanced part of the public, would
give forth products aud create an atmosphere that would produce a high average of
the same faculties in a people so well prepared, in point of general intelligence, as the
people of the United States."— Editors.
Art Museums and their connection tvith Public Libraries. 439
FEASIBILITY OF FOUNDING ART MUSEUMS IN THE LARGER TOWNS.
Maoy, perhaps most of our citizens, will at first give but little heed to
the idea of public aud free museums of art, partly because the idea is
new, or at least foreign, and partly because it will seem impracticable.
But when it shall be understood how easily the project can be realized ;
with what comparative facility and at what moderate expense the
objects necessary for an interesting and very complete museum can be
obtained, we may hope that many, if not all, of our principal cities will
iay the foundations of such collections.
EXAMPLES OF MUSEUMS CONSISTING OF C(JPIES OF ART WORKS.
Some of the most interesting museums in the world, some of those
most valuable at once for the artist, the scholar, and the tourist, consist
mainly of copies ; copies, made in plaster or other material, of the great
masterpieces of statuary, and well executed copies of the great painters.
To these are sometimes added collections of engravings and photographs.
As examples of such, I may point to the new museum of Berlin, the
large museum of statuary and painting at the Sydenham palace, and
the fine gallery of copies of the ukl masters from every part of Europe
gathered together in the Exposition building at Paris.
INEXPENSIVE, IF ESTABLISHED BY CITY GOVERNMENTS.
Now, for any of our cities containing fifty thousand inhabitants, I
might say even twenty-five thousand, it would require an addition to
the school tax scarcely appreciable, to raise the small amount of money
necessary for the nucleus or first beginbings of a gallery of this kind ;
and an annual outlay still smaller would secure its growth and comple-
tion. Such an institution once established in any place would gradually
accumulate, by donation and otherwise, original works of art as well as
copies ; and it would also in many cases become the depository of his-
torical, archasological, and ethnographical objects. Such has been the
result in the few experiments of this kind which have already been
tried in our own laud.
COULD BE ESTABLISHED BY VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS.
Even independently of any municipal action in aid of such objects,
it would seem to be one of the most attractive and useful enterprises
for the general good which could be presented to the public spirit and
local patriotism of the wealthier class of citizens. How easily and with
how little inconvenience to themselves, financially, could men of means
by organized eifort promote this most desirable object. They would
thus become public benefactors and would greatly increase the attract-
iveness of the places in which they reside. They would supply one of
the most painful deficiencies of our American cities — the want of what
440 Public Libraries in the United States.
we may call internal or intellectual interest. For a city like most of
those of our country, without scientific museums and treasures of art,
however beautiful externally, contains but little to interest and detain
the stranger. In an hour or two he easily takes in all that is worth
seeing in the way of public and private buildings, and passes on his
way without any disposition to make a second visit. He finds no food
for the mind; nothing to make a lasting and pleasing impression upon
his memory. Every one experiences this baldness of American cities as
compared with European. It arises, of course, in part, from the lack of
old historical associations ; but certainly in no small degree from the
want of scientific and art collections.
ECONOMY OF CONNECTING MUSEUMS AND LIBRARIES.
The propriety of connecting such museums, if established at all, with
public libraries, is too obvious to need any lengthy discussion. Their
aims are kindred, indeed identical. Both are designed to promote the
intellectual culture of the people.^ Their association under one roof
would naturally follow from their internal relation. It is evident, too,
that the placing of the museum and library in one building would sub-
serve the public convenience by saving time and trouble to visitors ;
and that thus both would be much ,more frequented than if they were
situated in separate localities; and so both would accomplish much
more eflfectually the purposes of their institution.
Considerations of economy also favor this connection. A library
building can be easily planned in such a manner that an upper tioor,
' The creation of art museums ia many of the British free libraries has been attended
with the happiest results. One feature of the plan therei is the loan of works of art by
the patro,n3 af the library and museum. Mr. Emerson, in an essay on Domestic Life,
(Society and Solitude, pp. 117, 118,) advocates the formation in a similar manner of
art museums in connection with American public libraries :
"1 do not undervalue the fine instruction which statues and pictures give. But I
think the pubHc museum in each town will ond d£ty relieve the private house of this
charge of owning and exhibiting them, I go to Rome and see on the walls of the
Vatican the Transfiguration, painted by Raphael, reckoned the first picture in the
world; or in the Sistine Chapel, I see the grand sibyls and prophets, painted in fresco
by Michael Angelo — which have every day now for three hundred years inflamed the
imagination and exalted the piety of what vast multitudes of men of all nations ! I
wish to bring home to my children and my friends copies of these admirable forms,
which I can find in the shops of the engravers ; but I do not wish the vexation of
owning them. I wish to find in my own town a library and museum which is the
property of the town, where I can deposit this precious treasure, where I and my chil-
dren can see it from time to time, and where it has its proper place among hundreds
of such donations from other citizens who have brought thither whatever articles they
have judged to be in their nature rather a public than a private property.
"A collection of this kind, the property of each town, would dignify the town, and
we should love and respect our neighbors mdre. Obviously, it would be easy for every
town to discharge this truly municipal duty. Every one of us would gladly contribute
his share ; and the more gladly, the more considerable the institution had become." —
Editoks.
PUBLIC LIBRAKT, NORT H AM PT OTs , MASS.
Art Museums and their connection with Public Libraries. 443
admirably lighted for galleries of painting and statuary, can be made
available for this purpose, at very little additional expense. At the
same time the current expenses of library and museum, for obvious
reasons, would be considerably less when combined than if established
in different localities.
WHERE ART WORKS CAN BE OBTAINED, AND AT WHAT COST.
I add a few examples of the prices for which certain works of art can
be purchased, iu order to illustrate the feasibility, in a financial point
of view, of founding such art collections as are here advocated. Among
the casts of statuary first placed iu the new museum of Berlin, and
forming the nucleus of that collection, are the copies of the famous
statues from the ancient temple of ^Egina, now in the Glyptothek at
Munich. These groups may be said to form the beginning of Grecian
sculpture iu its higher development. The figures, which are of the size
of life, are fifteen in number. Exquisitely finished copies of these can
now be had from the Royal Polytechnic School at Munich, more perfect
than those iu the Berlin Museum, at $ J5. The Ilioueus, the best statue
in the Glyptothek, is copied for $28. Other important works can be
obtained from the same department of the Munich Polytechnic School
at equally moderate prices. At the Moulage, iu the Museum of the
Louvre at Paris, the Apollo Belvedere, copied with great exactness, is
sold for $30; the Augustus robed, for $24; the famous Aristides of the
Naples Museum, at the same price ; the colossal group of Laocoon and
his sous, for $80. At this establishment, indeed, very many of the
most valuable statues and groups, ancient and modern, can be obtained
at similar rates. Admirable copies in bronze, mostly reductions of
different sizes, approved by the best artists of Europe, can be obtained
from the well known works of F. Barbedienne in Paris. The prices are
moderate for this material. The Venus of Milo, of half the original size,
costs $140 ; other figures in proportion.
Then the reductions made iu plaster, terra cotta, and other material,
exceedingly perfect, and quite inexpensive, afford a good opportunity for
supplementing a collection which cannot at first be made complete with
copies of the full size. Such reduced copies, as well as busts of the life
size, made under the sanction of the French National School of Fine
Art, can be obtained at very reasonable prices from A. Desachy, who
superintends the work of casting for the Academy of Fine Arts, the
average cost of busts of historical personages being $3 ; that of reduc-
tions of half the life size, about the same. At the same institution are
to be found also copies of statues of the original size, at prices corre-
sponding to those at the Louvre. The small reductions in terra cotta,
mostly of classical statuary, made at Naples by Giovanni Mollica, are
exceedingly perfect. The entire collection embraces nearly one hun-
dred and fifty pieces, consisting of groups, statues, and busts. Properly
arranged in cases, they form a very valuable and attractive addition to
444 Public Libraries in the United States.
any museum, and are useful even to artists. The statues have an aver-
age height of one foot. The material is durable, and the colbr is very
agreeable to the eye. The cost of the entire collection is about $185.
At Copenhagen, at the establishment of Biug & Grondahl, reductions
of all the works of Thorwaldsen on a similar scale to that of the terra
cottas above mentioned, but cast in biscuit, an exceedingly hard and
durable material, and capable of very delicate finish, can be obtained at
prices quite as reasonable for the relative cost of the material and labor;
for example, the group of figures on the pediment of the church of
St. John the Baptist is sold at about $55, and the celebrated group of
Christ and the Apostles, at $72.
Copies of paintings exactly representing the originals, in oil colors,
are, of course, more expensive. Good artists will furnish copies of most
of the masterpieces in the galleries of Florence, containing one figure
of the life size, at about $100, and others at proportionate rates.
I need not add here any particulars as to the importance of engrav-
ings and photographs ; their relative cheapness, and the unlimited facili-
ties they aftbrd for bringing together correct and beautiful representa-
tions of works of art in all its departments, and of supplementing the
galleries of museums which may not possess the means of purchasing
many expensive productions.
CHAPTER XXII.
FREE TOWN LIBRARIES.
BY THE EDITORS.
Frke town libraries defined — The outgrowth of social and school libraries,
— Early social libraries — Early free town libraries — State laws axd
REMARKS THEREON— In NeW HAMPSHIRE MASSACHUSETTS — MaINE — VERMONT —
Ohio — Wisconsin — Connecticut — Iowa — Indiana — Illinois — Texas — Vote
ON library tax in thirty-seven towns in Illinois, Iowa, and Massachusetts —
Patronymic libraries.
Free town libraries, as here considered, comprise those partly or
wholly supported by a direct or indirect tax, or by municipal grants
under authority Of a general State law; and do not include that class
represented by the Astor Library in New York, the Peabody Institute
in Baltimore, the Peabody Library, Peabody, Mass., which, though free,
derive their entire support from the endowments of individuals.
Several such libraries have existed for nearly fifty years, but, as a
class, they have been formed within the last half of that period, and are,
generally speaking, the outgrowth of social libraries — some of which still
existing are uearly a century old — and of the public school libraries that
flourished in many of the States a quarter of a century ago, and which
in some of the States still form an important and influential factor in
education. They are designed to furnish to all without cost the means
for instruction and recreation which the, social libraries provided for
their members only, and to perform the functions of public school
libraries in the education of the people ; and are so planned as to avoid
certain difficulties which the latter met and could not overcome.
During the first half century after the Revolution, social libraries held
an important place among tlie resources for culture of the American
people. Books were in all respects relatively infinitely more difficult to
get then than now, and the collections of the book clubs and social
libraries, insignificant as they may seem to us, were in those times held
in no mean estimation. It is impossible now to ascertain accurately
how many books were contained in the public libraries of all classes in
the United States in the year 1800, for all traces of many of the smaller
collections are lost, but the most thorough investigation enables us to say,
with reasonable certainty, that there were, in that year, not more than
80,000 volumes altogether in the public libraries, or about one volume
to seventy persons. Such glimpses as we can catch of the early social
445
446 Public Libraries in the United States.
libraries are interesting, and indicate that the value of public collec-
tions of books was fully appreciated.
The following articles of association present briefly and pointedly the
reasons for forming a social library in Maine seventy-five years ago :
Castine, November 17, 1801.
It is proposed by the persons whose names are here subjoined to establish a social
library in this town. It is greatly to be lamented that excellent abilities are not
unfrequently doomed to obscurity by reason of poverty ; that the rich purchase almost
everytiiing but books ; and that reading has become so unfashionable an amusement
in what we are pleased to call this enlightened age and country.
To remedy these evils ; to excite a fondness for books ; to aftbrd the most rational
and profitable amusement; to prevent idleness and immorality; and to promote the
dilfusion of useful knowledge, piety, and virtue at an expense which small pecuniary
abilities can afford, we are induced to associate for the above purposes; and each
agrees to pay for the number of shares owned and annexed to his name at five dollars
per share.
Thirty-five names are subscribed to the articles. About the year 1827,
the shares were all transferred to the town of Castine, which has regu-
larly granted money since that time to support and increase the library.
A yearly tax of twenty-five cents on each poll is assessed, and the avails,
amounting to about $75 each year, are used to buy new books. The
w^ngesof the librarian, cost of repairs, and incidental expenses, amount-
ing to an equal sum, are paid by the town. The library now numbers
more than 1,700 volumes, is fsee to all the inhabitants, and, according
to the last report, about one thousand borrowers were registered.
In the year ISO.'i, the pioneer settlers of Ames, Athens County, Ohio,
met to consider the subject of roads ; that disposed of, their intellectual
wants were discussed and it was decided that a public library would
best meet their needs. Money was almost unknown in the infant settle-
ments of Ohio in those days, but sufficient to make the first purchase
of books was raised during the year, by dint of great industry and self-
denial. The late Hon. Thomas Ewing, then a boy of fourteen, was a
contributor to the fund. He writes : ^
The neighbors in our and the surrounding settlements met and agreed to purchase
books and to make a common library. They were all poor, and siibscriptious small,
but they raised in all about one hundred dollars. All my accumulated wealth, ten
coon-skins, went into the fund, and Squire Sam. Brown, of Sunday Creek, who was go-
ing to Boston, was charged with the purchase. After an absence of many weeks, he
brought the books to Capt. Ben. Brown's, in a sack, on a pack horse. I was present at
the untying of the sack and pouring-out of the treasure. There were about sixty
volumes, I think, and well selected ; the library of the Vatican was nothing to it, and
there never was a libraiy better road. This, with occasional additions, furnished me
with reading while I remained at home.
The preamble to the articles of association adopted February 2, 1804,
sets forth that —
considering the many beneficial effects which social libraries are calculated to pro-
duce in societies where they are estabTished, as a source both of rational entertainment
1 History of Athens County, Ohio. By Charles M. Walker. Cincinnati, Ohio, Robert
Clarke & Co., 1869, p. 399.
Free Town Libraries. 447
and instruction, we, the subscribers, wishing to participate in those blessings, ajjree to
form ourselves into a society for this purpose, under the title of the Western Library
Association in the town of Ames.
This library, sometimes distinguished in later years by the title " Coon
Skin Library," prospered during a long period and exercised a marked
influence on the intellectual habits of the community. Among its pa-
trons were Judge Ephraim Cutler, to whom the friends of education in
Ohio were largely indebted for the common school law enacted in 1825,
and many 6ther men distinguished in the history of the State. An aged
citizen of A thens County, Ohio, who in early years enjoyed its privileges,
wrote in September, 1875, as follows:
Although this time honored library has now gone down, and really has no claim 1o
present existence, it did in its day perform a noble mission in the dissemination of
knowledge.
A social library, the first in the northwestern territory, was formed at
Cincinnati in March, 1802. A notice of it will be found in the sketch
entitled Public Libraries of Cincinnati, in Chapter XXXVIII, Part VI,
of this report.
The public school libraries described in (]haper II of this report are
practically free to all the inhabitants, and derive their support from
taxation and State grants ; they were, therefore, really the pioneers and
progenitors of the important and rapidly growing class of free town
libraries. In Massachusetts the school libraries did not, as we have
seen, meet the wants of the people,^ but they served to help prepare
the way for the town libraries which have multiplied and increased so
rapidly in that State during the last twenty five years.
Free town libraries appear to have been formed in some places by
the towns assuming the power to levy taxes and grant money before
the enactment of any general State law authorizing the levy of a tax
for that specific purpose. Thus the town of Orange, Mass., in 1846,
five years before the enactment of the general law empowering towns
to levy a tax for libraries, voted $100 to establish a town library,
and has since that time always paid the librarian and the incidental
expenses of the library, besides granting occasional sums to buy new
books. The shares of the Social Library of Castine, Me., became the
property of the town about the year 1827, while the State law author-
izing towns to levy a tax for library purposes was not enacted until
1854. The town of Salisbury, Conn., also voted money to a library at
an early period,^ though the State law authorizing grants by towns to
libraries was not enacted until 1869. In some instances special laws
have been enacted, giving certain cities and towns power to establish a
free library by taxation. All these facts pointed to the desirability of
general legislation empowering towns and cities to raise money for
library purposes.
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
New Hampshire gained the honor of leadership by enacting a law in
1 Ante, p. 42. s yee ante, p. 45, note.
448 Public Libraries in the United States.
1849, authorizing towns to grant money to establish and maintain pub-
lic libraries, the amount of such grants being fixed by the voters of the
respective towns. Libraries so formed and maintained are exempt from
taxation.
Before the passage of this law the town of Peterborough had, by a
vote of April 9, 1833, established a town library, and in that year set
apart from its share of the bank tax, the proceeds of which are distrib-
uted among the towns of the State to be used for literarjr purposes,
$66.84 to buy books. The grants for books have been continued from
year to year since that time, except for the year 1863, in varying sums,
the largest in any one year being $150, and the whole amounting, up
to the year 1876, to $1,762.25. Besides this sum, the town has regularly
paid for the care of the library from fifty to one hundred dollars a year-
The library numbers nearly 4,000, and circulates about 9,000 volumes
a year.
Thirteen town libraries in ]S^ew Hampshire received grants to the
•whole amount of $7,510 in the year 1874-'75. They contained alto-
gether 51,842 volumes, and the aggregate circulation reported was
191,601 volumes, or nearly 370^ per cent.
3IASSACHUSETTS.
As "we have already seen, at least one town in Massachusetts assumed
the power to grant money in aid of a town library as early as 1846,
though no statute authorizing such grant then existed. In 1847, the
late President Wayland, of Brown University, desired to help the town
of Wayland, Mass., to a town library, and gave $500 on condition that
an equal sum be raised in the town by subscription for the same pur-
pose, which was done, and the gift accepted at the town meeting March
6, 1848. At this point, the question arose whether the town could, in
its municipal capacity, grant money to buy books and support a town
library. The right of the town to compel tax-payers to pay money for
this object was doubted by the friends of the project, and they recom-
mended " that it be optional with the individual tax-payers either to pay
or not to pay their respective assessments for said item." By common
consent, measures were taken to prepare a building and purchase books,
and early in August, 1850, the library was opened to the public. A
citizen of Wayland had suggested to a member of the legislature
during the session of 1850 to procure the enactment of a State law
authorizing any town to grant aid to a town library, but no such action
was taken.
The next year Rev. John B. Wight, a member of the legislature from
Wayland, familiar with the doubts that existed as to the powers pos-
sessed by towns in respect to libraries, introduced a bill which became
a law May 24, 1851, authorizing any city or town to grant a sum not to
exceed one dollar for each of its ratable polls the first year, and not
exceeding twenty-five cents for each of its ratable polls yearly there-
PUBLIC LIBRARY WOKCESTER. MASS
Free Town Libraries. 451
after, for tlie establishment and maintenance of a pnblic library. By
an amendment enacted in 1859 the limit of twenty-five cents for each
poll yearly for the increase and maintenance of the library was changed
to fifty cents. An act of May 9, 18GG, authorizes any town at a legal
meeting to grant any necessary sum for the establishment, maintenance,
or increase of a public library therein and for necessary buildings.
Branch libraries may be established and maintained in the same man-
ner. Any town may receive, hold, and manage any devise, bequest, or
donation for the establishment, increase, or maintenance of a public
library within the same.
An act of June 10, 1870, provid'es that —
Any town, at a lawful meeting, having an article in the warrant for the purpose,
may authorize a village or district in such town, containing not less than one thousand
inhabitants, the limits of which shall be accurately defined, to organize under such
name as may be authorized by such town, for the purpose of . . . establishing
and maintaining public libraries.
An act of May 23, 1873, empowers any city or town to make grants
to a free reference library within its limits.
A State law provides that 'the net proceeds of licenses for keeping
dogs shall be paid yearly towards the support of public schools or town
libraries, and in many towns the money is used for the latter object.
Thus, of twenty-seven free libraries in Worcester County, including the
Public Library of the city of Worcester, teu received aid from this source
in the year 1874-'75, amounting altogether to $5,386.18 ; twenty four
received in all $23,793.50 from municipal grants and taxation, making
the income from these two sources $29,179.68, or a little more than ten
per cent, of the amount, $284,754.10, raised by taxation that year in the
same towns for the support of public schools.
According to returns published in the report of the secretary of the
Massachusetts board of education for the year 1872, there were in 1861)
forty-five free public libraries in the State, containing 201,706 volumes,
with yearly additions of about 22,000 volumes, and a circulation of
more than 500,000 volumes a year; six years later, fifty libraries, with
345,588 volumes, were returned, the yearly additions being reported at
about 20,000 volumes, and the number lent to readers at 886,172 vol-
umes; in 1872, there were reported eighty-two libraries, containing
564,479 volumes; the number of volumes added in 1871 was 50,130, and
1,345,179 volumes had been lent to readers.
Of the free town libraries in Massachusetts, (not including any
that are wholly supported by private endowments,) one hundred and
twenty-seven reported for the year 1874-'75 a total income of $273,861
from municipal grants and taxation. These libraries numbered alto-
gether about 920,p00 volumes, had added more than 132,000 volumes
within the year, and 3,026,000 volumes had in the same time been taken
out by readers. It appears by comparison of the above returns that in
fifteen years the number of free town libraries has been nearly trebled ;
452 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
the number of volumes much more than quadrupled ; that the yearly
additions have increased more than sixfold; and tliat more than six
times as many books were taken out by readers than nine years before.
MAINE.
Any " city, town, or plantation " in Maine may, under an act dated
April 20, 1854, grant a sum not exceeding $1 on each of its ratable polls
to establish a public library ; and a sum not exceeding 25 cents on each
poll yearly thereafter for its increase and maintenance.
Eight public libraries under this act received altogether aid to the
amount of $2,985 last year, when they contained in all 33,534 volumes,
and reported an aggregate yearly circulation of 97,700 volumes,
VERMONT,
Between 1854 and 1865 no original legislation looking to the forma-
tion of free town libraries was enacted, but in the latter year the Ver-
mont legislature empowered towns to grant money for the establish-
ment and maintenance of such libraries. The law was repealed in
November, 1867, and a new enactment made authorizing any city,
town, or incorporated village to grant a sum not exceeding one dollar
on each ratable poll for the foundation, and fifty cents on each ratable
poll yearly thereafter, for the increase and maintenance of a library
free to all the inhabitants.
Four libraries. of this class reported an aggregate income for the year
1874-'75 of $2,500 from taxation. The^' numbered 16,200 volumes, and
circulated in that year 56,700 volumes.
OHIO.
Under an act dated February 24, 1868, any city of the second class is
empowered to levy a tax not exceeding one-half a mill on the dollar
yearly for a public library and reading room, provided that suitable ac-
commodations be furnished without expense to the city. An act dated
March, 1875, empowers any city or incorporated village to establish and
maintain a free public library and reading room. The amount of the
yearly grant for this purpose appears to depend on the discretion of
the municipal authorities.
Of the free public libraries in Ohio reporting for the year 1874-'75,
nine contained, in all, 144,084 volumes; 815,373 volumes were lent to
readers within the year, and the aggregate income from taxation was
$62,600.
An interesting sketch of the very successful Public Library of Cincin-
nati will be found in Chapter XXXVllI, Part VI, of this report.
WISCONSIN.
An act of March 6, 1868, empowers towns to raise by taxation a sum
not to exceed $150 in any one year for the purchase of books for town
Free Town Libraries. 453
libraries ; and an act of March 21, 1872, authorizes cities and villages to
levy a tax not exceeding one mill on the dollar for the establishment and
maintenance of free public libraries and reading rooms.
Four libraries organized under the law received a total income from
taxation in the year 1874-75 of $4,400 ; three of them contained alto-
gether 6,200 volumes ; and their aggregate circulation for the year was
27,000. The fourth was not opened until December, 1875, and no report
of its circulation since has been received.
It is gratifying to know that there is a revival of interest in libraries
in Wisconsin, and there is every prospect that the unfortunate expe-
rience undergone by the school libraries will not be repeated in this
later plan to ad-vance the intelligence and happiness of the people.
CONNECTICUT.
The town library law of Connecticut, enacted July 8, 1869, empowers
" towns, boroughs, and cities" to levy a tax of one dollar on each poll
and fifty cents yearly on each poll thereafter, to establish and maintain
public libraries.
Four libraries, to which town aid was granted in the year 1874-'75,
received a total of $1,110. They contained altogether about 15,000
volumes, and reported an aggregate circulation during the year of
about 37,000 volumes.
It is probable that the social libraries in the smaller villages, the con-
siderable number of .libraries in tlie larger towns which derive their
support from individual endowments, and the attention paid to school
libraries within the last few years, have to some extent diverted atten-
tion and effort from the plan of free town libraries, which has enjoyed
such wonderful success in the neighboring State of Massachusetts.
An act dated March 30, 1870, made it lawful for any city of the first
or second class to raise money for a free public library, by a tax not
exceeding one half a mill on the dollar, provided that a suitable build-
ing be first presented to the city for library purposes. A more liberal
enactment of March 20, 1872, provides that any city or incorporated
town may levy a tax not exceeding one mill on the dollar in any one
year for the purpose of procuring books for a free public library, and
may receive donations for a library.
One public library established under this law in January, 1873
received $1,000 from taxation in the year 1874-'75. It numbered 914
volumes, and nearly 12,000 volumes were taken out by readers during
the year.
There are a number of prosperous subscription or social libraries in
the State, but the plan of free libraries supported by tax does not seem
as yet to have attracted public attention and interest
454 Public Libraries in the United States.
The first public library in Indiana appears to have been the Vincennos
Library, established in the town of the same name in the year 1807,
among' the incorporators of which was General W. H. Harrison, after
wards President of the United States. It still exists and numbers about
2,000 volumes.
In 1852 a la w was enacted for the establishment and maintenance of
a free library in each county. It provided that 10 per cent, of the
proceeds of all land sold by the county as its property, in the town
where the county seat is situated, and 10 per cent, of all donations
made' by any town to secure the establishment of the county seat
therein, should form a fund from which yearly grants might be made
by the county commissioners to buy books and pay the necessary ex-
penses of maintaining at the county seat a public library free to all
inhabitants of the county.
A number of libraries was established under the law, and some of
them still remain; but the reports are not encouraging as respects their
usefulness. Of the eleven returned in 1874-75, only three rei)ort funds,
which amount in the aggregate to $7,361, yielding a total income of
$1,217.90 a year. The eleven contain 12,916 volumes; only seven fur-
nish reports of circulation, from which it appears that but 3,710 vol-
umes, or a little more than twenty-eight per cent., were taken from the
shelves during the year, a striking and painful contrast to the use made
of the free public libraries of the same State, the circulation of which
for the same year was more than 625 per cent.
In a number of towns in Indiana, and a few in other States, free libra-
ries for workingmen have been established through the liberality of the
late William Maclure, of Philadelphia^ whose gifts and bequests for this
purpose amounted to about $150,000, in sums of from $400 to $500 for
each library. With twoor three exceptions, these libraries have been un-
fortunate, and many of them have become extinct. Seventeen of them
in Indiana reported in all 11,405 volumes in 1874-'75, with a total circu-
lation of 13,380 volumes. Only two reported a yearly income, which, for
both, amounted to but $110. The administrator of the estate writes:
As all the funds of the estate have been expended, and as there is no mode of forcing
the societies to carry out the intention of the testator, the libraries will probably be
lost.
By an act approved March 3, 1871, the board of school commission-
ers of any, city is authorized to levy a tax not exceeding one-fifth of a
mill on each dollar of the taxable property in any one year for the
establishment and support of free public libraries, to expend the funds
so realized, and to make all proper regulations respecting the library.
An act dated 1873 provides that any city incorporated under the law of
the State may, by a two-thirds vote of the common council, raise by a
tax of not more than two mills on the dollar, in any one year, money to
be used iu helping to maintain a free public library.
Free Totvn Libraries. 455
Three free public libraries in Indiana, organized under the above
provisions, contained, in 1874-75, 25,585 volumes, and 159,558 volumes
were lent to readers from two of the libraries; the third, opened in June,
1875, did not report statistics of circulation. Altogether they received
$18,700 from taxation.
ILLINOIS.
A law enacted March 7, 1872, provides for the establishment and
maintenance of free public libraries and reading rooms in incorporated
cities, villages, and townships. Cities containing more than 100,000 in-
habitants may raise money for this purpose by a tax not exceeding one-
fifth of a mill yearly on the taxable property ; cities of less than 100,000
inhabitants may levy a tax not exceeding one mill ou the dollar yearly;
and villages and townships a yearly tax not exceeding two mills on the
dollar. In cities the libraries are to be managed by a board of nine
directors, appointed by the mayor with the approval of the city council,
one-third to hold office one year, one-third two years, and one-third three
years; the directors are to be "chosen from the citizens at large with
reference to their fitness for such office;" and not more than one mem-
ber of the city council shall be at any one time a member of the board.
In villages and towns the directors are elected by the legal voters.
Thirteen free libraries, organized under the above law, received in
all, in the year 1874-'75, the sum of $74,742.92 from taxation; they
numbered altogether 76,595 volumes, and 301,538 volumes were lent to
readers within the year. One other library, at Joliet, was known to be
in process of formation in February, 1876, and there are probably others
from which no information has been received.
The activity manifested in the short period since the enactment of the
law, indicates that Illinois will soon take a high position among the
States that maintain free public libraries for the benefit of all the peo-
ple.
TEXAS.
The frontier State of Texas is the pioneer in the free library move-
ment in the Southern States, her legislature having passed a law, ap-
proved February 26, 1874, authorizing any incorporated city in the State
to establish a free library, and grant such part of its "revenues for the
management and increase thereof as such city may determine by the
action of the municipal government of the city."
The free Public Library of Galveston, organized under the above law,
receives $3,000 a year from the city. In 1875 it numbered 10,000
volumes, and 12,500 volumes were taken out by readers.
TOWN LIBRARIES AND TAXATION.
It is plain that the permanence and usefulness of a public library sup-
ported by a general tax depend on the willingness with which the bur-
den of taxation is taken up and borne by voters and tax-payers. It i s
456 Public Libraries in the United States.
tlieiefore, desirable to know their sentiments on this subject in com-
nniiiities wliere libraries so sustained exist. With this view, inquiries
were sent to a number of towns where such libraries have been
formed, asking, first, the number of legal voters in the town; second,
the number voting for the library tax ; and, third, the number voting
against it. Replies were received from thirty-seven towns in three dif-
ferent States — Illinois, Iowa, and Massachusetts.
In thirty-two towns the vote for was unanimous, or nearly so, no neg-
ative votes being recorded. Of these towns, twenty-seven reported in
the aggregate 20,304 legal voters; five of the towns did not report the
number of voters. In five towns, containing altogether 3,702 legal
voters, there was opposition shown by 515 votes against to 1,730 for the
tax, being a majority of 1,215 in favor of the libraries.
The fact that so little opposition was sliown in the representative
towns to which the inquiries were sent, is sufficient proof that free
libraries, according to present indications, are not destined to fail from
lack of public support and sympathy.
PATRONYMIC LIBRARIES.
The Astor s^nd the Peabody Libraries have been already mentioned as
representatives of a certain class of free libraries. The princely munifi-
cence of such gifts as those of Peabody and Newberry, the former ap-
]>roaching two millions of dollars and the latter exceeding that sum ; of
Lenox, the value of which cannot yet be estimated ; of the endowments
of the Astors and of Dr. Rush, each of which approaches a million dollars,
rightly attract the widest public attention. That four of the largest of
these magnificent endowments have been made or have become available
within the last twenty years, and three of them within the last five years,
proves that the liberality of Americans is increasing in as remarkable a
ratio in this direction as in any other.
But even these gifts within the last quarter of a century are not all
which may excite the just pride and emulation of Americans and stim-
ulate the hopes of the friends of culture. In the single State of Massa-
chusetts within the period last named, not less than sixteen patronymic
libraries have been established that owe their origin to the benefactions
of those whose names they bear. The aggregate sum thus given is more
than $320,000; they contain altogether about 100,000 volumes; last
year more than a quarter of a million volumes went out to their read-
ers, and nearly 4,000 new volumes were placed on their shelves.
It is to be remembered, too, that not all these benefactors are dead; a
numberstill livetoblesstheir fellow citizensby their deedsof benevolence.
Neither is it to be forgotten that such beneficence is not bounded by any
lines of geography. An example only can be given of one State, because
of the number. The new States have such benefactors; they are found
on the slope of the Pacific, and in the farthest South, as well as in the
Middle and Eastern States.
CUKNELL LIBRARY, ITHACA,
Free Town Libraries. 459
In many instances the buildings for these libraries have been finished
under the personal superintendence of their donors; the books have
been selected and placed on the shelves under their inspection, and
then the keys have been given to the public. More than this, the foun-
der has often paid for the service of caring for the books, and lending
them to all citizens who choose to read, and also for placing new books
in the library as needed.
For the following interesting sketch of the Bryant Library we are
indebted to Mr. O. C. Gardiner, of New York :
Mr. William Cullen Bryant has established a free library for the benefit of the people
of his native town, (Cnmmiuoton, Mass.,) at a cost of some $25,000. It includes a site
of thirteen acres of land, with a stone building for the library, 30 feet by nearly 50, of the
granulated hard mica slate found in abundance near it. It is a chaste, neat structure ;
the library 30 feet in hei<;;ht, with three sides filled with shelves for the books, which
form the active loan part of the library, with a gallery across the whole width of the
building, over the entrance, for books of reference. The gift includes also a two story
and attic cottage, built of concrete, for the use of the librarian, a barn, outbuildings^
and a commodious shed for the horses and carriages of those who visit the library. It
was opened to the public about three years ago, and received a charter from the State
in the present year.
The library contains nearly six thousand volumes, and is probably one of the choicest
collections for a small popular library to be found in the country. It was selected by the
donor and the late George P. Putnam, with a supplementary selection by Mr. Bryant
during the last two years. The library is shelved in thirteen sections or divisions —
theology, religion, and philosophy ; education and text books ; history and biography ;
voyages, travels, and geography ; political and social science ; rural and domestic
economy; science; fine arts ; poetry and belles lettres ; fiction; juvenile books ; books
of reference, and miscellaneous.
The distance from Mr. Bryant's summer home to the library, one mile and a half, has
been made easy by opening a now carriage road, to avoid the sharpest declivity of the
bill, for the common benefit of himself and' neighbors. In this and another carriage
road along the ridge, to promote easier access to the library and to the two villages,
he has expended about $3,500.
Thus, the library and the improvements around it at Mr. Bryant's hand will aggre-
gate between $25,000 and $30,000. The library is free to the people of Cummington,
while its benefits are extended to the surrounding towns within certain limits, at a
small yearly charge for the improvement of the library.
CHAPTER XXIII.
FREE READING ROOMS.
BY WIL,X,IAM: C. TODD.
Influence of periodical literature — Its special value — Eeading rooms in
CITIES — In towns — Cooper Union, New York — Newburypout, Mass.
Free reading rooms, contaiuing the leading newspapers and magazines
of the day, have begun to be recognized as important means of public
education, and without a doubt will receive far more attention in future
than they have in the past. They should go hand in hand with free
schools and free libraries.
Of all the wonderful changes in the last century none is more marked
than those of the newspaper and periodical. The little sbeets, of some
of which fac similes have recently been published, that told the people
in 1775 of Lexiugton and Concord, were local in influence and circula-
tion ; the same man was generally the editor and printer. Perhaps it is
a mistake to say they told of the first British attack, as the exciting
news of that day went from mouth to mouth long before it appeared in
print. Of these journals. Dr. Franklin, in bis autobiography, says,
" There are, at this time (1771) not less than twenty-five." He also
erroneously states, strange as it may seem, that the paper established
by his brother at Boston, in 1720 or 1721, was the second that appeared
in America. If up to the time of the American Revolution the news-
paper had exerted any influence on our history, it was comparatively
unimportant.
The prominence of the newspaper is one of the most characteristic
features of the present age. The most remarkable discoveries and in-
ventions of the past century have combined to render it a more com-
plete agent for diffusing information and molding public opinion. It is
the daily mirror of the world's events.
Indispensable as are newspapers to the business of the world, they,
with the numerous magazines that have been started, nearly all during
the present century, are equally necessary to education. A nation with
many papers and magazines must be well informed ; their circulation can
almost be taken as an exponent of its intelligence. Not only does a
first class journal contain a record of events, but the best thought of
the day. What a noted man to-night mny say to a small audience, to-
morrow will be read by millions all over the land. The substance of
460
Free Reading Booms. 461
whole volumes is published frequently long before its appearance in
book form. Kecently such books as Schl iemann's Troy and its Eemains?
with copious illustrations, Proctor's Lectures on Astronomy, Tyndall's
on science and religion, Huxle;^'s ou the origin of life, and Agassiz's at
the Anderson School, have appeared in a daily journal, costing a trifling
sum, and have furnished instruction and delight to hundreds of thou-
sands who would otherwise have remained ignorant of these works.
The commander^ of our forces in a battle during the Mexican war
stated to me that he could not have won his victory, and would have
been led into an ambush, but for the clear idea of the locality gained
from a map published in a newspaper.
So great has become the demand for periodical literature, and so well
understood its influence, that the best intellect is employed to produce
it. Many brilliant writers of modern times have first become known
through newspapers and magazines, and have continued to use this
means of addressing the public. The essays of Macaulay first appeared
in the Edinburgh Eeview, Bryant's Thauatopsis was first published in
the North American Eeview, and Dickens became famous by his
Sketch es by Boz in the London Morning Chronicle ; and nearly all his
subsequent writings were for periodicals, his Household Words gaining
a circulation in 1853 of 90,000 in London alone. Bryant has for years
edited a paper, and Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier, Holmes, and others,
the best known of our poets and prose writers, constantly contribute to
periodicals. Much of the best poetry, romance, biography, criticism,
discussion of every subject, and information ou every topic appears in
our newspajiers and magazines, and scholars and men of science, as well
as general readers, must read them or be left behind.
Beautiful, accurate, striking illustrations, essentially a modern fea-
ture of our periodical literature, attract attention and make clear what
might otherwise be less perfectly understood. The influence of one of
our best illustrated magazines over children and adults, in instruct-
iBrig. Gen. B. Alvord, now Paymaster-General, U. S. A., and at the time men-
tioned a captain in the Fourth Iafant^J^ In an interesting letter to the Commissioner
of Education, describing the affair, he says :
" Your reason for wishing rae to write it out was the emphasis I gave to the value
of my possession of a good map of the ground, published in the New York Herald, on
the occasion of the more important battle of Cerro Gordo, fought previously on the
18th April, 1847, under General Scott. I must premise that if there were advantages
in this particular case from newspaper accounts and maps of that war, it must be
remembered that the enemy in that war could not benefit by them from their remote^
ness and the difference of language. As a general rule, there can be no doubt that
much inconvenience is felt by military commanders from publications in newspapers
in the midst of active operations."
After a detailed description of the fight, and showing the use of the map, General
Alvord adds :
" On reaching the city of Mexico I told General Scott that we had reversed his
operations at Cerro Gordo. But none of the official reports ever all uded to the pos-
session by us of that map of the field which, at a critical moment, proved quite inval-
uable."— Editors.
462 Fuhlic Libraries in the United States.
in^ and amusing them, it would be bard to measure. So uecessary
are newspapers and magazines that it is difficult now to see how the
people could keep abreast the times without them.
As a means of influencing the popular mind there can be no doubt
newspapers are now more powerful than books, and have for some
years been, to an extent, superseding them. Everybody reads the
newspaper ; the book readers are comparatively few. Let any one
make inquiries on this point, and he will be surprised to learn how
many of great intelligence (especially business men) do not read one
volume a year. Some of our journals have from 50,000 to 100,000 sub-
scribers, and each copy probably has, on an average, five readers — one
of the oldest editors of New England estimated ten — so that every
issue speaks to a quarter or a half uiilliou readers. Rarely does a
volume attain a sale of 5,000 copies, and it has but few, if any, more
readers than a copy of a newspaper. On a living question, like the cur-
rency or tariff", a book can discuss the facts^ and arguments up to its
publication, but there it must leave the subject. A newspaper returns
to it day after day, meets difficulties, presents new arguments and new
facts as they are developed, and influences the minds of its readers by
persistency if not by reason. Hence every party in politics and iu re-
ligion, every branch of science, every idea seeking root in the miuds of
men, may do without its books, but never without its periodical.
Granting the necessity of the newspaper and magazine, the practical
question arises. How shall the popular want be met ?
There is but one way, and that is by reading rooms. The masses have
not the means, if the}" had the inclination, to buy many papers and maga-
zines. One paper and one magazine do not suffice. Many papers and
magazines from different sections, representing different phases of
thought, are demanded, some for instruction, some for amusement, and
the expense is serious, even for persons of means. In all but the
larger centres of population, too, it is generally impracticable to obtain
any but local journals unless for regular subscribers.
Our public school system has made our people generally intelligent,
and created a taste for reading. To gratify that taste, public libraries
have been established within a few years in many of our large cities and
towns, and the increase in such institutions is one of the most encour-
aging signs of the times. To many of these admission is by membership,
fee, or introduction, but there are reasons for believing that in a few
years public libraries, free to all, will be found in every city and hamlet
in the land.
Not a few of the arguments for free libraries apply also to free
reading rooms. Young Men's Christian Associations, in many of our
cities, have aimed to supply the demand, and have done useful service.
The institution needed is a room supplied with the leading daily and
weekly papers, and with magazines, open to all classes of both sexes,
day and evening, so that those who have but a few moments of leisure
Free Reading Rooms. 463
as they g'o to aad from their daily toil, as well as persous wilh hours at
their command, can use it.
Just such institutions as are needed in all our towns are found in seve-
ral of them, and the result has exceeded the most sanguine expectations
of their friends. The best known of the kind, though of course larger
and more complete than can be expected in most other places, has been
established in New York City, by the munificence of Peter Cooper. One
who visits that reading room will find it filled with readers, for the
most part of the laboring classes, eagerly perusing the papers and maga-
zines.
The librarian of the Cooper Union writes :
We have 318 papers and periodicals on file, and about 100 magazines in different
languages, besides the books (about 12,000 volumes) on the shelves, which are given to
readers on written application. The rooms are opeu from 8 a. m. to 10 p. m., and were
visited last year by 581,798 persons. This will give an idea of the intlueuce exerted on
the community. The class of readers is tliat of persons in the hu mbler walks of life.
The Cooper Union is the largest reading room in the United States, if not in the world.
In 1855 a free library was opened in Newburyport, Mass., by private
benevolence, and among the subsequent donations was one of $15,000
by George Peabody, a former resident. In 1870 a gentleman offered
to give a fund to supply a reading room with papers and magazines, if
the directors would provide suitable accommodations. This was done,
and for five years the reading room has been a complete success. The
room is frequented by ladies and gentlemen equally, by the richest and
poorest, and is felt to be one of the best intellectual and moral influences
of the city. The superintendent thus speaks of it :
Ever since its establishment, July 1, 1870, the number of visitors has constantly in-
creased. Side by side the merchant, the minister, physician, factory boy, and factory
girl have read the news. In the depressed condition of business of the last three
years the benefit to the community of the reading room has been most clearly shown.
Two -well -warmed, lighted, and carpeted rooms, made attractive by flowers aud in
other ways, aud supplied with about seventy daily and weekly papers and magazines,
a daptfcd to various tastes and degrees of culture, have been a help to the public such
as benevolence in the form of no other charity could have offered. The direct benefits
are readily seen. The free access to papers, magazines, maps, directories, bulletins of
stocks, the latest shipping intelligence, from a luxury has grown into a necessity with
the reading and business community.
The indirect iutlueiices have been, too, most marked. The bringing together of
both sexes and all classes has worked well for that portion of thtJ community most
neediug h*;lp in softening their manners, drawing them from street temptations, and
giving them higher aims ; and particular instances are known where the result has been
most happy.
Why cannot such reading rooms be established everywhere, either as
adjuncts of free libraries or independent of them? Much as they are
needed in the city, they are equally so in the country, where fresh read-
ing is often difficult to obtain, and life has so few attractions that the
young are anxious to seek the overcrowded cities. Books contain the
464 Puhl'ic Libraries in the United States.
ripe wisdom of the past, but the constant craving for the new must at
the same time be satisfied. Over $11,000,000 were given in 1873 for
education by private benevolence, and Americans will cheerfully give
to free reading rooms when the necessity is felt. As the friends of
education have pressed the claims of free schools and free libraries, let
them also urge those of free reading rooms, so that soon all three may
be found evervwhere to the remotest hamlet of the land.
CHAPTER XXIV.
LIBRARY BUILDINGS.
BY JL STIX WIXSOR,
Superin'endent Boston Public Library.
Site — Design — Economy OK space— Furniture — Numbering of cases — Labor
saying devices — stations of officers — unpacking room — catalogue room —
Bindery — Extra work rooms — Branch libraries — Room for growth — News-
paper AND duplicate ROOM — EOOM FOR PATENT SPECIFICATIONS — CaBINETS —
Students' room — Pamphlet room — Stock room — Janitor's quarters — Toilet
ROOMS — Plans and description.
To have a good library building, a sufficient area should be secured to
leave it detached on all sides, and to provide for future additions. Its
plan of administration should be decided upon, and in accordance with
that its book rooms, public waiting rooms, official and service quarters
should be planned to fall into the- most convenient relations one to the
other. Describe this to the architect, and ask him if he cau build his edi-
fice around these quarters without disturbing size or relative position. If
he complains that the public apartments do not give sight of the books,
and that he must fail of half his effects if he cannot have handsome
bindings and vistas of shelving, tell him to fail ; that the public wants
books to read, not to look at. If he says that your $100,000 will not
build anything but an ordinary building, and that he cannot elevate
the aesthetic conceptions of people who look at it unless he can spend
$200,000, tell him that $7,000 worth of books annually purchased with
the income of that extra $100,000 will be more than a match in the long
run for his flutiogs and bas-reliefs in the production of sesthetic eff'ects.
We have too many of these architectural enormities in library struc-
tures already. Witness the public libraries of Boston and Cincinnati,
the Astor in Kew York, and among the smaller ones that of Springfield,
Mass.
Men do not erect a building and decide afterward whether it shall be
a playhouse or a hospital ; and yet these two are not more awkwardly
interchangeable than the two kinds of library buildings needed, say
by an antiquarian society and a municipality; still committees go on
and build a building, leaving the question an open one whether their
library shall be of one sort or another.
The traditional form of a large library, of which we have examples in
all the libraries named above, has come down to us with other old mo-
nastic ideas, when the monks were the only users of books, and when
4G5
30 E
4(36 Public Libraries in the United States.
the seclusion of alcoves comported with tlieir literary habits, and gave
convenient access to the books shelved about the recluse. The alcove
system, arranged about a central area, where the books are also to be
used, is to this day the most convenient plan where a collection is de-
voted to a small or solely scholarly use, aud where, as is the case with
scientihc societies or other bodies of specialists, their members are
allowed unrestricted access to the shelves. The alcoves being at the
end of radial lines from the central tables, and each alcove carrying out
the same principle in relation to its own central table, the service of the
library, whether performed by one's self or by deputy, requires the mini-
mum of time and strength.
A like economical principle needs to be preserved, when we come to
change the character of the library to that of a great collection to which
multitudes have access, aud but few are psrsDually known to the libra-
rians. Such a state of affairs, it needs no argum3nt to show, involves the
shutting out of the public from the shelves. Rapid intercommunication
has brought users of books to focal points in the world, where great
libraries exist. The spread of literature has enlarged the bookish classes
among stationary populations. Hence the new development of enormous
use which great free libraries are making. Masses are impatient of delay
and need to be served quickly in ordej? to be kept happy ; and to accom-
plish it the page who goes for a book must not be obliged to scan titles
along a shelf, or series of shelves, but must find a book at once by its
number in its proper place. Thus to insure a certainty of the book
being in its place, it is necessary to exclude the public from the shelves
for the reason that most prowlers among shelves do not restore books
they have taken down to the exact place from which they took them.
These facts indicate the conditions which should be imposed upon an
architect in building a great modern library : viz, that the service cannot
be performed by the readers, but must be performed by officials ; that
there is one point of contact between the readers and officials, which
is the delivery desk, where the books are charged to the borrowers ;
and that this delivery desk must be placed in the most convenient rela-
tions both to the reading tables and to the books, or, in other words,
between them.
In the plan of a central area for the readers, with surrounding alcoves
shut off from public approach, this is not the case; for the pages who fetch
the books travel around the public and make the average distance to
be run and the delay consequent fully double what it would be if the
point of delivery were midway between the public and the books.
The main Idea* of the modern public library building is, then, com-
pact stowage to save space, and short distances to save time. This has
been carried out in the new building in Roxbury, which is one of the
branches of the Boston Public Library. Here we have a book room 27
feet wide by 55 feet long and 24 feet high ; the desk of delivery being
midway on one of the longer sides, just without a door which opens
Library Buildings. 467
into a waiting apartment. In the first place, the bottoms of the
windows are 8 feet from the floor, giving an unbroken wall shelving
around the room. Then two rows of ten double faced cases, each 8 feet
high, are placed, standing crosswise, in the room, leaving a middle
passage and two side passages 2 feet 6 inches wide along the length of
the room. The passages across the room between the faces of the cases
are at present 3 feet 6 inches wide. When required, lay a Hyatt light
floor on top of these cases, after having moved them together till your
3 feet C inches cross passages are reduced to 2 feet 10 inches, except the
one just back of the delivery, which is thus widened to receive the stairs.
Repeat the same cases and shelving (only the windows will break
the wall surface) on this floor, and again on a third floor, when required,
deriving now additional light from a lantern on the roof.
In this way your room (27 x 55 x 24) will give you three stories of 8
feet each, less the thickness of two glass floors, and will hold a hundred
thousand volumes, all within a shorter distance of the delivery bj^ far
than any hundred thousand volumes are placed in any other library.
The cases are divided into sections not ov&r 3 feet long. There are
no lengthwise partitions separating the two faces, but a bead on the
uprights keeps the shelves from touching at the back by its thickness,
allows a passage down for dust, and makes a current of air, which
is necessary to leather bindings, since they deteriorate in a stagnant
and foul atmosphere. The shelves are supported by common ring-head
screws, such as are used for " picture eyes," which are easily moved as
required. In cases 8 feet high, including base and cornice, you can
get nine shelves, including that formed by the base, but all of these
will not ordinarily be required, unless the shelves below the breast-level
are kept so near together that the books must be pushed in on
their fore edges, which does not hurt small books, gives better stowage,
and enables the pages to read the shelf numbers on the bottom of the
backs without stooping or kneeling. If the books are kept in this way,
it is better that the shelves, from the base up to the level of the breast,
should recede, one by one, an inch each^ counting upon having the
shelves on which the books stand upright 8 or 9 inches wide.
The cheapest and most easily adjusted arrangement for making books
stand perpendicular on the shelf, is a block of hard wood; two of which
can be made out of a cube of 6 inches each way by dividing it diagonally.
They should be shellacked, when first made, to prevent checking.
For numbering, give a number from 1 upwards to each face of the
cases, and paint this number in large figures over the middle of the
case ; put secondary numbers, 1, 2, 3, &o., over the tops of the ranges,
(or spaces between uprights.) Then number your shelves from the bot-
tom up, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 — painting the proper figure on each shelf
edge, range by range. Your shelves are now easily designated : 3825,
for instance,. meaning the 38th case, the 2d range, and the 5th shelf;
and it has the advantage that shelves 1725, 2325, etc., will always be
468 Public Libraries in the United States.
in the same relative position in the 17th, 23cl, cases, etc. Next num-
ber your books on the shelf in the order in which they stand, and book
No. 5, so marked, will be designated 3825.5, which means 5th book, of
the 5th shelf, of the 2d range, of the 33th case ; and if the 5th book
(or title) has several volumes, any particular volume will be designated
by its proper figure after a second dot; as, for instance, for a third vol-
ume of the above book, 3825.5.3. A number arranged in this way con-
veys to the attendant the exact position of the book before he leaves to
fetch it, and he can almost find it in the dark ; he certainly could if all
the books on the shelf were in their places, and none had more than one
volume.
This is on the supposition that all the cases are uniform, which is de-
sirable, as thus the contents of two cases can be transposed bodily, with-
out alteration of numbers, except so far as transposing the case numbers
on the cases themselves. This is sometimes of importance, since the
books in a case near the delivery may in time cease to be much used,
while the fresher books in a more distant case take their place in com-
mon demand. If a transposition takes place, then much time will be
saved in the service. It may break temporarily the order of position,
but as other classification requires a similar change, the change of all
becomes, in the end, like that of the rear ranks of a platoon stepping to
the front, whil^ the foremost fall back, and order is re-established.
Of course there will be books of exceptional sizes which must be
accommodated with cases and shelving to fit.
In the case of very large libraries, some partially automatic system of
fetching books will naturally follow. The number of the book can be
struck by the desk attendant on a keyboard, and be shown in a signal
frame, within sight of all the stations of the pages. The proper page will
find the book, deposit it in one of a succession of boxes journeying on
an endless band towards the delivery, where, as it goes around the barrel
to return below, it will throw out upon a cushion the volume in question
or a card containing its number, which indicates that the book is not in
its place. These same boxes are used for returning the books to the
shelves after assortment, their procession being reversed. If this
latter service needs to be supplemented, trucks should be used of two
or three stories each, resting on four wheels, one at each end and two
at the center, which, being a trifle larger than the end ones, serve as
a pivot, on which the truck can be easily guided through the narrow
passages.
The Boston Public Library, for many years before the establishment
of its six branches, (at distances of from one to five miles from the cen-
tral building,) consisted of two separate libraries in one edifice ; and they
still exist, one having the higher classifications of books, and the other
the more popular literature. This dual system has the disadvantage of
making the habitual frequenter of one of the departments prone to
overlook the other, for the two of necessity somewhat overlap, and
I
Library Buildings. 469
both need to be examined in many instances of inquiry; but its great
advantage is that it separates in large measure the mere pastime
readers from the studious ones, and insures such prder and quiet
in the higher department as would not be possible if the two were made
one, beside collecting and putting under better observation the bor-
rowers of the more expensive books.
But in order not to repel from the lower department adults and girls, by
reason of the,contact they must have with crowds of boys, particularly
at hours between schools, it would be well to confine the boys in their
approach to the desk merely to one side of a rail, as they need to be dealt
with by the same officials, since as messengers of adults the record of
the loans they reed to cancel or make afresh must be made at the same
desk. This could, not be satisfactorily arranged if they were confined
to a separate waiting hall and used an entirely separate delivery.
The official headquarters of a library should be situated as nearly
as possible in the center of the system, so that the controlling power
shall come with the shortest possible delay into relations with every
part, whether devoted to the staff or the public; and there should be
every convenience of dumb-waiter and speaking tube to bring all parts
into easy communication.
In enumerating further the variety of apartments necessary to the
thorough appointing of a great library, mention must be made of
many that can be dispensed with or euibodied with others in lesser in-
stitutions.
Books received in cases should be unpacked in an apartment adjoin-
ing an elevator by which they are raised to the catalogue room. This
should be a large hall, with stalls about the circumference, the head of
this department being situated on a raised platform in the middle, where
he can control every section. These stalls should be occupied in suc-
cession by the different attendants through whose hands the books suc-
cessively pass in their processes of fitting them finally for the shelves.
Trucks on tramways, or some other means of passing quantities of books
on from stage to stage, should be provided.
The order of these stalls (and in large libraries each will be occupied
by several attendants under one head) will fall more conveniently in a
sequence which shall assign h (see plan^ of main story) to the ordering
clerk, who makes out the lists of books to be ordered, dispatching these
lists to the library agents, keeping records of them, and who watches
the publication of all serials to see that successive numbers are promptly
supplied. This stall should have room for a small bibliographical appa-
ratus, and be provided with ample room for pigeon-holes, and other
conveniences for assorting, as the details of the work are numerous.
To this department all books received are first committed, so that the
order lists may be checked and the books marked for their proper destina-
tion.
In G the work of collation should be done, and the collator of each
bbok should be required to put his initials in a given place in it.
1 The plans here referred to will be fouud ou pages 473-5.
470 Public Libraries in the United States.
In F the accession catalogue is kept and each book is entered, and
acquires a consecutive number, which is attached to it, with the date.
In E such as need to be bound are arranged for the bindery, entered
''on schedules, and dispatched to the binder, and, when received back,
are pushed on with the rest.
In D the pasting in of the proper book plates, (showing purchase by-
fund, acquisition by gift, etc..) and impressing the library stamp, take
place.
In c (and b, a, m, l, etc., according as the space is required, and
the different departments of thelibrary have the cataloguing assigned to
different attendants) the books are catalogued. These stalls, as well as
H, should be in convenient proximity to an adjacent apartment devoted
to the working bibliographical apparatus and to the cases of the official
card catalogue; or these may be arranged in the middle of the hall, as
in the plan.
In K (if that comes next) the custodian of the shelves should deter-
mine the position of the books on the shelves, give them shelf numbers
accordingly, and enter them in the shelf lists, which are used in the
periodic examination of the shelves by this officer, and which constitute
in some degree a classed catalogue of the library. This officer takes from
the books the cards which come in them from the cataloguers, and marks
both on them and on the book the shelf number which he has given the
book. He delivers the cards to the alphabetizers, who put them in their
proper places in the official and public card catalogues, (they are made
in duplicate,) and the books to boys, who on trucks wheel them away
to their shelves.
If the cards are printed, as is the case in the Boston Public Library,
other work intervenes growing out of such substitution for manuscript
which need not be described here.
There should also be an extra workroom, where any work of unusual
extent, such as a large donation or extraordinary purchase, can be man-
aged without interrupting the processes of the ordinary service in the
catalogue room.
If the library has branches, communicating daily with the central
department, the business of receiving and dispatching the boxes that
go between, answering the branch librarians' requisitions and trans-
mitting the books and periodicals designed for the branches, should be
in charge of an officer, who will need considerable space for the details
of his work, conveniently situated for the access of the expressmen.
This officer will also attend to the express-service of the library, which
grows with the collection, and pertains to the distribution of catalogues
the receiving of exchanges, and all other packages, other than from the
librarj^'s agents.
Every great library will find it of importance to have a considerable
area reserved for contingent growth, in which large collections, bought
or received as gifts, may be kept separately when desirable; and the
Library Buildings. 471
possibility of giving tlietn such seclusioQ from the bulk of the library
will oftea decide the question of beuefactiou, when the claims of other
libraries, which caunot so provide a separate space, are uader consid-
eration.
The officer in charge of the circulation of the library should have his
station separated only by a rail or counter from the public whose serv-
ing ho is to look after, and with whom he can thus more readily hold
the necessary communication. It would be well that the public card
catalogue should also be under his immediate sui)ervisioa, as he will
need constant access to it, in assisting readers in finding or choosing
books.
A newspaper room and duplicate room can profitably be made one
and the same, reserving the lower spaces for newspapers, and the upper
spaces, where from their distance from the fl.oor large volumes like
newspapers will be inconveniently shelved, for duplicates. Tliis room
should have conveniences for the attendant to do the work of assorting
and collating newspapers for the binder, and should have tables for
consnlting them. Newspapers are best kept on their sides, not over
three volumes on a shelf; but if kept on end, the uprights should not
be over 18 inches apart, and then jacks should be used for holding the
volumes up, if the spaces are not nearly full. If a library is going to
make a newspaper collection, it shouM be remembered to make the
space for it ample.
If the library is furnished with the patent specifications of Great
Britain, Prance, and the United States, an apartment at least 30 feet
square should be provided for the present extent of these collections,
and for the next ten years' growth, which amounts to about one hun-
dred and fifty large volumes annually. A counter shelf, for consulting
the volumes for brief examination, should run in front of the shelves,
while tables are provided for the centre of the apartment.
Cabinets for holding the rarities of , the collection, large volumes, and
portfolios of engravings, and maps, should be kept in an apartment
where they can have the constant supervision of a custodian.
A large room with stalls, or a series of small apartments with tables
and shelf conveniences, should be provided for students making pro-
tracted investigations, and wishing to keep the books they use at their
desks from day to day. The officer in charge of this room should see
that in such cases dummies are put on the shelf in the place of the
books thus appropriated, to show where they are, if wanted by others.
A large room, with tables and shelf conveniences, should be appropri
ated to the assorting of pamphlets, and making up volumes of them
for the bindery. These volumes, when bound and catalogued, pass into
the general catalogue, so that this room should be conveniently near the
catalogue room and the official card catalogue, as the curator must have
constant recourse to these apartments in his work.
In connection with the reading room for periodicals there should be
472 Public Libraries in the United States.
an anteroom, in which the back numbers of magazines are pigeon-
holed until they are prepared for the binder, and when bound they are
passed on, like other books^ to stall H of the catalogue room.
The circulating department should have a room where the work of
inspecting books needing repairs or rebinding, (and the covering, if
practiced,) can be done, and where they can be scheduled for the bind-
ery, and received and manipulated when returned from the binder.
A stock room will also be necessary for storing catalogues and docu-
ments of the library, blanks, stationery, etc.
The janitor will need living quarters and store rooms for his supplies,
etc.
It is desirable in a large library to have a bindery in the building,
which should be amply provided for.
Appropriate toilet rooms, with washing arrangements, water closets,
and wardrobes should be provided ; and for each sex, if women are also
employed on the staff.
PLANS FOR A LIBRARY OF ONE MILLION VOLUMES' CAPACITY.^
The main Book Room, marked A, is to have seven stories, with
glass floors between and a glass roof, each story 8 feet in the clear; the
walls to be shelved; the cases, double faced, to stand on each floor in
rows, with passage 2 feet 10 inches between ; spiral stairs to connect
the floors; dumb-waiters and inclined planes, with stations on each
floor, to deliver the books at the space marked F, whence pages are to
take them to the Delivery Counter at C.
The section for Popular Books, B, is to be similarly arranged, but
of only two stories, while the five stories above B, extend over the
Popular Delivery Eoom as shown in K, (second floor plan,) and so
connect also with the room A on each story, forming a component part
of the same. A spiral staircase somewhere near the passage D should
render these upper stories readily accessible from the Delivery C, while
additional staircases will render the second story accessible to the pages
attending the Delivery G. The Students' Room is intended for tables
for such as make protracted investigations, and need to have the books
they use kept from day to day. A side entrance is arranged for such
as visit the library for popular books only, and the noise attending the
larger concourse of such readers is kept apart from the greater quiet of
the more studious frequenters of the General Delivery Room. An
attendant at E would have oversight of the rooms on either hand, the
popular reading room being given to the more commonly used of the
magazines of the day for old and young. The General Deliverj' Room
is the main consulting room of the more permanent collection of the
books, and should have tables for readers and the cases for the public
'The accompany iiig plans are tlie joint production of Mr. Winsor and the architects
Scurgis and Brighani; of Boston, Mass. — Editous.
Library Buildings.
473
catalogues. Additional light should be provided by wells in the floor
above. These wells could be made circular, with readiug shelves ou
their rails.
The Catalogue Eoom is developed to the requirements of a large work-
ing force. It should, however, have connection with the space C by a door.
The stall h should open on the elevator, so that books can be directly
PLAK OF MAIN STORY.
received from the Unpacking Eoom below. They then pass from stall
to stall round the room, a separate process being gone through with in
each, until they are at last put upon trucks to be wheeled to their
destined shelves. A Librarian's lioora is ordinarily placed to best
advantage in the center of the system, but a sub-executive officer
stationed in the center of the Catalogue Eoom will exercise the needful
personal supervision of the whole establishment, leaving the head of
so large a library the greater freedom for superior direction. It would
474
Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
be well to connect his secretary's office with his own without necessi-
tating passage through a public hall. The Reading Roonion the second
floor is for the higher and less popular periodicals, which are delivered
at the counter, while the back volumes, which have been shelved as
books, are reached by the passage X in the Book Room L. There should
also be a door at O for access to the upper floors of K. A door at P
should giv^e access to the Newspaper Room. Bound volumes of news-
papers can be delivered through the door P over the counter in this
PLAN OF SECOND STOET.
room, for use on the tables in the Reading Room. With this arrange-
ment there will be no occasion for the public use of the space adjacent
to the Newspaper Room, (marked Hall,) which could be converted
into another contingent apartment. The elevator should also open into
the Newspaper Room. A door for official use should open from the Pat-
ent Specifications room to the Book Room K. In the basement plan the
Transmitting Room is intended for the express service of the. library,
Librarij Buildings.
475
which, if it has a system of branches, needs considerable space. This
work conld, however, be done in the Unpacking Room if the bindery
should require, as it probably would, the space. The apartment marked
Pamphlets would i>robably have to be extended over the adjacent
Cellar, and the whole building should stand high enough on its founda-
tions to give the basement both light and dryness throughout. It is
not unlikely that the range of rooms on the other side of the building
PLAN or BASEMENT.
will be needed for library purposes, and there would still be room
enough in the Boiler Room and under the entrance steps for fuel. There
needs to be distinct accommodation for wardrobe and toilet use for the
two sexes of the library service. The Stomge Rooms X and VV might
be devoted to this use in connection with the adjoining water-closets, if
they are light enough. Otherwise, such arrangements could be made on
the side of the porch, that entrance being made the official entrance of
the library staff.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES.^
BY ^VILLIAM r. POOLE,
Librarian of the Chicago Public Library, author of Index to Periodical Literature, rfc.
General statements and considerations — Preliminary steps in organiza-
tion— Selection of books — Purchase of books — Rooms — Shelving — Desk
AND counter — Librarian — Cataloguing — Covering books — Binding— Stamp-
ing AND LABELING — Classification — Arrangement- Shelf marks — Tags —
Shelf LISTS — Card catalogue — Finding lists — Methods of Delivery —
Eegistek of books borrowed — Record of circulation — Examination of
LIBRARY — Conclusion.
The librarians of city libraries are constantly receiving letters from
communities where no public library exists, or where a new one is in
progress, inquiring into the methods by which such a library may be
organized and conducted. Such information, when it is directed to
specific points, is freely given ; but in the midst of pressing official
duties, it is often a severe tax upon a librarian's time to answer these
inquiries. It is also impossible, in the brief space of such a reply, and
without knowing the resources at command and the special conditions
of the enterprise, to give much useful instruction. Many persons have
written about public libraries, but there is no treatise giving that
rudimentary and practical information which is needed, and to which
the parties making these inquiries can be referred. In view of the
pressing necessity that appears to exist, the writer has prepared the
following paper, embodying some practical suggestions on this subject
which, it is hoped, will partially supply the want that has been named
The term "public library" has come to have in our country a re-
stricted and technical meaning. The Library of Congress, the Boston
Athenaeum, and the Astor Library are, in a general sense, public
libraries 5 but they are not the class of institutions we are to consider.
In the Library of Congress, the Senators and Representatives and the
chief officers of the Government are the only persons who enjoy its full
privileges. By courtesy, the public are allowed to use its books on the
premises. The Boston Athenteum is a stock company, and only pro-
prietors and those whom they introduce enjoy its benefits. The Astor
Library, though accessible to all persons for reference only, was founded
and is maintained by private munificence. The public has never con-
tributed to its support, and has no voice in its management. Free
libraries and free town libraries have existed in Europe for three cen-
1 Copyright. 1876. By William F. Poole.
Orff animation and Management of PiihUc Libraries. All
turies ; but they are libraries for scholars and not for the masses of the
people, and are not supported by popular taxation. The Free Library of
Hamburg, in Germany, was founded chiefly from monastic collections
in 1539, and in 1809 had 190,000 volumes and 5,000 manuscripts; but
during that year only 4,000 volumes were taken out. The Free Library
of Frankfort-on-the-Main, with 84,000 volumes, issued 2,000 ; and that
of Leipzig, with 113,000 volumes, issued 1,500. The books which these
libraries contain are not of the class which 'interest the people at large
The " public library" which we are to consider is established by state
laws, is supported by local taxation and voluntary gifts, is managed as
a public trust, and every citizen of the city or town which maintains it
has an equal share in its privileges of reference and circulation. It is
not a library simply for scholars and professional men, as are the libra-
ries which have been named, but for the whole community — the me-
chanic, the laboring man, the sewing-girl, the youth, and all who desire
to read, whatever be their rank, intelligence, or condition in life. It is
the adjunct and supplement of the common school system. Both are
established and maintained on the same principles — that general educa-
tion is essential to the highest welfare of any people ; and, consid-
ered simply as a question of political economy, it is better and cheaper,
in the long run, to educate a community than to support prisons and
reformatories. /
It is now about a quarter of a century since the first institution of the
kind existed. The idea originated in Massachusetts and England nearly
at the same time, the Massachusetts enterprise having a slight priority.
These libraries now number several hundred, and their number is rap-
idly increasing. Their surprising development within the last few years
is one of the most interesting features of educational progress in our
time. In England these institutions are called " free libraries." It will
be the purpose of this paper to state somewhat in detail, and in the
simplest manner, the methods and plans of procedure which experience
has tested in the establishment and arrangement of a public library.
PRELIMINARY STEPS IN ORaANIZATION.
The first question to be considered is this : Is there a statute of the
State which authorizes a tax to be levied for the support of a public
library ? Without a legal authority for taxation, a public library of this
kind is an impossibility. Active operations must be delayed till such a
law is enacted. If a petition, supported by the influence of the local
representative, be sent to the legislature, a public library act can proba-
bly be obtained.
In Massachusetts, cities and towns are authorized to lay any tax they
see fit for the support of a public library. In Ohio, cities may lay a tax
of one-fifth of a mill on the dollar valuation for the purchase of books.
Salaries and running expenses are paid out of the local school funds
Boards of education in Ohio have the control of public libraries, appoint-
478 Public Lihrarles in the United States.
ius:, however, for their more immediate supervision, a board of managers,
whose powers are scarcely more than that of a committee. Managers can
make recommendations and nominate the employes of the library, but
can make no appointments and vote no money. All their action may
be supervised and reversed by the board of education. "The board of
managers so constituted," says the statute, " shall at all times be under
the control of the board of education, both as to their authority and
tenure of office." The statute of Indiana is similar to that of Ohio. The
obvious objection to this system is that the real control of the library is
with a board of many members who were appointed for other duties, and
have not the time or inclination to make themselves familiar with the
details of library management. They are required to vote upon subjects
on which they have little or no practical knowledge. The library statute
of Illinois in a measure obviates this objection. It creates an independent
board of directors, who have full control of all the affairs of the library
and of its funds. This board is appointed by the mayor and confirmed
by the city council. In cities of less than 100,000 inhabitants, a tax of
one mill on the dollar may be levied, and in cities of more than that
population one-fifth of a mill. This tax would give in Chicago an in-
come of $65,000 a year to the library. The city council may, however,
cut the levy down to a smaller sum than the law allows as a maximum.
The income of a library, be it larger or smaller, should be uniform, and
not subject to the vote of a department of the city government which is
liable to have fits of liberality and economy. Xone of these statutes
has any validity unless accepted by the city or town.
It seems hardly necessary to remark that a board of directors should
be selected from the most intelligent, cultivated, and influential citizens
of the community. It is very desirable also that a liberal private sub-
scription and partial endowment, if possible, should be made at the
outset with which to make the first purchase of books. The regular
tax levy wdl not be sufficient for this purpose' unless it be allowed to
accumulate for several years; while it will be sufficient to meet the
running expenses from year to year and keep the library supplied with
new books. Communities are impatient when taxed year after year
without seeing the results. There is danger, if a tax be laid, and the
opening of the library be postponed for a long period, that the interest
in the enterprise will decline and the citizens withdraw their consent to
be taxed. Never buy books on credit ; never embarrass the library by
anticipating its income; and do not open to the public till there are
books enough on the shelves to make, in your community, a respectable
collection.
If there be a stock or subscription library in the town, or a literary
society possessing books, bring such motives and arguments to bear upon
their owners that they will present them as the foundation of a public
library. One well furnished and thrifty library in a town, under good
management, is much more serviceable to all concerned than several
Organization and Management of FuUic Libraries. 479
small and scattered collectious. Before anj- selection of books is made
it is well to give a general and urgent invitation to the citizens to send
in, as donations, sacU books as they can spare from their household
libraries. Erery family has books and pamphlets which they have
read, and which thrifty housekeepers can spare without feeling that the
gift is a sacrifice. This general contribution will furnish a large amount
of excellent reading, and will save the expense of purchasing these
books.
SELECTION OF BOOKS.
After all the donations have been made, the bulk of the library must
be carefully selected by the directors, or their library committee, and
purchased with ready money. There was probably never a board of
intelligent gentlemen appointed i'or such a service who did not suppose,
when they first came together, that the selection of books for the library
would be one of their simplest and pleasantest duties. They soon find,
however, that it is anything but an easy and harmonious task. The
more varied and pronounced the individual qualifications of the several
members, the more difficult the selection often becomes. If they start
out with different theories of what the library shall be, agreement upon
any selection of books is well-nigh impossible. Even without a conflict
of theories, committees usually find, after they have made some progress
in the work, that they have not that knowledge of books, editions, and
prices, outside of their own line of reading, which will enable them to
make a selection in the various departments of literature, science, and
art, which will be even satisfactory to themselves; and they are ver}'
glad to turn their lists over to an expert for revision and completion.
There are, however, some general principles by the observance of
which a committee can make an excellent selection of books for a library.
They must first divest themselves of the idea that their own individual
tastes must be represented in the selection, except so far as their tastes
harmonize with those of the public at large. The wants of the great
masses of the public must be kept constantly in view. One of the pri-
mary objects of a public library is to furnish reading for all classes in
the community, and reading which shall be adapted to their various
capacities. The masses of the public have very little of literary culture ,
and it is the purpose of a public library to develop it by creating in
them a habit of reading. As a rule, people read books of a higher in-
tellectual and moral standard than their own, and hence are benefited
by reading. As their tastes improve they read better books. Books
which are not adapted to their intellectual capacity they will not read.
To meet, therefore, the varied wants of readers there must be on the
shelves of the library books which persons of culture never read, al-
though it is quite probable they did read such books in some stage of
their mental development. Judged from a critical standpoint, such
480 PuU'ic Libraries in the United States.
books are feeble, rudimentary^, and perhaps sensational ; bat they are
higher in the scale of literary merit than the tastes of the people who
seek them ; and, like primers and first-readers in the public schools,
they fortunately lead to something better.
The wants of the young must also be considered. If a habit of read-
ing is not acquired in youth, it is seldom developed in later life. The
press of our day teems with entertaining and instructive books for the
the young, which are not simply stories, but books of travel, biography,
natural history, and elementary science. Especial mention has been
made of these classes of popular literature because they are foreign to the
mature and cultivated tastes of committees, and hence are likely to be
overlooked. They need not be reminded that their selections should
include the standard histories of our own and of foreign countries, biog-
raphies of eminent men, the best vo^^ages and travels, the latest and
most authoritative works on the arts and sciences, political economy,
and social and political science, a good selection of poetry and the
drama, etc. These are subjects which would suggest themselves to any
committee. The wants of the more cultivated persons in the community
should also be attended to. If the real wants of all classes are kept in
view, the committee will not be likely to make an injudicious selection.
The catalogues and finding lists of some of our larger libraries will be of
great service to committees in making their lists.
In making the first lists for purchase, it is desirable, in case the funds
at the disposal of the committee are limited, to select such works as
will come into immediate use, and to postpone the purchase of expen-
sive books which are rarely called for to a later period. The first de-
mand in a public library is for its popular books ; the demand for tech-
nical works and those of a higher and more scholarly grade comes
later. There should be made, however, at the start, a collection of
encyclopaedias, dictionaries, gazetteers, and scientific compendiums,
which should be accessible in the library as works of reference, and not
to be taken out. The extent of this collection will depend on the means
available for this purpose; but no library, however small, can dispense
with such books of reference.
Many of the books desirable for a circulating library can be obtained
in the best and cheapest form in collections ; as Bohn's libraries, the
Tauchnitz collection of British authors, Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia,
Constable's Miscellany, Murray's Family Library, the Library of Enter-
taining Knowledge, Jardine's Naturalist's Library, the Traveler's Li-
brary, Knight's AVeekly Volumes, Weale's Rudimentary Series, and sev-
eral other similar collections. If any or all of these collections be or-
dered, care must be taken that the titles contained in them are stricken
from theother lists; for, otherwise, these works will be dui)licated. The
Tauchnitz collection is very desirable, as it contains the works of nearly
all the popular English authors, as Dickens, Thackeray, Mrs. Craik,
George Eliot, Carlyle, Macaulay, Shakspere, and many of the lighter
Organization and Management of Public Libraries. 481
authors. It is priuted and bound at Leipzig in about 1,300 volumes, at
a very small cost, and obviates the purchase of these writers in more
expensive editions. Of this collection and of Bohn's libraries selections
may be made. Weale's Series is also cheap and very desirable, as it
gives practical informatiou as to trades, processes in the arts, and the
elements of science. These volumes are always much sought for iu
libraries. The science of Lirdner'sCyclop.B lia was gooJ authority some
years ago, but is not up to the stand.ird of the present da3^ It is not,
however, obsolete; and these volumes, especially those relating to his-
tory and biography, are still read with interest and profit.
Is it desirable to purchase duplicates of popular books ? That depends
on circumstances. In a small library, with limited means, it may be
better policy to have a larger selection of gojJ b,:)oks than to duplicate
those which are most in demand. In the larger libraries the practice of
duplicating popular books is universal. They do not attempt to supply
the first and temporary demand for a new book ; but the permanent
demand for a book of real merit they do endeavor to supply. Such a
number of copies is purchased at first as will be likely to be in constant
use after the temporary interest in the book has subsided. If attention
and good judgment be given to this matter, a library need have but few
useless duplicates.
A well selected and judiciously pur-chased circulating library-, with
such works of reference as are needed, will cost, on an average, $1.25
a volume. A library of 10,000 volumes will cost 812,500. A large
portion of these will be imported in substantial morocco binding, and
the American books will be chiefly in muslin binding. A committee,
therefore, knowing the amount of money it has to expend, may know
the number of volumes it will buy. Such a collection will contain books
which cost ten times as much a volume as the general average price.
PURCHASS OF BOOKS.
The lists of books to be purchased having been made, the next ques-
tion is, how shall they be bought ? As a rule, it is best to make all
purchases of English books in London, and of French and German books
in those countries, because better editions can there be procured, and at
cheaper rates, than in this country. The binding, also, can be done in
a better and more durable style abroad than in this country, and at half
the cost. By the revenue laws of the United States, books for public
libraries can be imported duty free. The method is to employ skilled
and reliable agents in London — and there are several such agents who
make this business a specialty — who will buy books in that market, they
having no stock of their own, at the lowest cash price, will cause them
to be bound, and w^ll ship them directl}^ to the library, invoicing them
at the original cost price, and chargihg a reasonable commission for their
services. In France and Germany, though the customs of the trade are
somewhat different, the metho.l is much the same. All the large li
31 E
482 Public Libraries in the United States.
brai'ies in this country buy their books iu this way, and find it greatly
to their advantage. The smaller libraries, when they make their orig-
inal purchases, or make considerable additions, can do the same. Ap-
plication to any of the principal libraries will furnish the inlormation
that is needed for securing all the advantages of making purchases in a
foreign market. Separate lists must be prepared of the American and
foreign orders; and each, for convenience of consultation, should be
arranged in alphabetical order under the names of authors. The foreign
invoices will come arranged in the same order.
As to the purchase of American books, arrangements can be made
with a bookseller to furnish the current American books at a certain
rate per cent, from the trade discount. Ey current American books is
meant such works as are on tlie latest lists of American publishers,
and not subscription nor special books. Special books are those on
which the usual discounts are not given ; they are often published on
account of the author, and are indicated as "special*' in the lists. It
is well to offer a written proposal in this form to different booksellers
to fill up the blank left for the rate of discount. Tdl recently it has
been customary for enterprising booksellers to fill up the blank with
discounts ranging from 25 to 35 per cent. Some contracts have been
made as low as 40 per cent, discount. In the summer of 1874, the book-
sellers of the country, at a convention at Put-in Bay, entered into a
combination by which the discount to libraries was cut down to 20 per
cent. That combination still exists, and nearly all the leading houses
Lave gone into it. There was no exigency, except their own pecuniary
interests, which required such a combination, and it is one which
no library is bound to re'spect, provided anybody outside of it can
be found who will furnish books at the old rates. Publishers have not
reduced their discounts to the trade, and except for this combination,
books could be bought by libraries as cheaply as formerly. Some of
the rules adopted by the Put-in Bay convention were needed and were
judicious ; but the one relating to libraries was a blunder, because it was
suicidal. Ko other influence is doing so much in cultivating a taste for
reading and a desire to own books as public libraries, and they are
the most efficient mode of advertising good books without expense to
the publisher or the trade. INFore books are sold, and private circulat-
ing libraries do a better business, where there is a public library than
where there is none. The largest discounts should, therefore, be made
to libraries.
Arrangements can also be made with the bookseller who supplies the
current publications to supply special and subscription books at rates
considerably below the trade j^rices. Rare books and books out of
print — and this class includes a large portion of American history and
biography — must in each instance be matters of special agreement as
to price. Let the person who supplies the general list furnish these
books, when he will do it at fair prices ; but the committee must be free
Organizatmi and Management of FiihUc Libraries. 483
to reject any of the books offered the price of wbicli seems to tbem
too high. This part of the purchase calls for considerable knowledge
and tact on the part of the committee. If the books are ordered of
second-hand dealers, (and none others keep them in stock,) they will cost
twice as much as if collected ia a more judicious way. These books are
constantly appearing in the auction sales in ]N'ew York and other cities.
The auctioneers will send their sale catalogues to any library which makes
the request for them in season to send orders. There are responsible
men who make it a business in the large cities to attend these sales
and buy books, charging a commission of fire per cent, on the amount
of the purchases, and giving the library the benefit of their experi-
ence as to prices, editions, condition of copies, etc. The books bought
will be billed and shipped by the auctioneer direct to the library. As
auction sales are for cash, it is necessary that prompt remittance should
be made. There are a few auctioneers of such established reputation
for integrity that it is safe to send orders direct to them, and they will
bid honestly and charge no. commissions; but as a rule, it is better to
employ an agent, limiting the bids in some instances, and in others
authorizing him to use his discretion. An application to any experi-
enced librarian will give the needful information as to responsible agents
in New York and elsewhere.
The writer is well aware that the foregoing recommendations as to the
purchase of books will not meet with the approval of some persons en-
gaged in the book trade, especially those who import books for libraries.
These suggestions will appear to them penurious and niggardly. The
writer has often had this inquiry addressed to him by gentlemen engaged
in the foreign trade : " If libraries import their own books, how is our
business to live ?" He replies to this inquiry that he is not now writing
for the information of importers, but in the interest of libraries who are
purchasers. The suggestions here given are based on an experience of
more than twenty-five years in purchasing books in our own and the
foreign markets.
ROOMS.
The plan of a building or the selection of temporary rooms for the
library is one of the first questions which engages the attention of a
board of directors. If the board has ample or special funds for this
purpose, it will, of course, consider where and what sort of build-
ing shall be erected. Its location should be as central as possible, and
a lot should be secured much larger than the present wants of the
library demand. The plans should be made with reference to the
future enlargement of the bnilding. Libraries, by a constant accretion
of books, increase more rapidly than is generally supposed. A library
starts with 10,000 volumes, and has an annual accession of 5,000 vol-
umes; in twenty years it will have 110,000 volumes, and long before
that period has elapsed the original building will be wholly unsuited
to its use. Kearly all the large libraries of our country have passed, or
484 Public Libraries in the United States.
are passiug, through this experience. A library of 100,000 volumes
needs uot only a larger building than one of 20,000 volumes, but a differ-
ent kind of building. It is, therefore, a risky undertaking for a board
of directors, in the first stage of their enterprise, to erect a building,
even if they have special funds for the purpose. It is prudent for the
directors to make haste slowly in this matter, to invest their money and
allow it to accumulate until the library has developed its wants in tem-
porary quarters, and they have bad more experience in these matters.
The construction of library buildings is a larger theme than can be dis-
cussed in the limits of this paper. No library board should attempt
such an enterprise without taking counsel of some one who has made
the subject a special study and has had experience in library manage-
ment.
There have been few public libraries in this country which had the
means for erecting a library building in the early stage of their exist-
ence. They are usually cramped for means to buy the books which are
needed at the outset. Rooms of peculiar architectural design are not
required for the original occupation and organization of a library. The
essential requirements are a central location, easy access, ample space,
and sufficient light. The space for the library and reading room should
be, if possible, on the same floor. The lower floor, if all the other con-
ditions are secured, is the most desirable. But the second floor in build-
ings designed for mercantile purposes can be obtained at a cheaper rent,
and for that reason may be preferred. The light there is often better
than on the lower floor.
A reading room, in which the current periodicals are kept, is a neces-
sary adjunct of a public library. Whether newspapers should be kept
on file is a question which each board must settle for itself. The literary
and illustrated weeklies may be included with periodicals. The local
and the leading newspapers of American and foreign cities are usually
supplied in reading rooms, but the custom is not universal, it being
thought in some libraries that the expense of these newspapers could
be better applied to other purposes. In reading rooms where uot a
large number of periodicals is taken and experience shows that they
are not stolen, they are usually placed on tables, where readers can con-
sult them without application to the attendant. Where there are many
readers and a large number of serials is taken, experience has shown
that it is better to place them in pigeon-holes behind a counter, to be
delivered by an attendant. The applicant writes the title, or the num-
ber from a printed list, on a slip and signs his name and residence. The
slip is placed in the pigeon-hole as a voucher, and removed when the
periodical is returned. At first sight this seems a slow and cumbrous
process, but practically it savxs the time of the applicant and the attend-
ant. When several hundred serials are laid upon tables and handled
by every comer, it is not easy to find the one that is needed, or to ascer-
tain whether it is in the hands of a reader. A superficial area of 1,200
square feet will be sufficient space for fifty readers at one time.
Organization and Management of Public Libraries. 485
A room well lighted and with a superficial area of 2,000 feet will
accommodate a library of 20,000 volumes, with sufficient space for
counters and the delivery of books. A library of 40,000 volumes will
require double the space. In selecting rooms it is well to provide at
least three times the space and shelving required for the close stowing of
books actually possessed. The rule is that every hundred square feet
will contain 1,000 volumes.
The reading room should be a separate apartment from the library
room. Both should be well lighted on two sides, the north light being
the most desirable.
SHELVING.
The common mode of building the bookcases against the walls is not
an economical arrangement of space, and scatters the books too much.
The problem is to economize space and bring the books as near as possi-
ble to the counter from which they are to b6 delivered. The time and
steps of the attendants are saved by shortening as much as possible the
distance they are required to go for books. This is done by construct-
ing cases open on both sides and placing them at right angles to the
wall, and yet so far distant from the wall at which the light enters that
there is a free passage around them. The length of the cases will
depend on the space available. They may be from 10 to 13 feet long.
Five feet between these cases is sufficient, and they should be placed to
the best advantage with reference to the light. By leaving a space of
2^ or 3 feet between the ends of the cases and the wall, there will be
sufficient cross light for cases which stand between windows and do not
receive the light direct.
The cases should not be so high but that a person of full stature can
reach the books on the top shelf without steps. Their general dimen-
sions may be as follows: Base, 4 inches j space for books, 7 feet 6
inches ; cornice and finish, 8 inches; total height, 8 feet 6 inches. The
depth of the cases need not be more than 16 inches. A thin paneled
partition passes through ths middle of each case separating the books
on the two sides. The shelves will be 7^ inches in width, and
their length must not be more than 3 feet 6 inches. The shelves sRist
be all of the same length, so that they will fit in any locality. They
must also be movable, in order that they may be adjusted at any dis-
tance from each other. This is best attained by supporting them on
pins, the square heads of which, cut into the under side of the shelf,
are out of the way and not seen. The holes for the pins, three-eighths
of an inch in diameter, one inch from the outer and inner edge, and one
inch apart from centre to centre, are bored in the standards by machinery
when the stock is prepared. The pins, of hard wood, are also made by
machinery. A skilful mechanic who has machinery will take a contract
to make such cases as cheaply as if the shelves were fixed. Some wood
harder than pine should be used for the cases, though the partition panels
may be made of pine. Ash is an excellent wood for this purpose, and
486
Public Libraries m the United States.
in some parts of the country is as cheap as piue, thongh the working is
somewhat more expensive. Whatever wood is selected, use no paint,
but varnish with three or four coats, and rub down and finish the ends
and cornices.
Plate I.
\
^
^
'% r-^
\y
"^S
^^=~^=^ ^ f
c '
1
o
c
''ci'
c
c
0
c
c
c
^
&.
}
c
A lateral view of the case described is shown in Plate I, a; an inside
view of the end standard, showing the partition, shelves, and pin holes,
is seen in h. In c a section of the standard and pin supporting the shelf
is shown ; in d, the end of the shelf, with the notches cut out to receive
the head of the pin ; in c, the under side of the shelf, showing the same.
In / the pin is shown edgewise and flat, and in g the shelf and the pins in
place. The ends of the cases should be paneled. The partition need not
Organization and Management of Public Libraries. 487
be thicker than half-inch stufif. The front edges of the shelves should be
rounded, as shfirp edges will cut the binding of the books. Xo glass
or wire doors are needed in front of the cases, as the public does not have
access to them.
The cases which have been described will hold only octavos and
smaller volumes, and these comprise nineteen-twentiethsof the volumes
of a circulating library. Other provision must be made for quartos and
folios. If cases were made deep enough to accommodate all sizes, they
would be expensive and cumbersome. Itisbetter, therefore, that books
larger than royal octavos should be kept by themselves in cases pre-
pared especially for them , even if it separates some books from others of
the same class. One or more wall cases with a ledge may be provided
for these books. Below the ledge the depth may be 16 inches, which
will take in folios, and above the ledge 10.^ inches, which will ac-
commodate quartos. These wall cases will be of the same height,
general construction, and finish as the other cases. If bound newspa-
pers are kei)t, cases of even greater depth than these must be made
One advantage in constructing cases in the manner described is, that if
the library has occasion to change its quarters, its entire furniture and
equipments may be removed and set up without reconstructing.
DESK A^D COUNTER.
In the further arrangement of the library room there should be a desk
at which books are returned, and a counter over which the books are
applied for and delivered. The extension of the desk and counter, with
such side railing as is necessary, will shut out the public from contact
with the bookcases. There should be a space of 6 feet between the
counter and the ends of the bookcases, and 8 feet between the desk and
the bookcases, in order that there mi\y be room for a table on which
to place the books received. The desk should be 6 feet long, 3 feet wide,
•with a flat top, and 3 feet 8 inches high. It should have drawers on the
inside, and an iron railing on the outer edge, with an opening 18 inches
wide at one side of the front, through which books are received. The
register, hereafter to be described, stands on the top of the desk, and
the iron railing is to protect it. The opening is at one side in order to
give space to work the register. The front line of the desk will, there-
fore, be thrown 3 feet in front of the line of the counter. The counter
will be 2 feet wide on the top, 3 feet G inches high, and may have shelves
on the inside. Its length will depend on the amount of business to be
done. It should be at least IC feet long, and twice that length may be
needed. The Chicago Library has 80 feet of counter, and that space is
often filled.
If there be a large circulation, the business of the library will be
greatly facilitated by having, instead of a single desk for the return of
books, two desks, or rather a double desk, 12 feet long, each half of
which will have its ovrn register. At one of these desks men will return
488
Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
their books, and at the other women. The delivery room, for this pur-
pose, will be divided into two parts by a rail extending from the middle
of the double desk to the opposite wall, and the different sexes will
enter this room by different doors. There will with this arrangement
be two counters extending right and left from the double desk, the
women being supplied with books at "one and the men at the other.
This arrangement also better accommodates the women, as they are not
incommoded by mingling with the mass of applicants of the other sex.
Twice as much work can be done with two registers as with one. This
subject will be further explained under the head of "Arrangements."
Plate II.
E in
q
COUNTER..
In Plate II is shown the general double arrangement which has been
described. The number of bookcases, the length of counters, and the
size of the delivery apartments will depend on the size of the library,
and may be enlarged as the library increases. Shelves for catalogues
may be placed on each side of the central rail, or wherever the light is
most favorable.
LIBRARIAN.
Even before the lists of books to be purchased are made and a place
is provided for their reception, the board will have received a score of
applications for the position of librarian. Every one of these applicants
is abundantly qufllified (in his or her own opinion) for the duties, and
will furnish mauv testimonials to sustain this claim ; and yet probably
Organisation and Management of Public Libraries. 489
not one of them has had any experience in the work. The directors, if
they use the same good judgmentwhich they apply to their own private
business, will appoint a person who has had experience ; and such a per-
son, can be obtained at a moderate salary if inquiries be made at some
of the large libraries where young persons of both sexes have been regu-
larly trained. The local prejudice that the librarian must be a resident
is absurd, and one which the individual members of the board do not
observe in conducting their own affairs. The business of a librarian is
a profession, and practical knowledge of the subject is never so much
needed as in starting a new enterprise. If a person of experience can-
not be found, the best material that offers, resident or otherwise, must
be taken. Persons who have failed in everything else are usually the
local applicants for the position. Broken down ministers, briefless law-
yers, unsnccessful school teachers, and physicians without patients,
especially, are desirous to distinguish themselves as librarians. The
same energy, industry, and tact, to say nothing of experience, which
insure success in other avocations are quite as requisite in a librarian
as book knowledge-. A mere bookworm in charge of a public library,
who has not the qualities just named, is an incubus and a nuisance.
RECEIVING AND ENTERING BOOKS.
The librarian, whoever or whatever he or she may be, is appointed,
and the books begin to arrive. The first duty of the librarian is to com-
pare the books with tlie invoices and the original order, (of which a copy
should be recorded,) and certify to the accuracy of the invoices, if they
be found correct. The books must then be collated to ascertain if they
be complete copies and that no signatures be missing or transposed.
Incomplete copies must be returned. The books must then be entered
in the "accession catalogue," which is usually a folio volume with printed
headings and ruled especially for the purpose. This record furnishes a
perpetual history of every book that comes into the library, and gives
the date, accession number, author, title, place where published, date
when published, number of volumes, size, number of pages, binding, of
whom procured, and cost. If the book be presented, the word "gift" is
written in the cost column. Specimen forms of this accession book can
be had by applying to any-experienced librarian. Every work entered
has its accession number. These follow each other in numerical order.
The accession number is written in some fixed place in every volume —
usually on the back of the title page — so that immediate reference can
be had at any time to its history, as recorded in the accession catalogue.
It is a serious mistake for a library to put its books into circulation
without having first entered them in the accession catalogue. The mis-
take, if made, will be discovered when it is too late to rectify it.
CATALOGUING.
The next process is to catalogue the books on cards. The cards will
be ruled to order and may be of any size or shape desired, but the size
490 Public Libraries in the United States.
most used, and the oue recommended, is 5^ by 2^ inches, of fine cal-
endered paper, folio post, twenty-six pounds to the ream. Some
libraries use a much thicker paper, which is more expensive, takes more
space, and has no advantages over the quality named. The British
Museum and some other libraries use a thinner paper. Every work
must be catalogued under its author or under the first word of the
title not an article, in case the author be not known. It must also be
catalogued, under its subject, or, if it be a work of fiction, under its title.
Two cards must, therefore, be written for each work, and more if they
be required ; the purpose of the cataloguing being to show what the book
is, who is its author (or authors), what it contains, and its imprint. If
the title be long, it is abridged. The place aid date of publication, the
size, the number of volumes, and the accession number must be given
in every instance ; and cross-references, when necessary, must be made.
Th£re are many technical rules for cataloguing which should be
thoroughly mastered before one undertakes to catalogue a library, and
yet are too extended to be set forth in this paper. The modern rules are
based on the system used at the British Museum. The rules prepared
from that system by the late Prof. C. C. Jewett, for the Smithsonian
Institution, and since printed with some improvements by the Boston
Public Library, have been till recently the best code that was procura-
ble in this country. The " Rules for a Dictionary Catalogue," lately pre-
pared by Mr. Charles A. Cutter of the Boston Athen<Tam, and forming
Part II of this report, is now the most complete and authoritative treatise
on the subject extant.
The inexperienced librarian will find the cataloguing of his books the
most difficult part of his undertaking, even after he has made a diligent
theoretical study of the subject. He will find after he has made consid-
erable progress that much of his work is useless, and scarcely any of it
correct. It is good economy to employ, temporarily, skilled and profes-
sional cataloguers to do the work and to train an inexpeiienced libra-
rian in this and other duties of his profession. There are ladies in the
eastern cities who have had much experience in cataloguing, and who
devote themselves to this specialty. Their seivices can be temporaiily
secured for this purpose ; and they are also skilled in library manage-
ment. The writer will be happy to turuish to any committee the namCvS
and addresses of several ladies who are not surpassed in their qualifica-
tions for such work, and whom he has employed in cataloguing.
The caids being prepared may be left for the present in the work, next
to the title page, or in the first volume when there are several volumes.
The leaves of every volume must be carefully cut, if this has not already
been done by the binder.
COVERING BOOKS.
The qiU'Sticn Mill ali!^e whether the books should be covered with
paper. This Las been a gcneial piactice, and, though still kept up in
Organization and Management of Public Libraries. 491
some of the older libraries, is becoming the exception rather than the
rule. The jiractice of the writer is not to cover the books, because the
covering is expensiAe, troublesome, and quite as much an injury as a
protection to a book. A book covered with paper is likely to need
rebinding sooner than if it be not covered. It is the sewing and the
bands which attach the book to the covers that first give way. Paper
will protect the covers, but these, even if they be only of muslin, will
outlive the sewing and the bands. If a book be covered with paper on
a damp day, the paper shrinks on a dry day and strains the binding at
the bands. Books are covered that they may be cleaner and more pre-
sentable ; but paper takes dirt more readily than muslin, and when a vol-
ume has been out once or twice its condition is anything but presentable.
Books covered with paper may be bound with less finishing and with-
out lettering. The expense thus saved is more than offset by the cost
of continual re-covering. Books lose their individuality by being cov-
ered ; and cases of books, with simply shelf marks and no titles, are
unserviceable for the purpose of reference, as well as unsightly.
BINDING
For binding, morocco is the best material and calf is one of the poorest.
The genuine morocco (which is a goat-skin) has a long and tough fibre,
which makes it durable ; the calf has a fine and close fibre, which
cracks when it has stood on the shelves a few years. Sheep, bark tanned
and unsplit, is also a durable material, and the less coloring matter and
finish applied to it, the better its enduring qualities. Skivers, or split
sheep-skins, and base imitations of morocco should be avoided. Kus-
sia leather should be usfed only on very large volumes, and the article
supplied to book-binders in this country is usually a fraudulent imitation.
Libraries cannot afford to indulge in luxurious binding. Good material,
strong sewing, and a moderate degree of skill and taste in finishing, are
all they can pay for. No part of a librarian's duties is more annoying
than superintending the binding. He sees so much of what is uuwork
manlike and lacking intelligence in the common work of book-binders
that his patience is severely taxed, and he has a chronic feeling that he
is imposed upon, as he usually is. Hence the iniucipal libraries main-
tain binderies of their own, and employ persons who are skilled in
library work. The difficulty and expense of having good binding done
in this country is the reason why as much binding as is possible should be
done abroad. The binding of London, Paris, Copenhagen, and some
parts of Germany, (but not Leipzig,) is excellent, and is done at one-
half, and even less, than the prices charged here.
STAMPING AND LABELING.
Before the books are i)laced on the shelves, they must be stamped
with the name of the library on their title pages, and elsewhere in the
volumes, if it be thought desirable. This may be done with a hand-
492 Public Libraries in tJie United States.
stamp, in black or fancy colored ink -, or it may be done with an emboss-
ing-stamp. There are vulcanized rubber stamps now made which give
an excellent impression and are cheaper and more easily worked than
the metal stamps. An official label must also be prepared and pasted
on the inside of the cover. If the town or city has a seal, it is well to
place this on the label, with the name of the library. There may be a
blank line in the upper left-hand corner for the shelf mark of the volume,
and a blank line at the bottom, in which to write the date the volume is
received. This work being done, the books are ready for the shelves,
and the next question to consider is their
CLASSIFICATION.
A system of classification must first be fixed upon. This will be
simple or elaborate, as the occasion may require. A large library needs
a more minute classification than a small library, and a library of refer-
ence than one of circulation. A classification like the following may be
sufficient for the class of circulating libraries we are considering: His-
tory, biography, voyages and travels, poetry and drama, English rais-
•cellanies, English prose fiction, juveniles, polygraphy, collected works
of English and American authors, German literature, French literature,
Spanish literature, Italian literature, etc., language and rhetoric, fine
and practical arts, natural history, physics and natural science, political
and social science, education, religion, law, medicine, and serials. This
does not profess to be an exhaustive or scientific classification, but it
will meet the practical wants of the class of libraries in question.
ARRANGEMENT.
In arranging the books under these general classes, each class must
be further subdivided. History, for instance, must be separated into
ancient, English, American, French, German, etc. Ancient history must
be divided into general, Greek, Roman, Jewish, etc. English history
must be classified under general and special. And this arrangement
will bring together the works on the dififerent periols, as the Norman
Conquest, the Revolution of IGAO, the Ravolution of 1G88, etc. The
works on Scotland, Ireland, and British India will be brought together.
French history will be treated in the same manner. The works in the
English language on the other countries of Earope are not so numerous
as to require so minute a classification. In American history, the works
relating to the discovery and early explorations of the continent, and
accounts of the aboriginal inhabitants will farm the first subdivision.
Tbe general histories of the United States will follow, thea the war of
the Revolution, the war of 1812, the Mexican war, and the war of the
Rebellion. On each of these topics there are many publications. Tlie
general and local histories of each of the States must be arranged to-
gether, and it is convenient to place them in the order of the Eastern,
Middle, Southern, and Western States. The histories of Canada, Mex-
Organization and Manafjement of Public Libraries. 493
ico, Central America, and South America will complete the arrangement
relating to America.
It is well to separate Biography into general and individual. Indi-
vidual biography may be subdivided into ancient, American, English,
French, German, etc. These subdivisions may be arranged alphabet-
ically under the names of the persons whose lives are treated. This will
bring the several lives of Washington, Franklin, Napoleon I, Frederick
II, etc., together ; and any life desired can be readily found without
referring to the catalogue for the shelf mark. Poetry, drama, English
prose fiction, and Euglish miscellanies may also be arranged alphabet-
ically by authors. By these arrangements attendants learn very readily
the location of books, and associate the titles of books with their
authors. Sculpture, painting, drawing, and architecture will be sepa-
rated in the arrangement of the Fine Arts; and so with the practical
arts, natural history, physics and natural science, political and social
science, religion, etc. In short, this subdivision must extend through
all the classes named. Collections like Bohn's libraries, the Tauchnitz
collection, etc., although they contain works on different subjects, had
better be kept together, and arranged in alphabetical order by authors,
in the class of Polygraphy. From the detailed illustrations M'hich have
been given, a librarian of intelligence, even if he has had little or no ex-
perience, ought to be able to arrange his books in a manner that shall be
practically satisfactory.
Ample space should be left for additional works in every department,
and no bookcase should have more than half the books it will contain.
In history, biography, voyages and travels, and science more than half
the space should be left empty. Even then the librarian will soon have
occasion to regret that he did not leave more space for accessions. The
cases for fiction and juveniles will be the last to be crowded, for the rea-
son that so many of them are constantly out.
The classes of books which are most called for should be placed in
the cases which are nearest to the ijoint of delivery, and those most
unfrequently called for in the most remote cases. About three-fourths
of the circulation will be prose fiction and juveniles. Place these books
in the most accessible position.
SHELF MARKS.
Every book must have a shelf mark which will indicate its place on
the shelf, and distinguish it from every other book in the library.
There are several methods of applying shelf marks in use, each one of
which has its own advocates. We have only space to describe a few of
these plans. One is to designate the cases by the letters of the alpha-
bet, numbering the shelves in each case, and numbering the works
consecutively as they stand on the shelves. By this plan, the shelf
mark "A, 24, 10-2" would mean "Case A, 24th shelf, 10th work,
2d volume." Another plan, which is called the decimal system, desig-
nates the cases by letters, as before, and numbers the upper shelf of
494 Ftihllc Libraries in the United States.
tbe left-band tier 11, find those below it 12, 13, 14, etc. Tbe upper sbelf
of the second tier is numbered 21, and coming down with 22, 23, 24,
etc. The top sbelf of tbe third tier is 31, tbe fourth tier 41, etc. The
number, whatever it is, indicates by tbe first figure the tier, and by tbe
second tbe sbelf. For instance, "A, 56" indicates "Case A, fifth tier,
sixth sbelf from the top." As there are not usually more than eight
shelves in a tier, tbe numbers 1 to 10, 19, 20, 29, 30, 39, 40, etc., are
discarded. Tbe advantage of this plan is that, tbe sbelf mark directs
ih<d attendant readily to tbe sbelf. There is still another application of
tbe decimal system . Tbe designation of cases by letters is omitted.
The upper sbelf (or tbe lower shelf may be selected, if it be preferred)
of the first tier is numbered 111, the next 112, etc. ; the upper shelf of
the second tier, 121 ; of the third tier, 131, etc. Tbe first figure indicates
the case, tbe second tbe tier, and the third* tbe sbelf. If any plan of
numbering tbe shelves be adopted, this is probably the best.
The writer of this paper, however, for reasons which will be
presently stated, has not adopted tbe plan of numbering shelves
in a circulating library, while he has used it as tbe best device
in a reference library. He prefers for a circulating library the plan
of designating tbe cases by the letters of the alphabet; giving the books
in each case a numerical order, and reserving sufficient numbers for
tbe insertion of future accessions in their proper classified arrange-
ment. Tbe books, therefore, do not stand permanently on any particu-
lar shelf, but in a fixed numerical order. As accessions come in to
fill more space, the books are moved forward. This arrangement gives
the librarian greater freedom in the management of bis books than if
he numbered the shelves and gave each volume a fixed place. Du-
plicates can be added or withdrawn and new books inserted without
disturbing the arrangement, and the space Can be more economically
utilized. It is impossible in a rapidly growing library to allot tbe
vacant spaces for future accessions on tbe rigid plan of numbering
shelves without soon finding that too little space has been left in some
instances and too much in others. It is not claimed that the writer's
or any other plan will provide for indefinite expansion. The time
will arrive when there must be an entire and radical re-arrangement.
For instance, a library starts with ten thousand volumes, and in a
few years it has grown to fifty thousand. Before it attains this size
it will have outgrown its original quarters; and a change of rooms
is a favorable occasion for making a general rearrangement and a more
minute classification. Care must be taken that sufficient numbers are
left for future accessions. Tbe mistake usually made is that too few
numbers are reserved. In general, it is well to use, at first, not more
than one-third of the numbers. In local history, and some other de-
partments which grow rapidly, even a larger proportion of the numbers
should be left vacant. At the end of each subdivision leave twenty,
thirty, or fifty numbers, as the case may seem to require. Considerable
j udgment must be used in making the proper allotment.
Orf/auization and Management of PiihUc Libraries. 495
Before the actual nuiubeiiug is begun tags iiinst be attached to each
volume. Many more tags should be printed for the cases which con-
tain the popular books than for other cases. Tags of this form and size
J^
J^
J^
may be prepared by the printer, and all the diiferent sorts worked on
a single sheet, to be afterwards cut up. Three sizes, with the case letter
inserted, may be printed, which will fit volumes of different thickness.
Place the tag about the middle of the back. If placed near the bottom
it will be defaced by readers in holding the book. The paper for the
tags must not be thick or heavily sized, in which case it will not stick.
If the tags curl up when the paste is applied the paper is too thick or
not porous enough. The paper should have a little sizing, for it is
necessary to write upon it. It is exceedingly annoying to the librarian
to find his tags peeling off. The best material known to the writet for
sticking on tags is fresh binders' paste, and yet this does not fully
answer the purpose. Shellac dissolved in alcohol will make the tags
adhere more securely, but there is too much trouble in working it. The
person who will suggest or invent a better material than binders' paste
will confer a favor on the profession. In a library of large circulation
the time of one person is mostly occupied in putting on tags. The glaze
on the backs of books, which prevents tags from sticking, can some-
times be removed by alcohol or muriatic acid. The number of the work
is placed in the* middle snace of the tag; and if it be in more than one
volume, the number of the volume is placed in the lower space. If there
be more than one copy of the work, the first copy is marked a, the
second b, etc. The same shelf mark is placed on the library label of
the inside cover, on the back of the title page, and on the upper right-
hand corner of each catalogue card. The catalogue cards, when they
have received their shelf marks, will be removed from the volumes.
SHELF LISTS.
The shelf lists are an inventory of the contents of each case, and
hence of the entire library. They give the shelf number of each work,
the author, a brief title, the number of volumes, and number of copies, if
more than one. If the library be large it is well to keep the shelf list of
each case in a separate book, or, if on loose sheets, in portfolios or
" binders." If the library be small, they may, when completed, be bound
in one or more volumes. The paper will be ruled with a head-line,
above which will be written the case letter, and perpendicular lines for
the several particulars which have been named. The numbers 1, 2, 3,
496 Public Libraries in the United States.
4, 5, 6, etc., will first be written dowu the page, oue number on each
line; and such numbers as have, for the time, no books to represent
them will be left blank for future additions. Only ver^' brief titles need
be inserted in tbe shelf lists, with the surnames and initials of the
authors.
CARD CATALOGUE.
The catalogue cards, having received the shelf marks and been re-
moved from the volumes, will be arranged alphabetically, and placed on
their edges in drawers or boxes. When this is done the librarian has
a complete card catalogue of his books. If it be thought necessary to
print a catalogue immediately, these cards will serve as "copy" for the
printer. It is not necessary to transcribe them. Libraries, however, are
usually opened to the public before many of the books ordered have
been received, and with their shelves much less full}" supplied than they
will be a few months later. It is not well to print a catalogue, which is
expensive, until the library has attained a desirable degree of complete-
ness. In the meantime some substitute for a printed catalogue must be
supplied. In a small library an alphabetical list by authors can be
written up from the card catalogue, with the shelf marks, and posted
in the rooms. If the collection be large and the book borrowers many,
this plan will not be sufticieut.
FINDING LISTS.
Another substitute for a printed catalogue is finding lists, which may
be printed at a small expense, with brief titles and double columns on
an octavo page. These finding lists are readily purchased by the public
at the cost price, and practically are no expense, except for the copies
used for consultation in the library. Such finding lists have been used
for two years in the Chicago Public Library, and more "than ten thou-
sand copies have been sold at the cost price. The lists include the titles
of 49,000 volumes. The circulation based on this compilation has been
during the last twelve months more than 400,000 volumes, and an aver-
age of 1,3GG volumes has been given out a day. These finding lists
are sold to the ]>ublic for ten cents a copy, the price at which they are
furnished by the printer. The actual cost is about twenty-five cents a
copy; but the printer, in consideration of the privilege of inserting un-
exceptionable business advertisements at the beginning and end of the
volume, can afford to furnish them at the price named. Three editions
have been issued, each of wiiich contained the titles of all the books
received at the date of publication. When the collection of books is
more complete it is the intention to print a catalogue of the library.
The plan of these finding lists ma^' be of interest to some librarians.
They are made, with very little trouble, from the shelf lists; and hence the
arrangement follows the general classification of the library : as history,
biography, voyages and travels, etc. History is subdivided into ancient
history, Greece, Rome, Jews, England, France, etc. Biography, poetry,
Orfjauizat'wv and Manarjemerd of PuhUc Lilrarit'S. 41J7
and lictiou are arranged alphabetically. The several sciences and prac-
tical arts have each a separate arrang-euient, and there is a general index
to the several subdivisions. The size of the type is brevier, and the
l)aper used is a calendered and well made Manila paper, which costs
only one-half as much as* a good book paper of the same weight and
thickness; and for use on the library tables will stand six times as much
weai'. The paper has a pleas;\nt tint, and makes a very neat volume.
The printer will hardly need to be told that the piper must hi worked
dry.
CATALOGUE,
The librarian should have in view the printing of a regular catalogue,
and at as early a day as is practicable. If the books intended for imme-
diate purchase have beeu received, it is well to priut the catalogue
before the library is opened to the public. The public at large and
coniiiiittees often do not appreciate the amount of work there is to be
duiu' in getting a library ready for use. They do hot see why books
received at a library may not be j/iven out as soon, and with as
rule formality, as in a bookstore ; ai\d hence they are impatient, and
dci-jaud that the library should be opened before it is ready. It is often
necessary to yield to this pressure and adopt a substitute for the regu-
lar catalogue. When the time for printing arrives, the tirst question
M'illbe: "What style of catalogue shall we print?" Au inspection of
the latest catalogues which have been issued by the best public libraries
will furnish a great variety of styles, and the compilers of each will
claim that theirs is the best. Some are in single columns, and some
afe in double columns. Some «re in readable type, and some are in
tyi)o which many persons cannot read without painful exertion or
the use of a magnifving glass. Xone have full titles, but some have
titli's so extended that they fill one, two, or three lines as the case may
be: and others have tit^ s so abridged that they come into one line.
Tl.e iMji'.its on which these ci.talognes differ are too iiumerous to be
e\ . u mentioned, much less discussed. A few general principles may be
suggested which will aid in determining the style of catalogue to be
selected, A catalogue of a libn:.ry is expensive in any form or style,
and if the collection be i.ipidly growing must be susperseded in a few
years by a new and more complete edition. But few copies will be sold
to the publrc if offered at the cost price. A large edition will not be
needed; for a library of 10,00D volumes, 5;>0 copies will be enough, and
750 copies for a library of 20,000 volumes. Its chief use will be by
readers and book borrowers in the library, and for exchange with
other libraries. If a subscription for copies be circulated before the cata-
logue is printed, a considerable number of copies may be sold. As the
edition is small, the main cost will be for "composition" or type-setting,
and not for paper; hence there will be no economy in using small type.
The writer prefers brevier type, and a single column, on a common
octavo page. Very few titles require more than a single line. There is
32 E
498 PiiUk Llhrarirs In tJic United States.
no ecoiiouiy iu using double columns, on a royal octavo page, with
smaller type, and the matter is less clear and legible. Nothing is saved
in expense by omitting from the subject-reference the place and time of
publication, the size and number of volumes, an omission which is made
in many catalogues. In subjects like geology, chemistry, and natural
history, which are rapidly advancing, tlie edition and date of the pub-
lication is of much importance. The eye more readily takes the names
of authors and subjects in lower-case letters than iu small capitals, unless
the lines turn. The turning of lines is to be avoided, as a matter of
economy ; but if the lines frequently turn, it is better to use a full-faced
lower-case letter than small capitals. The plan of catalogue with refer-
ences under the authors and subjects, in one alphabetical arrangement,
is the one which is now almost universally used, and is preferable to the
classified plan. The principles of this plan have already been treated
brietly under the head of " Cataloguing."'
If a library has plenty of money to spend on a catalogue, and the
librarian is ambitious to make a contribution to the art of bibliography,
he needs different instructions from those which have been given. There
are many technical points connected with the subject, which, for want
of space, cannot be discussed here. The librarian who has not expe-
rience will take counsel of some one who has, when questions of difti-
culty arise.
3IETII0DS OF DELIVERY.
Our attention thus far has been directed to the collection, preparation,
arrangement, and cataloguing of the books, with reference to their future
use by the public. We are now to consider the methods by which the
public may have access to the books.
A code of regulations or by-laws, defining the qualifications of book
borrowers, and the conditions on which books shall circulate, must be
adopted by the managing board. Application should be made to existing
libraries for their by-laws, blanks, and other forms for doing business.
In a library supported by public taxation every resident must have an
equal opportunity to use the books. There must also be some security
or guarantee that the books loaned will be well treated and returned
promptly. If books be given out without some such regulations, the
library will soon disappear. The custom in the English libraries is tlia
the book borrower shall make a money deposit, or file a written guar-
antee signed by a responsible taxpayer, stating that he will be respon-
sible for the return of the books taken or fines incurred by this person,
and will make good any injury or loss the library* may sustain in conse-
quence of this certificate. This is a wise and judicious provision, and is
now generally adopted iu this country. There is iu every large commu-
nity an unsettled and roving population, who cannot safely, on their-
own responsibility, be intrusted with books ; and yet they are persons
who desire and ought to read, ^yith the guarantee of their employers,
landlords, or other known persons with whom they have business, they
Orficmization and Managrment of FnhVic Lihraries. 490
become trustworthy aud diligent readers. Tiie fatit that some person
wbose good opinion they desire, and who will be informed of their deliii-
qnencj^ if it occurs, is responsible for them, will induce them to return
books and pay tines ; which they would not do from a sense of duty and
personal self respect. In some of the Eastern libraries, in lieu of a
written guarantee, the names of one or two known citizens are reriuired
to whom application can be made as to cliaracter and responsibility, if
it be required. The city police make these inquiries. One library re-
ported that the police made three thousand of these inquisitorial visits
in a single j^ear. Few public libraries are so fortunate as the one
alluded to, in having the city police at its beck and call. Without such
a police visitation, a simple reference amounts to little ; whereas the
written guarantee is sutiticient, and spares book borrowers the annoyance
and mortification of being inquired after by patrolmen. Blank forms of
guarantee are issued by the library, and when returned filled with a
responsible name as guarantor, the applicant signs his or her name and
residence on the register, with the name and residence of the guarantor.
A register number is given, and a library card is issued, on which are
the register number, name, and residence of the person. Tliis card en-
titles the holder to draw books from the library.
The names of all registered book borrowers will be indexed with reg-
ister number, residence, and name of guarantor. The most convenient
form of indexing is on separate cards, to be arranged alphabetically in
drawers or boxes, like the catalogue cards. The names of guarantors will
also be indexed in the same manner, with tlie names of persons guaran-
teed. In case a guarantor fails to respond to his obligation, all the cards
guaranteed by him are to be canceled, and the persons so guaranteed
notified. The register in which book borrowers record their names is a
book especially prepared and ruled for this purpose, with printed head-
lines, and a promise that the undersigned will observe the rules of the
library. One row of figures, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc., may be printed against
each line on the page, which will aid in obviating errors in numbering.
The left-hand figures may be filled in with a pen. If two such registers
are kept, one for men and the other for women, the former will use only
the odd numbers and the latter the even numbers. The register number
of any card will then show whether it be a man's or a woman's card, and
where the ticket of a book charged may be found ; as will appear more
clearly after the method of charging books, which we are now to con-
sider, has been explained.
REGISTER OF BOOKS BORROWED.
The account with book borrowers may be kept in ledgers, several
accounts being on a page, and in as nearly alphabetical order as possible.
In a small library, where few books are taken, and where the borrowers
are nearly the same from year to year, and are known to the librarian,
there is, perhaps, no better plan than the ledger system. Delinquent
500 Fahlic Libraries in the United States.
books, however, cau be ascertained only by exaiuiiiiiig' every account.
In libraries of larger circulation this plan has been found to be cuuiber-
vsome and dilatory, and has gone out of use. Several plans have been
devised to take the nlace of ledgers, in all of which the book is charged
on slips of paper of uniform size. It is not practicable in the limits of
this paper to describe all these plans. A few of their peculiarities will
be touched upon and a full description given of the plan which the writer
uses and recommends.
We will suppose that a library has ten thousand book borrowers. The
vsame number of stiff cards (say -I by 0 inches) are provided and arranged
in ten boxes, which are designated A, B, C, D, E, etc. Five of these
boxes, each containing one thousand cards, are placed on a table at the
right, and five at the left of the person who attends to the register.
Each card is marked in numerical order in its box, and is inscribed with
the name and residence of a borrower, and such other particulars as the
rules require. The order of names at first may be al[thabetical, but as
old names drop out and new names are added, this order is soon dis-
turbed. Each borrower knows his box and number. Behind each of
these cards the account of the borrower is kept, but on a different slip.
The library furnishes blank slips, on one of which the borrower writes his
register number, the title or shelf mark (as the rules may require) of the
book returned, and of the book or books desired, and hands it, with the
book returned, to the person in charge of the register, who checks off
the book returned, and passes the slip to au attendant to get the book
wanted. Both slip and book are hand'ed to the person at tha register,
who removes the old slip from behind the register card, examines it,
puts the new slip in its place, and delivers the book to the borrower.
This is the plan of the IsTew York Mercantile Library. The most im-
|)Drtaiit objection to it is that it does not readily show the delinquents.
These cau only be ascertained by examining every slip in the boxes.
Another and better plan is that of the Boston Public Library. Printed
slips are provided, on which the applicant writes his name and resi-
dence and the shelf marks of such books as he desires. The si ip, with
the person's card, is taken by an attendant, and the first book on the list
which is in is delivered, the other shelf marks are erased, and the slip
is retained as a voucher for the book. The date of the delivery is also
stamped upon the person's card. All the slips of the day are arranged
alphabetically, and are placed by themselves in one of the compartments
of a drawer, which compartments are numbered with the several days of
the mouth. The book is returned with the person's card, which, bearing
a date, shows the compartment in which the corresponding slip can be
found. The slip is removed, and the date on the card is stamped out.
Slips remaining in compartments more than fourteen days are delinquent,
and the parties can readily be notified. The facility with which delin-
quents can be ascertained is one of the merits of the system.
The plan' which is in use at the Chicago Public Library is in its main
Organization and Management of PuhUc Libraries. 501-
features the system just explained, bat with some modifications, which
were first applied by Mr. William I. Fletcher, now of the Watkinson^
Library, of Hartford, Conn., and formerly one of the writer's assistants
in the Boston Athenaeum. Without modification, so rigid a method
would not be practicable in a Western library. Applicants are not
required to fill printed blanks, and are not limited to any specific method
of applying for books. They may do it verbally, or they may give a
list of shelf marks of such books as they desire; and often they need
and receive assistance from the attendants in selecting their books. They
usually api)ly with a list of shelf marks. The first one found is crossed off
and the list returned. All the writing for the registry is done by the at-
tendant, which saves the applicant this trouble and secures a more legi-
ble record. For the register, i^lain slips of uniform size (2 by 2i inches)
and "blocked," that is, attached by glue at one end, are provided. The
attendant writes on the slip the register number o* the applicant's card,
the shelf mark of the book taken, the date, and the attendant's initial,
that each one may be held responsible for his own work. The slip when
prepared will read as follows:
17,259
G. 534
5—24
M
The date is also stamped on the back of the applicant's card. The slip
is separated from the "block" and dropped into a box. Before the
day's work is closed, all the slips of the day are arranged in the numer-
ical order of the register numbers, and placed together in the proper
compartment of the registry box, which stands upon the desk. This box
is 20 inches long, 10 inches wide outside, and 1^ inch deep inside.
The box and its partitions are made of one-half inch black walnut.
Lengthwise, on the right-hand side, are two partitions with a space 2i
inches in the clear between them, into which the slips of each day are
placed on edge, with blocks w^iich are free to slide through the space
between them. These blocks, which are not as high as the slips, have
each a projection of half an inch over the side of the box, on which are
placed the days of the month. Tbere are thirty-one blocks, and each
has its own date. The end block is secured by a wedge. If the
r)()2 ruhJic Libraries in the United States.
jiverage circulation 1)C not over COO volumes a day, the riglitband
vspace will contain all tlie slips, with their proper blocks. If the cir-
culation exceed this number a portion of the second space can be
used. As each new day's slips are added, those remaining in the com-
partment with the oldest date are one-day delirKjuent, and ar« removed
to the second si)ace, where the delinquent slips are kept. It is cus-
tomary to let the delinquent slii)s stand for six days in the registry
box, and such as then remain are removed, copied into a book, and
delinquent notices arc sent. If the books are not returned in a week,
notices are sent to the guarantors; jninted postal cards are used for this
l»urpose. The mode of returning books is the same as already described.
No book will be delivered on a card until the date is stamped out. Two
hundred books have been received at one register, the slips found, re-
moved, and the cards stamped in one hour. If no time were lost in ad-
justing fines and answering questions, a larger number could be received.
With two registers 400 books can be received in an hour. Tlie limit of
business that can be done at a circulating library is determined by its
ca[)acity of receiving books, and not of delivering them. Any number
of books can be delivered if there be sufficient counter space, sufticient
attendants, and sufiicient books. With one fegister only about 2,000
books can be taken in during the hours of one working day. That circu-
lation has seldom been reached in this country, except in the Chicago
Library, where 2,031 volumes have been taken in on one day and with-
out difliculty, as it has three registers. The third regL^ter, for youth, has
been i)rovided with a separate desk and counter, where only cards
stamped "Juvenile" are received, and such books are delivered as are in-
<inired for by the young people. The actual record of volumes delivered
at the library (and the same numbers were received) in one day, was as
follows: Men's register, 1,128; women's register, 781; juvenile register,
722; total, 2,031.
In IMate III, the drawing a shows a top view of the register of circula-
tion, with its compartments, blocks, and slips in ]»lace. In the right-
hand compartment only the work of eight days is shown instead of
twelve, the working days of two weeks. The dates 19 and 20 were Sun-
days ami show no sli[)s. The delinquent sli[)S are kej)t in the middle
com[)artment, and the drawing should have shown the work of six
instead of three days. In the drawing h is shown a section through the
right-hand compartment on xx. A side-view of one of the blocks is
.seen at c, and a slip with icgister number extending above it.
RKCOIM) ov C;ii;CULATIOi\.
The librarian will of coui'se keep a daily record of the circulation. It
is desiral)le also that he should asc-ertain an<l record the (piality of that
circulation, and the classes of booics which are being read. Tiiis record
may be ol)tained by insix'cting and (tlassifying the slips of each day's
work and making up the statistics Irom them. This method is inconveu-
()n/aiN.:((fi<))/ (did ]\f(n?af/c))icuf of I'lihltc JJIirarirs. 503
iciit, as tlio work must he done late at niylit, or ciirl.v in tlir iiioniiiij
before the work of tlic next da.v begins.
riatc. III.
238^3
1
" ._
\^
!
'^
wm^^'
J.L
Y9"
22
2.1
20
< jQ incites >
The plan a(h)i)te(l by the writer is to have a tin box made 10 inches
ioni;, .'J inches wide, and 3 in(;hes liijrh, divided into eight compartments,
seven of whicli have a funnel-sliaped cover; and the eighth, which is
larger than the others, is an opcm receptacle for peas. 4'lie seven have
tliese inscriptions on the front: Fiction and .Juveniles; History ;iud
Jiiograpiiy; Voyages and Travels; Science and Art; Poetry and Drama ;
German and Freiu^h Literature; iMiscellaneous. As each book is deliv-
ered, the attendant drops a i)ea into such ('om|)artment as tlui book
l)ropei]y belongs to in its classilication. There is a slide in each com-
l)artm(!nt on the back side of the box, by which the peas are let
■out. At night tlicy arc counted, and a record of each elassiliciition is
504 Public Lihrarles in the United States.
kept, from whicli the number of. books issued can be ascertained,
aud also the percentage of each class. The total number of the daily
issues is also ascertained by counting the slips. This count, which is
likely to be the more accurate, should correspond to the count of the
peas, and serves as a check to the neglect of attendants in noting the
classification of every book as it goes out. Weekly, monthly, and yearly
averages are made of percentage of the circulation, which show the taste
and improvement, if any, of the public in its reading.
EXAMINATION^ OF THE LIBRARY.
Once a year, at least, the library should be thoroughly examined by
comparing the books on the shelves with the shelf lists, noting every
missing book, and later accounting for the absent volumes, so far as can
be done. It was formerly the custom to call in the books, and to close
the library for two or three weeks while the examination was going on-
The closing of the library is a serious inconvenience to the public, aud
is not necessary for the purpose of the examination. By going over the
shelves while the books are in circulation, noting by shelf marks such
volumes as are out, and repeating the examination several times at in-
tervals of a week, the list of books not found will be greatly reduced.
The binder's schedule and delinquent list in the mean time will be ex-
amined, and, finally, the slips on which books not returned are charged.
The same results will thus be secured as if the books had been called in
and the library closed.
Before the examination is begun the books should be dusted, the
shelves cleaned with a wet sponge, and the books arranged in their
proper order. The dusting of books may be done by slapping two vol-
umes together smartly two or three times. Xever dust the tops of books
by using a brush or cloth, which drives the dust into the book, whereas
the smart concussion described disengages the dust from the leaves, and
the book retains its clean and fresh* appearance. The tops of books,
which are cleaned by brushing and rubbing, as is commonly done by
servants, have a grimed and soiled look, and the gilding is soon de-
stroyed.
CONCLUSION.
We have now considered briefly the more important practical questions
connected with the organization and management of a public library.
There are other topics relating to the subject which it would have been
desirable to touch upon iu a more elaborate discussion. If the sugges-
tions contained in this paper shall serve to clear up any difficulties, or
to lighten the labors of committees aud librarians upon whom the duties
of organizing a new library are thrown, its purpose will have been
attained. It does not necessarily follow that a method or system
which is adapted to one library is the best for all. There are no quali.
ties which will supplement even a little technical l^nowledge so effi-
cieutly as good judgment and practical common sense.
CHAPTER XXVI.
COLLEGE LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION.
BY PROF. OTIS II. ROBIXSOX,
Librarian of t'tc Unlccrnty of Kachcster.
General coxsidkratioxs — Principles of Gitowni — Classikicatiox — Auraxgr-
MEXT — Cataloguing — Indexing — Old books and pami'iilets — Privileges to
BE granted to officers; to students— Taking out rooks — Access to the
shelves — Instruction TO students in the use of the library by the
LIBRARIAN ; BY PROFESSORS.
INTRODUCTION.
After what Las been said by sucli men as Bacon, Wliately, Charles
Lamb, Carlyle, Emerson, and President Porter on the choice of books
and how to read them, I shall not presume to give advice to the general
reader. In the presence of so many rules and suggestions, however, it
is natural lor a librarian to inquire how many of the readers in his library
pursue the best methods, and how many drifc here and there without
regard to rules, and with very little profit. This question is especially
pertinent in a college library. Here the reader is at the same rime a
student. The librarian is, with the faculty', in some degree responsible
for his healthy intellectual growth. He is not at liberty to permit a
waste of energy for want of method by those who are inclined to read ;
nor may he be indifferent to the neglect of opportunities by those who
are not. A library for the use of students requires such an administra-
tion as to inspire the dullest with interest and give a healthful direction
to the reading of all.
The object of a society or club library may be the cultivation of
science, the general diffusion of knowledge, or the mere pastime and
amusement of its stockholders. Their tastes and aims must determine
its administration. Librarians in such libraries work for their employers,
and, right or wrong, are accustomed to boast their ability, after a few
years, to know the reading habits of their patrons so as to select for them
just what will suit their fancy. The tastes and aims of stockholders will
also determine the influence of such institutions. Towards the close of
his life, Dr. Franklin claimed that this class of libraries, the first of which
he himself founded, had " improved the general conversation of the
Americans, made the common tradesmen and farmers as intelligent as
most gentlemen in other countries, and perhaps contributed in some
degree to the stand so generally made throughout the colonies in defense
505
bOG PuhJic Llhrarics in the United States.
of their privileges." lu the absence of newspapers and other periodicals
the libraries vrere the great sources of information. This indeed was
probably Franklin's principal object in founding thera. Discipline and
general culture followed naturally. Public or town libraries are, except
as to their supi)ort, very much like those of the early societies. Their
object is g'eneral information and profitable, pastime. A i)rofessionaI
library is little more than a treasury of strictly professional knowledge.
It is more or less limited b}' the i)ractical wants of a single business or
pursuit. Before renching such a library a reader is sup[>osed to be quite
independent of the supervision of a librarian.
Now, a college library is none of these ; it is something more than all
of them. It is the door to all science, all literature, all art. It is the
means of intelligent and profitable recreation, of profound technical re-
search, and at the same time of a complete general education. Well
supplied in all its departments, it is a magnificent educational apparatus.
How shall the student of to day -become the scholar of to-morrow? It
will depend little upon teachers, much upon books. He must learn to
stand face to face with nature, with society', and with books. He will
get access to nature and to society best through books. Without them
he will ever be wasting his time on the problems of the past; with them
iilone can he get abreast with his age. Carlyle has pointed out the true
relation of the teacher to the book. "All that the university or final
highest school can do for us is still but what the first school began doing,
teach us to read." And yet how few of the multitude who annually
<3arry their parchments from our colleges can be said to be intelligent
readers.
The importance of properly teaching to read is vastly increased in
this country during the last half century by the rapid increase of libra-
ries and other reading opportunities all over the land. Whoever will
take the pains to compare the statistics of libraries and of publishing
houses and importations of books which have been published since
1825, will see that the young man who enters the lists for scholarship to-
day has a very difterent field before him from what one had then. It is
not too much to say that, even so short a time ago, books, to the great
majority of our population, were exceedingly rare; and that there were
not more than two or three places in the whole country, possibly not
one, where a scholar could properly investigate a difficult subject. The
ra])id growth of population at hundreds of centres has given rise to
thousands of libraries, many of them of considerable size. It is no ob-
jectiorn that the number of readers has increased with the number of
books. The advantages of each reader are proportional to the size of
his library, suffering little or no loss from the presence of other readers.
Besides our public libraries, the country is full of private collections,
large enough to be centres of infiuence. And then we must add innu-
merable periodicals, which fill every avenue of public and of private life,
crowding upon us unbidden in business and retirement alike, with everv
College Librarfj Administration. 507
possible variety of subject aud style, and demandiug that we take a
daily survey of every nation and kingdom under heaven, Christian and
heathen, savage and civilized. Fitty years ago most of the graduates
from our colleges had to settle down to their life work where they had
access to very few books, and among men who had never seen a library.
They had to content themselves with the purchase of a few standard
authors, an occasional addition of a new volume, and a few leading
periodicals. Now the majority, of those at least who give j)romise of
becoming scholars, soon tind themselves in communities where books
and magazines are as necessary for the mind as bread for the body. A
constant stream of printed matter sweeps along with it public opinion.
All read and think more or less. Our young graduate to be a scholar,
an intellectual leader, must rise among men who have such advantages
and such habits. The standard of scholarsliip is pushed upward by the
intelligence of the masses. In view of these facts, one can hardly over-
estimate the importance, to those whose aim is above mediocrity, of
learning to read during student life.
The question as to how the colleges are using their libraries to pro-
mote this kind of learning is one which may well receive the attention
of those liberal patrons of higher education who create library funds
and build library buildings. Rapid as is the increase of libraries, still
all are clamoring for more books. It is as if excellence were in numbers
alone. How many volumes ! This is always the question ; never, How
much and how well do you use what you^havef Now and then an old
man, more practical than scholarly, and a hundred years behind the
times, stares around at your alcoves, seriously doubting whether you
use all the books you have, and asks how you can possibly expect any
one to give you more. The question is not an impertinent one, if
only intelligently asked. That the measure of ou'r having should be
determined by the mode of our using is asjold as the New Testament.
Five thousand well selected volumes judiciously and constantly used
will ser^'e the purjioses of education better than twenty-five thousand
used only at the capiice or fancy of inexperienced young men. Far be
it from me \o discourage giving to increase libraries, but I would have
those who give consider whether part of their endowments had not bet-
ter be directed towards such a vigorous^administration as to render the
libraries most efficient.
What, then, should the administration be? The question naturally
divides itself into three, which I shall consider separately.
First, as to the preparation of the library itself, its growth, classifi-
cation, arrangement, and other facilities for making it accessible.
Second, as to the nature and extent of the privileges to be granted to
ofhcers and students.
Third, as to the instruction in its use to be given to students.
1 shall purposely omit all reference to the use of a college library by
others than those connected with the college ; for so far as its privileges
508 Public Libraries in the United States.
are extencletl, by courtesy or otherwise, to clergymeu and scientific and
literary residents, it partakes of the nature of a public librarj^, and does
not come within the scope of this paper.
GROWTH OF THE LIBRARY.
In considering how a college library shall be prepared for use, the
mode of its growth demands our first attention. It must be constantly
borne in mind that the object of a college is education, not mere infor-
mation, nor amusement, nor in general professional training. For the
purposes of general education, teachers, students, and books are to-
gether. Any department of the library filled for any other purpose is
filled amiss. Ephemeral literature on the one hand, and strictly profes-
sional works on the other, will properlj' occupy but small space, as the
object of the library embraces very fe^v of them. Now, theoretically
at least, a college education extends to the elements of all the different
departments of human thought, literature, science, art, history, with
their various subdivisions. Each of these departments requires its
share in the library, which shall be for that department the best attain-
able expression of its historical development and present condition. To
manage the growth of any part of the library, therefore, one must be fa-
miliar both with what it contains and with the trade. Ttie books ojie
buys are to take their ijlaces among those alre.idy on the shelves, so
that the whole taken together shall form the best possible educational
apparatus. In managing its growth an active librarian and purchasing
committee can do much, but they cannot be expected to know the whole
library thoroughly, and, so to speak, also to read ahead of its growth,
so as to know which of all the books published each department needs.
Outside of what they happen to be familiar with, they will be apt to
trust too much to numbers. But every teacher knows that the number
of books in an alcove has very little to do with their educational value.
Take chemistry, geology, almost any science — ten good new books may
be worth more than a whole case twenty-five years old. Whatever we do
with the old books, it is certain that the greater part of them must be
excluded when the working power of a library is to be estimated. And
then there will always be a large percentage of books, both in the library
and in the trade, which have the general appearance of value, but which
would really render little or no service either to teachers or to students.
So far as the administration of the library relates to its growth, it is
clear, then, that it must be directed in its different parts by masters of
those parts, men who shall know perfectly its true relation to the prog-
ress of thought. Fortunately, in a college library such men are always
at hand. The officers of instruction are in general the ^nly persons
capable of determining wiiat books their several departments need. It
is assumed that each will keep his eyes open both to the state of the
library and to the growth of ideas, at least in his own special field of
Collefje Lihrarij Administration. 509
inquiry. The growth of the library lor the special benefit of the officers
of instruction themselves, will properly come up under the head of priv-
ileges granted to officers, and need not be considered here.
CLASSIFICATION.
What the classification of a library should be, is a question niucli
more easily asked than answered. There are objections to all plans. A
difficulty sometimes arises out of the tendency, where the i)lau adopted
does not prove perfectly satisfactory, to change it gradually as new
books are distributed. This will woik ruin to all order. A slightly im-
perfect plan strictly followed is far better than two plans at once. To
avoid all occasion for this confusion, and, what is perliaps more impor-
tant, to have the successive generations of students carry away with
them proper notions of the relations of books to each other, the classi-
fication should be very carefully considered, once for all, by men of the
widest experience with libraries, and of good practical common sense.
Much has been said and written on this subject, and many plants care-
fully prepared, but it is evident that beyond certain general outlines no
classification can be made which would be suited to all libraries.
It would be somewhat foreign to my i)urpose to discuss this subject
at length. It is proper, however, to add a word as to the classification
of a college library best adapted to its proper administration. Here,
again, the leading question is. How shall the library become the most
perfect educational apparatus? JSTow, I have tried to show that it
should grow up around the different departments of instruction. I
think also that no better i^ractical classification can be devised than
that whose general plan is based upon the classification of instruction
under the several officers. Not that the number of classes should
be incomplete, nor the classes mixed, because at any given time the
faculty was not all that might be desired, but that the division of
books should correspond on the whole to that division of the instruction
which is best suited to the aims and purposes of the institution. Such
a classification cannot be said to be unphilosophical, and it serves the
purposes of both teacher and student admirably. Each teacher has his
own class of books where he can examine it, and watch its growth most
easily, and add its full force to the means of instruction in his depart-
ment. Students, having become familiar with a certain division of
thought in their daily studies, if that of the library corresponds, can
enter upon the use of it with very little difficulty.
Whatever classification he adopts, every librarian is constantly per-
plexed with books which belong in no class in particular, but which
would go equally well in several. I know no better rule for such cases
than to ignore the title, examine the book in detail, and put it into
that department in which it is likely to be most extensively used. This
method has the merit at least of being prr.ctical.
510 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
ARRANGE3IENT.
Were the readers always to call for books from tbeir catalogue numbers,
and tbe librarian to act as a mere servant to take them down and pnt
them up, it would make little difference how they were arranged, pro-
vided only that the catalogue referred to their shelves. But if both
officers and students are to make a study of the books collectively as
well as iiulividnally, and the librarian is to be a teacher of their use, they
must be arranged with these ends in view. Dictionaries, cyclopaedias,
gazetteers, maps, and other works of reference are best kept where
every reader can have free and easy access to them during all library
hours. If the management of the [library should involve the use of a
separate reading room they might be kept there, where also the better
class of reviews and magazines could be used before the volumes to
which they belong were complete for binding. It should be remarked,
however, in passing, that a miscellaneous reading room, where all sorts
of periodicals are regularly received, is at best of very doubtful educa-
tional value. Where no room is specially devoted to general reading,
reviews and magazines are best treated in every respect as books. After
the works of reference, and the periodicals, the arrangement should follow
the classification as far as possible. Then the reader can pursue the
study of a subject or the examination of a class of books with ease
and the librarian and his assistants, when experienced in the classi-
lication, can manage the library in all its departments intelligently.
To facilitate the finding of books the shelves in each class or depart-
ment should be numbered, and the class mark and number of the shelf
of each book entered in the catalogue. The class and shelf should also
be very clearly marked on the cover of the book inside. Labels on the
outside would be preferable if they were not so easily worn off. To
number the books on a shelf seems to me an unnecessary labor, as a
shelf is so easily looked over.
OLD BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.
One is often in doubt as to what to do with the old books. The growth
of college libraries does not contemplate the accumulation of large quan-
tities of strictly ephemeral books, and yet many which are very useful
for a time are eventually left behind by the progress of the sciences.
Some of these, like the moraines along the path of a glacier, are valu-
able to mark the progress of thought and discovery; but many of them
mark nothing in particular but the bookmaking spirit of their authors.
Now, a public library is not to be treated as one would treat his own private
collection. If one's habits of reading do not require him to keep a book
which he has outgrown, or which has been superseded by a new edition,
or which never was worth its room on his private shelves, he is likely to
sell it or give it away. As to his own wants he can judge pretty accu-
rately, both for the present and for the future; but this can never be
CoUefje Lihraiij Admiulstyation. 511
done for tbe reatlers of a public library. Some circuiustauee wbolly
apart from the merits of a book, as tbe family association of the author
or the donor, may put it in great demand by men who would be justly
offended at findin^;- it consigned to the society of rubbish ; and it is quite
as impossible to predict the future demand for a book. It may stand on
the shelves a decade untouched, and then, by some event in the literary
or scientific world, be called forth and wantetl by everybody. For these
reasons, and others which might be given, it is generally thought better
to suffer a little inconvenience from a mixture of the useful with tbe
apparently useless volumes than to attempt a separation.
It may be remarked just here, for tbe encouragement of readers in
new and well selected, though small, libraries, that it is not by count-
ing the number of volumes in different collections that the facilities they
enjoy are to be compared with those offered by tbe large, old ones. As
libraries grow old, the decay of value is enormous. One suffers great dis-
appointment when be visits tbe old libraries, and finds that their numbers,
magnificent at a distance, are largely made up of books which are, to
every one but a historian or bibliographer, as dead as the Egyptian
kings.
Closely related to tbe disposal of the old books is the question, what
shall be done with tbe pamphlets? Unquestionably tbe most useful
and the most useless parts of a library are to be found among its pam-
phlets. A ripe scholar may condense the results of years of study into
a monograph, which is published unbound. You receive it in tbe same
mail with the harangues of a dozen half fledged politicians and the
circulars of a score of quack doctors. What shall be done with them ?
It is the fashion in some large libraries to reject nothing. Tbe adver-
tisement of every new sewing-machine is said to have its place in
history. It is not difficult in such places to get up a magnificent show
of numbers. Various methods of classification have been adopted for
pamphlets. In my owu opinion, if a pamphlet is worth saving at all, a
pile large enough for a thick volume is worth a cheap binding. I can
strongly recommend tbe method which I have ujyself practiced for
some years, and to which few objections have arisen. I classify all my
pamphlets precisely as I do my books. Having my departments of
books numbered, I fix the classification by writing the number boldly
with a colored pencil on each pamphlet. The better class, those which
are eventually to receive a good substantial binding, are then dis-
tributed in cases likewise numbered. Tbe contents of these cases are
kept indexed in alj^babetical order. The poorer class, which contains
tbe great majority, are kept with less care in piles according to their
numbers, and without indexing. While they remain unbound it is not
difficult to find any pamphlet if its subject is known. This is the casitr
since tbe collection is never allowed to become large. When a case of
the valuable or a inle of tbe less valuable ones contains enough of a
suitable size they are bound together. Tbe references in the pamphlet
512 Public Libraries in the United States.
iiuk'x are tlien truiisfeiTed to tlie index of miscellaneous'literatare. By
tbe oiij;inal classification of iLem all tbe parts of each belong to tbe
same department in tbe librarj- ^Ybere tbe book now finds its place.
Witb very little attention I am able to prevent tbe accumnlation of a
great pile of miscellaneous pampblets wbicb it is so difficult to manage.
Tbe less valuable volumes can be bound at an expense of tbirty or
forty cents eacb, and wben tables of contents are arranged tbey are
often very useful. Xearly every department in tbe library under my
cbarge contains some of tbese, some departments a great many.
CATALOGUING.
It is witb cataloguing as witb classifying, tbe objections to any plan
are so numerous and so forcible tbat notbing but an imperative demand
will induce one to undertake it at all. Some years ago I wrote to Mr-
\V^. F. Poole, tbe autbor of tbe Index to Periodical Literature, for prac-
tical advice about cataloguing. He encouraged me iu bis answer by
saying, '' Whatever plan you adopt, you will not go far before being-
sorry you did not adopt some otber."' As it turned out be was not
altogether wrong. As one studies tbis subject it seems more and more
strange tbat tbe making of a catalogue sbould not bave become, after so
many centuries of tbe existence of libraries, like tbe binding of a book,
an operation perfectly well understood. It bas great difiSculties, and
there seems to be little progress in the work of removing them. Every
librarian bas to take them up almost anew. It is as if every man sbould
insist on making bis own coat because bis back is sligbtly different from
every otber man's.
It is not my purpose to discuss tbe subject of cataloguing at length,
but merely to point out wbat seems to be tbe present tendency, and
make a practical suggestion. In some of tbe largest libraries of tbe
country tbe card system bas been exclusively adopted. Several of tbem
bave no intention of printing any more catalogues in book form. In
otbers, cards are adopted for current accessions, with tbe expectation of
printing supplements from them, from time to time. I tbink the ten-
dency of tbe smaller libraries is to adopt the former plan, keeping a
manuscript card catalogue of books as they are added, without a tbougbt
of printing. I bave bad tbe pleasure of visiting, within tbe last few
months, four large libraries in New England. All were busy making
cards; only one expected to print. Turning over tbeir annual reports,
quite a large percentage of their several working forces was put down
in tbe cataloguing department. On comparing tbe cards, they were
found to contain substantially tbe same thing. Coming home, my own
regular work required the preparation of tbe same kind of cards. At
tbe library of tbe Rochester Theological Seminary, a few blocks from me,
they are doing tbe same tbing. ]S^ow, consider tbe waste of energy
throughout the country if the card system is to prevail, as seems prob-
able. Everv book bas its card or cards, and every library that has tbe
College Library Administration. 513
book wants those cards ia substantially the same form. But, instead
of that cooperation which would have the cards made by men of expe-
rience ab the great libraries, and printed once for all, and sent upon
order throughout the country, the different libraries are paying men,
often inexperienced, to make them in manuscript each for itself. Let
the directors of a library of 10,000 volumes determine to-day to make a
card catalogue de novo, they can take no advantage whatever of the fact
that nearly every book they have has had its cards made over and over
again at great expense. And further, the librarian who has his catalogue
complete to date, can take no advantage, when piles of new books are
received, of the cards which scores of other librarians are making of those
same books. Now, without further words, it would seem that a simple
plan might be devised by which it would be possible for a thousand libra-
ries to order their cards by number, carefully prepared and neatly printed,
whenever required ; and that too for a very small sum compared with the
expense of making them. This method would be free from many of the
objections which have arisen against the plans for co-operation' in cata-
1 The great advantages of co-operation among librarians, in the preparation of a card
catalogue, seem to have become apparent in Europe as well as in this country. Thus
the Loudon Times of March 18, 1876, contains the following :
"A correspondent of the Academy writes: . . . 'When I was librarian myself,
I always wondered at the extraordinary waste of power in cataloguing new books.
While I was writing my slip, according to the rule followed in most English libraries,
1 felt that there were probably a hundred people doing exactly the same work which
I was doing, not only in England, but in every civilized country of the world. Yet,
what would be easier than to have my slip printed, and any number of copies sent
round by book-post to every library in Europe? With a little arrangement, every
English book might be catalogued at the British Museum, every French book at the
Bibliothiique Nationale, every German book at the Royal Library at Berlin, every
Russian book at St. Petersburg, etc. At a trifling expense these printed slips might be
sent to every small or large library, and each of them might have three or four kinds
of catalogues : an alphabetical catalogue of the authors, a chronological catalogue, a
local catalogue, a catalogue classified according to subjects, etc. Even when a library
is too poor to buy a book, the slip might be useful in its catalogue. The saving that
might thus bo eltected would be very considerable. The staff of librarians might be
greatly reduced, and the enormous expense now incurred for catalogues, and mostly
imperfect catalogues, would dwindle down to a mere nothing. There are, of course,
other ways in which the same object might be attained, if only the principal libraries
would agree on a common line of action. Each author might be requested to write a
proper slip of his own book, and the publisher might forward copies of these slips with
the book itself. All this and much more could be done if a general understanding was
once arrived at among the heads of the principal libraries of Europe. If we look at
the balance-sheets of these libraries, the differences are very great. The expenses are,
of course, much greater where books are lent out than where they are not. But even
where the expenses are lowest, the chief item of expenditure is always the catalogue.
A few resolutions, carried at an international congress of librarians, might cause a
saving of many thousands of pounds annually, and would certainly give us better
catalogues than we find at present, even in the best administered libraries.' "
Mr. Justin Winsor, of the Boston Public Library, several months ago suggested,
through the Publishers' Weekly, that publishers might send out with each book a card,
on which should be printed the title and a bibliographical notice of the book in proper
33 E
514 Public Libraries in the United States.
loguing heretofore proposed. Here is a real work to be done, which the
library economy of our country greatly demands even now ; the future
demand cannot be estimated. To insure profit to a publisher needs only
the co-operation of a few leading libraries. Is there not some influential
publisher who can organize such a co-operation ? As the practice now is,
I am not sure but it would be betterfor half a dozen colleges to agree upon
the form of a card, and unite their usual cataloguing expenses to secure
a more skilful preparation and a printed card. Whatever local data the
cards would require could easily be added with a pen. But the card
system is comparatively new, and perhaps not yet general enough to
expect from it so great results.
INDEXING.
The extent to which a library should be indexed depends upon the
value which is set upon monographs. Clearly the best ones, whether
found in separate pamphlets, in periodical literature, in miscellaneous
essays, or in reports of learned societies, are of sufficient value to justify
some expense in making them easy of access. An alphabetical index
to this class of writings is especially valuable among students, who, in
the investigation of subjects, wish to supfdemeut their study of elaborate
treatises by the briefly stated views of the essayists. There may be
danger of a tendency to substitute the reading of essays and reviews for
careful and consecutive courses of reading. But it is not an intelligent
mode of checking this tendency to set au obstacle in the way of the
reader's choice. Better make the whole library accessible, and then
take a little pains to teach the relative places of its several parts in the
estimation of true scholars. A well written essay is often all one can
find it practicable to read on a subject. Three or four hours of such
reading will often give him what, without the essay, he would never
get at all. And further, as a preparation for, and a supplement to, a
form, to be inserted in the catalogue of a library. Ttie following from the same journal
of May 20, 187G, shows that the plan meets with favor; and, doubtless, if once adopted
by a few of the leading publishers it would soon become the general usage :
" Tlie plan has already received some indorsement from the trade, but we are pre-
senting it now chiefly in its relation to the libraries.
"If such a slip were printed, the libraries could get as many copies as they desired
■without difficulty from their local bookseller or from the publisher ; and it is even sug-
gested that such a slip can take the place in small libraries of the book, until the
library itself be in a condition to purchase it directly. It would also be very useful to
the library and to the publisher alike by encouraging members of circulating libraries
to order books. In fact, as we have before said, it seems to us it would be both profit-
able to the publisher and useful to the libraries, and we should be glad if the sugges-
tion should call forth the opinions of practiced librarians."
In justice to Professor Robinson it should be said that whatever merit attaches to
priority of conception in this plan seems to belong to him, inasmuch as his views were
matured and presented to many leading librarians of the country, as well as prepared
for publication, more than two years before the writer in the Academy made his plan
public. — Ei>iTOi{s.
College Lihrary Administration. 515
course of readiug of the great standard works on any subject, mono-
graphs have a very important place. They are often written by the
ablest specialists of the age, and generally .published where they have
the indorsement of scholarly editors. Whether the rapid increase of
writings of this class is evidence of intellectual growth or decay, a col-
lege library at the present day must possess the best of them at least 5
and a librarian ought not to let their use be governed by chance. They
can be made eminently useful. It is best, then, to index all that have
the appearance of being permanently valuable. Having undertaken
this work somewhat vigorously years ago in the library under my charge,
and seen how useful a large part of the collection which had previously
been almost useless at once became, I have thought it better of late to
err on the side of indexing too much rather than too little. I may dis-
miss this subject now by reference to the lull description of my method,
contained elsewhere in this report/ only adding a hope that the time may
soon come when by the co-operation of libraries the fruits of this work,
as well as of cataloguing, may be more widely enjoyed and the expense
greatly reduced.
LIBEARY PEIVILEGES.
Having prepared the library for use, it is proper to consider next the
privileges to be granted to its readers. For the oificers of instruction I
have treated the library as an apparatus. It is theirs to use, both to in-
crease their own personal efficiency and supplement and illustrate their
teaching. The only special privilege accorded to them which should be
mentioned here is the purchase of books for their special use which do
not bear directly on their daily work in the lecture room. Ko one will
doubt the propriety of furnishing teachers with the means of keeping in
the front rank of their profession. The cause of education is best served
thereby, though it require the purchase of books which no student is
likely to touch. How far a college should promote science by equipping
its professors for original investigations outside of their official duties,
must depend upon its general purposes and the extent of its means.
Certainly no one can rightfully claim this for one department till the
others are reasonably provided for. The duty of a teacher to watch over
his part of the library requires him to do it, not for his own purposes,
but for those of general education, directly or indirectly.
SHALL STUDENTS TAKE BOOKS OUT ?
Among the first of the privileges to be granted to students is that of
carrying books to their rooms, to be used there. To this there are many
and serious objections which, I learn, are allowed to prevail at several
colleges of good standing, viz, the books are worn out j some are never
returned ; they are not in the library when wanted for consultation.
These and other similar objections might have been forcible when books
were rare enough to be a luxury. It was doubtless wise, then, to regard
1 Sec Chapter XXIX, Indexing Periodical Literature. — EorroRS.
516 Public Libraries in the United States.
the preservation of a library as the chief end of its administration. But
now the chief end is its use. If properly used, the wearing out of the
good books is the best possible indication. As to the loss by failure to
return, I quote from the last annual report of the Boston Public Library :
The whole uuniber of persons who have made application to use the library since
lR(i7 now amounts to 90,782, of whom 14,599 were entered during the last year. . . .
The number of books lost daring, the year was 85, or about 1 to every 9,000 of circula-
tion.
After such a report it is clear that if books are lost among a few hun-
dred students, who are nearly every day together, it must be due to ill
management. The objection that books are not in the library when
wanted for reference can apply with force only to a very limited num-
ber, which it is customary to reserve from the circulation. What is
wanted is the greatest possible benefit from a library, but a large per-
centage of its most useful books will be of very little account to young
men if their use is to be confined to a public reading room.
ACCESS TO THE SHELYES.
In seeking for the highest working power of a library, our questions
come up in this order : First, what use will increase its power ? Then,
what restrictions must be placed upon that use for the sake of preser-
vation ? Whatever privileges were granted or denied when books were
scarce and newspapers and magazines few, the time has come to pre-
pare students for the intelligent use of many books and the society of
many readers. With that end in view, for many reasons the bars should
be taken down under proper regulations.
First of all, because the study of the library, as such, is a very import-
ant part of a student's education. The complaint is made, and it is
doubtless well founded, that the present tendency is to drift away from
the solid reading which made the scholars of past generations, and be
contented with the easy reproductions of thought in the newspapers
and magazines. How many men are satisfied with one or two reviews
of a book, when the book itself is within their reach and might far better
speak for itself ! In the multiplicity of subjects to be studied and things
to be learned, we grow impatient. Turning over books leisurely and
brooding over subjects till one grows familiar with the great authors of
the past, and learns to love them, is seldom indulged in. The daily or
weekly newspaper is ever before us. If this and succeeding generations
fail to produce scholarship commensurate with their advantages, will it
not be largely due to the frittering away of time which might be spent
on good authors over short and carelessly written paragraphs on insig-
nificant current events ? A young man who is ashamed to be igno-
rant of the common newspaper gossip, who is ever placing the trifles of
the present before the great events of the past, is never found hunger-
ing and thirsting for scholarship. He has little time and less disposi-
tion for thoughtful and protracted study of the masters in science and
College Library Administration. 517
literature. Now, by all means, let this tendency be counteracted by an
introduction to the library. Eeniove the barriers and make familiarity
with well chosen authors as easy as practicable. No habit is more
uncertain or more capricious than that of a student in a library. He
wants to thumb the books which he cannot call for by name. It is not an
idle curiosity. He wants to know, and has a right to know, a good deal
more about them than can be learned from teachers. and catalogues.
Deny him this, and he turns away disappointed and discouraged ; grant
him this, and his interest is awakened, his love for books increased, and
the habit of reading will most likely be formed.
Another reason for opening the doors and encouraging familiarity
with the library is suggested by the question so often put by young
graduates, especially young clergymen, What books shall I buy ! In the
ordinary use of a library where books are referred to by teachers, or
.selected from a catalogue, a student will rarely handle more than four
or five hundred volumes in a course of four years. He will learn some-
thing, but very little, of a few more which he does not handle. During
his professional study he may become acquainted with as many more.
Of all these he will care to possess but a very small percentage. How,
then, supposing him to have acquired in any way a taste for books, is
he to learn what to buy ? He can generally spare but little from each
year's income for his library. It is said that the next thing to possessing
knowledge is to know where to look for it ; it is also true that the next
thing to owning books is to know what books to buy. Besides the pur-
chase of his own library, many a young bachelor of arts or science finds
himself, soon after graduating, in a town where a new public library is
to be founded or an old one enlarged. He is supposed to have had
advantages which the general public have not had. They are glad to
avail themselves of what he knows. He ought to be able to lead them
intelligently and keep the best books before the purchasing committees.
To my mind, at least, questions like these, of constantly increasing
importance as they are, are wftrthy of the careful study of librarians
and library committees. A young man who spends four or seven years
of student life where he can see a library", but cannot reach it, generally
just fails of the only opportunity which is ever possible both to acquire
the tastes and habits of a reader himself, and to prepare himself to mold
the tastes and habits of others.
Again, in college life every young man has constantly before him two
or three, perhaps four or five, subjects of study. Generally text books
are prescribed, which with the lectures make up the required work.
Now there is a school-boy way of going through such a course of study
from term to term, learning precisely what is assigned, and never look-
ing to the right hand nor to the left for collateral views of different
writers. Servility and narrowness are the result. There is also a manly
and scholarly method of making the required study only the nucleus
about which are to be gathered the results of much interesting and prof-
518 Public Libraries in the United States.
italic investigation — the pathway of thought through a very wide field
of inquiry. This is the true method of a higher education. Take as-
tronomy for an illustration. From twelve to twenty weeks are devoted
to the usual course of lecture, recitation, and examination — just enough
to teach the leading facts and principles of the science, solve a few illus-
trative problems, point out the intellectual value of its processes, its
historical development, and practical bearings. The teacher who at-
tempts even these finds himself limited at many points to mere sugges-
tion. The reading student usually acquires the facts and solves the
problems of the lecture room very readily. He comes then to the sugges-
tions. He soon makes this collateral work his own field. He feels a
manly self-dependence as he turns over for himself the authors whose
opinions have been accepted or rejected by his teacher. He raises per-
tinent and exhaustive questions. He learns the names and something
of the lives and scientific places of the men who have made the science
what it is. He makes memoranda of works valuable for their breadth
and accuracy of scientific statement, or for the clearness of their pop-
ular method, or their historical places in the growth of astronomical
ideas. When the term of study is ended he is fitted by his knowledge,
and mucb more by his method, to serve the public wherever his lot is
cast on all general questions involving the study of astronomy. What
I have said of astronomy may be said of every other department of col-
lege study, and of some of them with much greater force. But the con-
dition of all this work is a proper relation to the library. No student
can do this work well, and few will undertake it at all, by calling for
books from a catalogue. A reference is to be made, a date to be fixed,
a question of authority to be settled, the scientific relation of two men
to be ascertained, a formula to be copied, and a thousand other almost
indefinable little things to be done, the doing of which rapidly and in-
dependently and with a purpose is the very exercise which will go far to
make the man a broad and self-reliant scholar. To do them, however,
a man must stand face to face with the books required. Then there are
books to be selected for more extended reading, apart from the alcoves.
One can be read carefully out of half a dozen of nearly equal value. An
hour spent in turning over the books and making the choice is, perhaps,
better than any two hours spent in the reading. Something is learned
of the five which cannot be read, but which may be of great service for
future reference; and, besides, the very act of making the choice — where
assistance can be had in case of special difficulty — is a valuable educa-
tional exercise.
Notwithstanding the great advantages of the use of a library in the
manner pointed out, if I mistake not, it is not usually contemplated by
college library regulations. How to use books is not so ranch studied
as how to get and preserve them. It is seldom or never made itself
an end to be attained by study. I have seen a college library of
2.j,0:)0 volumes or more, all in most beautiful order, everything looking
College Library Administration. 519
as perfect as if just fitted up for a critical examination, where the read-
ing room was entirely apart, and the books could be seen by students
only through an opening like that of a ticket office at a railroad station.
The reading room contained dictionaries, cyclopcedias, newspapers, and
magazines, and, it was said, a well kept manuscript catalogue of the
library. The result one can easily conjecture ; the students read the
newspapers, and the librarian preserved the books. At another college,
which has good claims to rank among the first in the country, a friend
residing as a student, after complaining of the great difficulty of using
a library by means of a catalogue and with no access to the shelves,
writes that he knows it contains plenty of good books, for he got in
through a window one Sunday and spent the whole day there. It is
pertinent to inquire whether the interests of education would not have
been promoted by allowing such a young man to ascertain that fact on
a week day. In short, it is the usual regulation conspicuously posted,
" Students are not allowed tro take books from the shelves." This is
reasonable, perhaps necessary, as a general rule; but when one inquires,
as I have in several of the most prominent college libraries of the coun-
try, what provision is made for the student to look through the cases,
and study the library as a whole, the answer is either that there is no
such provision, or that the privilege is sometimes granted as a special
favor to very worthy young. men.
Now the preservation of the books is a very important c3nsideratiou,
and the general regulation guarding the shelves a most healthful one;
but the proper use of boDks, collectively as well as individually, is
quite as important, and hence the propriety of some special provision
to that end. Granted that in order to have books in condition to be
most useful, as well as to preserve them, they must be protected from
too promiscuous handling by inexperienced or merely curious persons.
Whatever order or arrangement is adopted, it is of the highest impor-
tance that it be rigidly observed. Still I cannot believe that regula-
tions the most adequate for protection are at all incompatible with
suitable provisions for use. The extent and kind of such provision
practicable, or even desirable, would differ widely in different places.
In small colleges two or three hours set apart one day in each week,
with the privilege extended to all the classes, might be practicable and
sufficient; in larger colleges it might be better to have hours set apart
for particular classes, that the number might not be too large at once.
Or it migbt be still better to provide for such work at certain hours
regularly each week, and let the admission be regulated by previous
arrangement with the librarian or other officer. The number to be pro-
vided for at once could thus be adjusted to the convenience of the rooms
and the working force of the library, and what is quite as essential, the
students admitted could be definitely put upon their honor in the enjoy-
ment of such a privilege, and excluded if found untrustworthy.
I have tried to be very explicit on this point, because I am satisfied
520 Public Libraries in the United States.
that this privilege, when it is extended without proper restrictions,
operates to the great injury of a library, especially as to good order :
and secondly, because I believe that the supposition that such injury is
unavoidable, is far too ofDen allowed to stand in the way of the privi-
lege altogether. I have written earnestly, almost in the style of an
advocate, because in ten years' experience I have seen the best results
from such a use of books as I have described. Tlie two hours' work done
regularly every Saturday in this library by an average of forty or fifty stu-
dents, does them more good than any two hours' instruction they re-
ceive through the week. It is work which develops their powers, and
begets the habit of independent research and the love of books. The
questions which have been suggested by the lectures of the week are
then chased down ; books are selected to be consulted at the library,
or drawn for reading at home during the coming week. All the advan-
tages I have spoken of above, and many more, I have seen growing out
of this privilege in the library over and over again. And further, it is
a noteworthy fact that this privilege is sought and this work done by
the best students. It is a proper supplement to the prescribed curricu-
lum of studies, for men who are capable of extra work. In no case lias
it been suspected of dissipating the energies and causing a neglect of
other regular duties. The injury to books is mainly that of misplace-
ment, which with suitable instruction and safeguards, can be reduced
almost to zero. The temptation to carry away books without permis-
sion is probably diminished rather than increased, as the privilege of
using them is extended.
INSTRUCTION BY LIBRARIANS.
Having prepared the library for use and considered the privileges to
be granted, we come now to the assistance needed. Is it practicable, or
even possible, to give such a systematic course of instruction as to make
a considerable number of every college class bookish men. Everybody
knows that some men have a certain facility with books which others
fail, even with their best efforts, to acquire. I do not refer to book-
worms, those men to whom reading is an end in itself, whose minds are
mere channels for a stream of other men's thoughts. I mean the men
whom reading makes full, to use the thought of Bacon; men who have
a kind of intuition of what to read and how to read it. Clearly, what-
ever can be done in this direction can be done best in connection with
the library; and it is not certain but it cau be done most successfully
by the librarian. I am aware that a librarian is not always ranked
among the principal educators of a college or university. In-the large
institutions, his business qualifications are what chiefly recommend him;
in the smaller ones he is often a regular professor, having charge of a
department of instruction, and is expected, as librarian, only to look
after and direct the work which is done by assistants. In either case,
his character as librarian requires of him no instruction. He is a
College Library Administration. 521
curatorof the library, rather thao — what Emerson says is much wanted —
a "professor of books.'' But let us look at some of the things which
might be done, which doubtless are done, in a loose and irregular way,
and consider whether there is not a demand for regular and systematic
instruction in the use of the library.
First. A brief course of lectures on books; how to get them, how to
keep them, and how to use them, would come from a scholarly librarian
in a systematic way with much better effect than in desultory talks from
the heads of different departments. It is in his power to know the
reading habits of students much better than any one else. "Are you
not reading too rapidly to remember what is in these books ?" said I
to a student once, who was taking and returning heavy volumes of his-
tory in rapid succession. "You may examine me upon them, if you
please," wa^ the somewhat curt but satisfactory reply. Xow, why not let
the librarian follow up his systematic instruction by constant personal
examination, which is the most successful of all teaching ? Let this be
understood, by officers and students alike, as part of his regular duties.
Let students feel individually under his direction and influence in their
reading and investigation, and let him also be held in som3 degree
responsible for their success in this work. If inexperienced young men
are, as a rule, most likely to fall into errors and make blunders in their
use of a library, and thereby lose much time, or become discouraged
altogether — and it cannot be denied that they are — then there is great
need of the work I have tried to describe. And further, the need
appears much greater when we count up the number of students whose
only blunder in relation to the library is that they pass and repass it
for four or more years without ever making one serious effort to make
it serviceable to themselves.
Hitherto I have spoken only in general terms of the importance of
doing something to encourage reading, correct mistakes, and so make a
library attractive and useful to students from the beginning of their
course. I cannot leave this part of the subject without giving two or
three examples of what has constantly to be done in addition to public
lectures in carrying out this plan, and what, moreover, can be done well
only by a man who is on the spot when the books are consulted or se-
lected for reading, let him be librarian or professor. It is assumed all
the while that the assistance is to be given, as is always the case among
students, to young men of little experience with books. First of all, one
has to explain the importance and the mode of learning something of a
book before reading it. Before spending many hours over a book, an in-
telligent reader should know either its reputation and its place among
books in its department; or, if anew book, something of its author; or,
if new, and the author unknown or undistinguished, he should be ac-
quainted with these facts as well, and then read it in some degree as a
critic. By learning these things first, he knows whether the book is to
be received entire as a possession to him for all time, or to be subjected
522 Public Libraries in the United States.
to eliminations and restrictions. How many young students of law
sit down to Blackstone with the best intentions, delighted with the
first few lectures, which present general principles, and then wade on
day after day through all the technicalities and intricacies of English
common law, and awaken to the fact, when it is all ov^er, that what
they have been reading is to them, and to the writers of to-day, hi^s-
tory. So it is generally, in history, science, art, or literature, one must
have his eyes open to a book before he reads it. This is not impractica-
ble; such questions as who the author was, what were his qualifica-
tions for writing, his purpose in writing this particular book, the side of
the questions involved towards which his religion, or his politics, or his
philosophy would incline him, can nearly always be got up by ref-
erence to a few cyclopedias and dictionaries. The further questions
regarding the judgment which the reading world has passed upon a
book, and the general effect it has produced in its department of
thought, questions which the most careful reading could never answer,
are of sufficient importance to the scholarly reader to justify a more
difficult research. I will not pursue this subject further here, as I have
treated it more fully in another place,^ and pointed out the demand for
a library manual which should contain these facts about books in the
form of a cycloptedia. In the absence of any such manual, however, the
librarian must point out, by general instruction and by private assistance,
how they are to be found, both from sources outside of the books and
by the earmarks of the books themselves.
Another example of what a college librarian has always before him
to do, and in which his service may be of very great value, is found in
the investigation of subjects. A theme is chosen or assigned for an
essay, which to the student becomes as real a subject for careful investi-
gation as if on his discussion of it depended the faith of a church or the
fate of an empire. Should he consult an officer of instruction, he would
very likely get a good list of works to be read through or consulted upon
it, with perhaps some opinion as to their respective merits ; and this
would generally be all. He would get no idea of order in his reading,
nor learn how to hunt up material under enigmatical titles, nor how to
exhaust his resources on any point whatever. What he wants, to en-
courage him in doing such work well, is to be shown how to take hold of it
in the right way and do it easily. He wants not results but a method. Let
the librarian take up his subject in one or two cases, and show him how
to put questions to a library. Take a subject, for example, say coinage.
Let the librarian turn it over as if it were new to him. It is historical,
we must look over the books on general history ; it is an art, the cases
on the useful arts; it is very ancient, the cases on antiquities; it fur-
nishes a circulating medium, the cases on political economy and finance;
these books have been reviewed, the index to periodical literature; it
has been the subject of essays, the index to pamphlets and miscellaneous
' See Ubapter XXXI V, Titles i)f Hooks.— Editors.
College Lihrarij Administration. 523
literature. Get this analysis out of the student if possible, and then
show him how many different parts of the library must be laid under
contribution for the exhaustive study of one subject. Accept or reject
or hold subject to criticism as you go the books which bear upon it, ac-
cording as they appear to be good, bad, or doubtful. Such a method
•cannot be taught by rules; it must be seen a few times to make it easy.
I remember reading a passage some years ago in Littell's Living Age
which illustrates this subject admirably. It is worth while to turn to it.
The subject is University Education in Germany.
It is notliing uncommon for the lectures, even public lectures, to be given at the pro-
fessor's house. Five or six of us attended f^hrenberg's lectures. He received us in his
study, in the midst of his microscopes, his books, and his menagerie of infusoria bottled
in tubes. We woiUd talk about the last meeting, ask the explanation of some matter
which would cause a long digression ; in looking for one creature in the tubes, we
would come upon another, and the lecture had to be begun anew ; or else it was some
obscure reference that had to be explained, and we rummaged through the library, and
the result was that, with all their interruptions and irregularities, these lectures were
most excellent and profitable. . . . The professor teaches as he works ; his
courses are onlj"^ an exposition of his method. He explores and shows how a subject
is to be explored. It has been said that a German professor " works aloud" before his
pupils ; the phrase is very accurate.
Students need the continual oversight of the librarian also in apply-
ing the common rule of Bacon, that " some books are to be tasted,
others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." The
rule sounds well. A young man gets it and thinks he has a key to the
use of a library. The better class soon learn that it is like reading a
general rule to an apprentice about the relative use of the different tools
in his chest. The question is who, and what, and when? AVhat is to
be tasted by one is to be chewed and digested by another; and the
same person must taste a given book at one time and chew and digest
it at another. Mistakes here are most likely to beget loose and careless
habits of reading, which in the end destroy a taste for it altogether.
Large plans are likely to be laid out which can never be followed ; great
expectations to be formed which cannot be realized. Some professor,
who has devoted his life to a subject, gives a lecture full of enthusiasm,
sets forth men and events and principles like a panoramic view; goes
over authors and books with his praise or censure, and sends a score of
yoang men to the library fully determiued to read all they can get on
that subject. The professor even thinks his eloquence is doing much
for the reading habits of his class. Next week another professor moves
the class in a similar manner on another subject, and another class of
books is demanded. Many drift thus from book to book, leaving all
unfinished. Others resolve to follow the rule sometimes given to stu-
dents: "Finish every book which you begin — either as a penalty for
rashly beginning it, or because you ought to be, and may become, inter-
ested in it." After laying aside in this way a few unfinished works, or
paying the penalty of beginning them, a large percentage, even of those
524 Public Libraries in the United States.
who are disposed to read, drop off from the library, simply because they
have not counted the time required to chew and digest a book. . They
have no plan. One or two volumes properly selected and thoroughly
read, and a score of others properly tasted of, would perhaps have been
practicable in each case ; and this process repeated, as occasion should
require, throughout the course of study, would accomplish very much.
How many of the elaborate histories, such as Grote's Greece, Gibbon's
Kome, and the Pictorial England, have had their first volumes at the
binder's over and over again, just because students, guided by the
unqualified references of the professors, have resolved upon reading
these great works through by course. Had they sat down beforehand
and counted the cost, they would either have taken some other advice,
or provided time to get beyond the first volume.
Xow, it may be said that all this work belongs to the several depart-
ments of instruction, a"nd that each officer must see that the students
read aronnd his own lectures. The answer is, very well, if they will
only do it regularly and systematically and give all the assistance
required, following the student till he has the right books, and has
opened them at the right jilaces; and if they will make a business of
directing every one who needs it, whether he requests it or not, and of
inspiring him with a love for a library, not in one department only, but
as a whole; and if they will work upon a plan, so as not to cross each
other's track, one advising to read Grote and another to finish it as a
penalty ; in short, if a dozen men or more will do what requires the care
and thought and personal attention of a single man. But everybody
knows how that work is done which it is the duty of many to do, but
for which no one is made responsible.
It may be further objected that, in so many and so diverse depart-
ments of learning, no one man is capable of giving advice as to what
and how to read. The objection, as soon as started, shows the impor-
tance of- its being done somehow, for all the better class of students are
expected to choose and to read something in all these departments.
Now, no man is able in his intercourse as a teacher with several hun-
dred students to reach his ideal of usefulness in any sphere. The
instruction of the most scholarly librarian will not be perfect, but it
will be much better than no regular instruction at all. Let him be
chosen as an educator ; let it be his recognized duty to do this work
for students as well as he can, to make a study of it for life, as a pro-
fessor of Greek studies language; let him make reputation for himself
and for his college by it; give him credit when he is able to make use-
ful reading attractive to young men, to win them over, from the habit
of gazing listlessly at the backs of books, to an intelligent and pas-
sionate longing to learn all that it is possible for them to know of and
about them ; give him such duties and such rewards, and though some
mistakes will be made, very much good will be accomplished.
College Library Administration. 525
INSTRUCTION BY TEACHERS.
When the librarian has done all he can, there will remain much instruc-
tion to be given by the teachers. I have assumed that the professor shouM
know something of all the books which touch his course of instruction,
and that it is his business to use them, not as the librarian does, to teach
what a library is and how to use it, but as a part of the apparatus of
his department. His object is science, or language, or some other part
of the general course of study. The books are his tools ; students are
using them as well as he. In their hours of free access to the shelves
scores of questions will arise about books and their contents which will
crop out in his lecture room. He must pass judgment upon them cor-
rectly, answering questions relative to authorship, contents, style, lit-
erary or scientific value, when perhaps he least expects them to come
up. Besides, he will be expected to direct the reading on all the more
technical and difficult points connected with his instruction, where the
librarian, from the general nature of his work, or his lack of minute
reading, must necessarily fail. In doing this it is best, so far as pos-
sible, to refer to the library. It is not enough to mention works which
he happens to possess himself, but which the student is ill able to buy.
ISTor is it sufficient to Yefer to any books in the library that contain the
subjects under investigation. He should be able to lay his hand at once
upon the very best material that can be had for the purpose of the stu-
dent, and to state why it is the best. Otherwise he does injustice to
the man who is to spend his time in the reading. Let any professor
who would encourage reading, and make the library supplement his
instruction with the best effect, undertake to do it, not by public lec-
tures, however eloquent, but by making the best references in the proper
way, in the first j)lace ; and also by meeting his students singly or in
small classes in the alcoves, and guiding them patiently through all
their most difficult investigations.
CHAPTER XXVII
LIBRARY CATALOGUES.
BY C. A. CUTTER,
Librarian of thr Lofton Athen
I. What kind of cataloguk : general remarks : 1. autiiou-catalogue ; 2.
subject-catalogue: a. general remarks; 6. classed ; c. dictionary ; d. alpha-
RETICO-CLASSED ; €. COMBINED; /. SOMK OTHERS; g. COJIPARISON ; h. SOME OTHER
POINTS.— II. Whether to print: 1. advantages and disadvantages of both
courses; 2. some details of >l\nagement. — III. Tables: 1. classification op
catalogues; 2. comparison of catalogues; 3. cost of printing; 4. chrono-
logical list of American catalogues.
I.— WHAT KIND OF CATALOGUE.
It is fortunate for those wlio have the use of a library if their number
is so small and their character so high that they can be admitted to the
shelves and select their books on actual examination. As that is often
not the case, a catalogue becomes necessary, and, even when it is the
case, if the books are numerous there must be some sort of guide to
insure the quick finding of any particular book. The librarian can
furnish some assistance, but his memory, upon which he can rely for
books in general use, is of no avail for those which are sometimes wanted
very much, although not wanted often. And a librarian without a cata-
logue would be utterly overpowered by the demands arising with a large
circulation. In a library used entirely for desultory reading, like most
private circulating libraries, and many town libraries, the catalogue may
be very simple ; as soon as the books begin to be used for study it must
become more elaborate. The latter is alone worth considering, for of
the few difficulties of the simpler plan the greater part will be found in
the more complex.^
A catalogue is designed to answer certain questions about a library^
and that is the best which answers the most questions with the least
trouble to the asker. It may, however, for reasons of economy, decline
to answer certain classes of inquiries with very little practical loss of
utility, and different libraries may properly make dilierent selections
'It iiiaj' be as well to say now that iii the following pages reference is had chiefly to
our larger town and city, and to our college libraries. Many statements would be
totally inapplicable to the great European libraries, which count their funds by ten
thousands and their volumes by hundred thousands, and many things need modification
with reference to very small town libraries ; but it is impossible to hedge round every
sentence with the necessary limitations, and the reader is requested to bear this note
in mind.
52G
Lihyanj Catahgiies. 527
of questions to be answered. There are two sets of probable inquiries,
tUe first asking what books the library contains; the second relating to
the character of the books. Of the first set the most common and the
most important — those which a catalogue must answer or be an im-
perfect guide — are these :
1st, Has the library such a book by a certain author ?
Have you Bell on the Brain ?
Have j'ou John Brent, by Theodore Wiuthrop ?
2d. What books by a certain author has it f
What other books by Wiuthrop have you '?
3d. Has it a book with a given title ?
Have you John Brent ?
4th. Has it a certain book on a given subject P
Have you a pamphlet on the bull-frog, by Professor — I've forgotten his name?
otb. What books has it on a given subject ?
Have you anything on glaciers ? What have you on philosophy ? I wish to see
all the books.
0th. What books has it in a certain class of literature?.
What plays have you ? What poems ?
7th. What books have you in certain languages 1^
What French books have you ? How well provided are you with German liter-
ature ?
8tb, &c. Similar questions may be asked with reference to certain
other classes, as is shown in Part II, p. 10-12, in a note on classification,
but they are of less importance, and may be passed by now.
The enumeration of the systems that have been devised to answer
these questions would be as long as Polonius's list of plays. We may have
a catalogue of authors or of subjects, or both, or of authors with a sub-
ject-index, or of subjects with an author-index, and each of these may
be divided into two varieties by the presence or absence of title-entries,
and lists of kinds of literature introduce another source of variation.*
'The answer to the first question would of course be included in the answer to the
second ; the question itself, however, is made with a different purpose. In the first
case, the inquirer wauts a definite book, and uses the author's name as a clue to find it
by ; in the second, he is interested in a particular author, and wishes to select one of
his works.
- It will be seen that the word subject is used, as it commonly is in this connection,
to indicate on the side of the book the theme, whether special or general, on which the
author wishes to give information, and on the part of the inquirer the matter on which
he is seeking information. It does not seem to me desirable to extend its use so as to
include classes of literature, and confound the fourth, fifth, and sixth questions, still
less to make it synonymous with title, as some cataloguers appear to do.
^ The seventh question is not really distinct, but is included in previous ones, accord-
ing to the purpose with which it is asked. A man may want a book with a certain
llavor — the French flavor, the German flavor. With this meaning the question might
be included in the sixth. Or he may want to study the language ; in that case the
language is his subject; and books in a language being practically on it for his pur-
pose, the question is included in the fifth.
'1. Author-catalogue. One in which the entries are arranged alphabetically according to
528 PuUlc Libraries in the United States.
ISTow, as it is evident that a subject-catalogue by itself can answer the
first and third questions (have you a book by a certain author or with a
certain title) only when the book has an unmistakable subject by which it
can readily be found, and even then answers in a roundabout way, and
as it cannot answer the second (what books have you by a certain author)
at all unless one knows the subjects of all that writer's books, this kind of
catalogue may be at once rejected. And as an author-catalogue by itself
cannot answer the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth questions, (for how many
persons will look through a list of 20,000 or even of 1,000 titles to see if
there is among them a book with a given title or on a given subject ?) this
kind of catalogue is equally unsatisfactory. An author-and-title cata-
logue with a subject-index, or an author-catalogue with a title- and sub-
ject-index, or a subject-catalogue with an author-and-title index, answers
the first four questions; and if it contains lists of classes of literature,
(as fiction, poetry, German literature,) it answers all seven. The chief
difference between them is this : in the first a book is entered in full once
under the author and once briefly under the title ; and then appears
briefly in the index under as many subjects as the book may treat of. In
the third the book is entered in full under as many subjects as it treats
of, and appears only twice briefly in the index, once under the author's
name and once under the title.
There is yet another — the author-, subject-, title-, and form- catalogue —
which answers all the seven questions. In this the full entries are
made both under author and subject and form, and perhaps under title.
They will differ a little, it may be, because under author should be
given all the bibliographical description of the book, and special pains
taken to identify the author, whereas under the subject these details
can be omitted or abridged, and their place taken by greater fullness
of title, or notes designed to show how the book handles its topic. And
the author-entry would give in full the contents of collections of essays,
whereas in the subject-entry only those parts of the contents would be
mentioned which concern that particular subject. The entry under the
the names of theauthors, (a dictionary of authors.) 2. I'iile-catalogue. One in which the
entries are arranged alphabetically according to some word of the title, especially the
first, (a dictionary of titles.) 3. Subject-catalogue. One in which the entries are arranged
according to the subjects of the books, either alphabetically by the words selected to
denote those subjects (dictionary arrangementj or philosophicallj' according to the
scientific relations of the subjects, (logical, classed, or classified arrangement, the sub-
jects being formed into classes.) 4. Form-catalogue. One in which the entries are
arranged according to the forms of literature and the lauguages in which the books
are written, whether alphabetically or according to the relations of the forms to one
another. 5. (?) catalogue. One in which the entries are made according to the
kind of people for whom the books are designed. To this belong the classes "Juve-
nile literature" and " Sunday-school books," which include works on various subjects
and in various forms, and often have a subclassification by subjects. Either of the
first two, or of the second two when not classed, or a combination of two or more of
them, is a rf(c<('o«ar^ catalogue. The third, or the last three together, when logically
arranged, forms a classified catalogue. The fourth is often published in a single or with
two or three classes, or in combination with the fifth, (the unnamed catalogue,) as a
class-list of "Novels," or of "Drama and Poetry," or of "Fiction and Juveniles."
Library Catalogues. 529
title would be very brief, and miolit for economy of room be reduced to
a mere reference. But setting tiiese minor variations aside, tlie dis-
tinguisbiug characteristic of this catalogue, which makes it sui)erior
to the others, is that the inquirer tinds under subject as well as under
author a sufficiently full title, and the details which show him whether
the book is old or new, in what language it is printed, and where and
when, whether it is compendious or voluminous, portable or not.' For
these facts, often of great importance to Irim in choosing his book, he
does not have to turn to another part of the catalogue. Now, such turn-
ing, although it is a slight matter for a single book, becomes intolerably
wearisome afler a few repetitions, and most peoi)le would rather go
away without the information which they want than take the tronble
to search it out at such an expense of time and perseverance. Indeed,
it is impossible to compare titles so widely separated. While one is
looking for and at a tenth he forgets the first five or six. And the loss
of time, which can be borne when one is using a single printed volume,
would be utterly unendurable with the complete catalogue of a large
library, especially if in manuscript.
The method upon which the author and title parts of the catalogue
shall be made is tolerably well settled except in regard to some details.
But in regard to the subject i)art there is no such agreement. Two great
principles of arrangement dispute precedence, the logical and the alpha-
betical, and the adherents of the latter are divided as they prefer class
or specific entry.
Among the logically arranged (classed or classified) catalogues there
is a difference, according as they are more or less minutely subdivided.
The larger the collection of titles the greater need of division. For it is
plain that if a hundred thousand titles are divided into only sixty or
sevent;^ classes, some of the larger divisions will contain several thou-
sand, all of which the impatient reader must look through to find what
he wants. Generally an attempt is made to bring all books under a
strictly philosophical system of classes, with divisions and subdivisions*
arranged according to their scientific relations. It is a very attractive
plan. The maker enjoys forming his system, and the student fancies he
shall learn the philosophy of the universe while engaged in the simple
occui)ation of hunting for a book. And there are more real advantages.
One who is pursuing any general course of study finds brought together
in one part of the catalogue most of the books that he needs. He sees
not merely books on the particular topic in which he is interested, but
in' immediate neighborhood works on related topics, suggesting to him
courses of investigation which he might otherwise overlook. He finds
'These things of course are of no iin[)ortauce in a title-entrj', the object of which is
simply to enable a man to find a book which he already knows of, not to select one
among many. Imprints under the author are indispensable in the interior working of
a library, to avoid duplicates, identify copies, etc. But if I were obliged to choose
solely for the public between giving imprints with authors only and with subjects
only, I should choose the latter.
34 E
530 Public Libraries in the United States.
it au assistance to have all these works spread out before him, so that
he can take a general surv^ey of the ground before he chooses his route ;
and as he comes back day after day to his particular part of the cata-
logue he becomes familiar with it, turns to it at once, and uses it with
ease. The same is true of the numerous class who are not making any
investigation or pursuing any definite course of study, but are merely
desultory readers. Their choice of books is usually made from cer-
tain kinds of literature or classes of subjects. Some like poetry or
essays or plays ; others like religious works or jihilosophical works
or scientific works, not caring about the particular subject of the
book so much as whether it be well written and interesting. To
these persons it is a convenience that their favorite kind of reading
should all be contained in one or two parts of the catalogue, and
freed from the confusing aduiixture of titles of a different sort. An
alphabetical list of specific subjects is to them little more suggestive
than an alphabetical list of authors. It is true that by following up all
the references of a dictionary catalogue under Theology, for example,
a man may construct for himself a list of the theological literature in the
library ; but to do this requires time and a mental effort, and it is the
characteristic of the desultory reader that he is averse to mental effort.
\A^hat is wanted by him and by the busy man when now and then he
has the same object, is to find the titles from which he would select
brought together within the compass of a few pages; few, that is, in
comparison with the whole catalogue. It may be 500 pages, but 500
pages are better than 10,000.^ The classed catalogue is better suited
also than any other to exhibit the richness of the library in particular
departments.
It is true that no system of classification can bring together all related
works. The arrangement that suits one man's investigations is a hiu-
derance to another's; and in the act of bringing into juxtaposition sub-
jects that have many points of resemblance, the classifier separates them
from those with which they have fewer characteristics in common. But
this very statement shows that the majority of general inquirers will be
assisted by good classification, and only a minority disappointed. For
the more points of likeness any two subjects have, the more chance is
there that many men will be interested in both at once; and the more
they differ, the greater is the improbability that any one will wish to
study them together.^
On the other hand, there are some disadvantages. A large part of
1 The probable extent of the catalogues of the uext generation. When the special
catalogues become so large, the actual advantage for the purpose we have been consid-
ering is lessened. The very size becomes as bewildering as the confusion of an alpha-
betic catalogue, and the lists of the latter under specific headings, being very full, will
answer somewhat the same purpose.
-For example, all classifiers would put the history of Painting not under History
but under Art; yet most would put the history of culture, which includes the history
of painting and the other tine arts, under History, and not under Art.
Lihrarij Catalof/ucs. 531
the public are not pursuing general investigations. Tlie^* want to find
a particular book or a particular subject quickly ; and the necessity of
mastering a complex system before using the catalogue is an unwelcome
delay or an absolute bar to its use. Its advocates think that this diffi-
culty may be in great measure removed by prefixing to the catalogue
a full and clearly printed scheme of classification. "Anyone at all
familiar with systems," they say, "can, in nine cases out of ten, see at
a glance where his subject occurs in the scheme. An ignorant man will
be puzzled by any arrangement. His untrained eye cannot find words
in a dictionary or names in a directory, so that this plan is no worse for
him than another." But experience shows that even to the scholar this
difficulty, which comes at the very outset of each man's search in the
catalogue, and recurs every time he consults it until he becomes familiar
with its plan, this necessity of generally looking twice to find one thing,
and often not finding it readily, is undeniably irksome, and produces a
feeling of distaste out of all proportion to the real trouble occasioned.
And it unfortunately happens that in most schemes of classification yet
constructed these difficulties attach to some very common subjects.
There are certain questions which a man expects to find difficult of in-
vestigation. He does not think ill of a catalogue which delays or even
disappoints him in regard to these; but when, for some very simple
thing, with which he is familiar, he has to hunt, to hesitate, and to lose
time, he is provoked.
Besides, the difficulty is not merely in mastering the system, but in
applying it, which, in many departments of science, demands consider-
ably more knowledge than most men have. Suppose one wants to find
something about the badger; in a minutely subdivided catalogue it
might be found under Science, division Natural History, subdivision
Zoology, group Vertebrates, class Mammals, subclass Monodelphia, sec-
tion Carnivora, and so on, or under some other hierarchy of classes. A
man may want a book on the badger without being much of a naturalist,
but he could hardly find it in such a catalogue unless a naturalist should
help him.^
It is tbis which has made these catalogues so unpopular, and the unpop-
ularity is increased by the want of agreement among classifiers, which
prevents any system becoming common enough to be known to every-
body and to seem the only natural one. And the occasional vagaries
'Note that this is a difBculty in the nature of things, and applies also to an alpha-
betical catalogue, if it has no special hook on the badrjer. Then a man must look in
general works for an account of his animal, and in order to use either catalogue for
that purpose, he must know or find out to what general class the badger belongs, other-
wise he would not know v/hether to ask for a work on reptiles or mammals, articu-
lates or vertebrates. But this, like many other theoretical objections, does not much
impair the usefulness of a catalogue. A man generally does know some of the includ-
ing classes of his subject. In the present case he would know that the badger is an
animal, and would look for it in somer zoological encyclopaedia. By the description
there he would find to what subclasses it belongs, and how he could pursue his iuqnir-
ies farther, if he chose.
532 PuUic Libraries in the United States.
of otherwise excellent catalogues have had their influeuce iu bringing:
classification into disrepute. It would take the average man some time
to get accustomed to look for the Rollo books under Art, and Mother
Goose's Melodies under Prose Fiction, where they belong in a system
now before me. Nor is likely that many men would at first think of
looking for railroad reports under Commercial Arts, or cook-books under
Productive Arts, or navigation under Engineering, however proper such
subordination may be. The fact is that the action of the mind in
outlining a system and fltiiug books into it is very different from that
of inquiring where, in a system already formed by another, a given
topic will be treated. It is hard, apparently, for the system-makers
to put themselves in the place of the public; otherwise they would
have adopted more frequeutly than they have done the simple rem-
edy which will almost remove all these difficulties — an alphabetical
index of the subjects treated in the classed catalogue. By that an in-
quirer is referred in an instant to the exact part of the catalogue where
he will find the topic he wants. The catalogue of the Mercantile Library
Company of Philadelphia (1850) has such an index, also the Newark
Library Association, (1857.) and the California State Law Library, (1870.)
Beyond these I cannot recall one. It should be noted, however, that an
index is one of the prominent features of the excellent plan for num-
bering books described by Mr. Melvil Dewey, in Chapter XXVIII of
this report.
The alphabetical index not occurring to or not pleasing those who
were dissatisfied with classification, they adopted the alphabetical cata-
logue, and, naturally enough, in its extreme form, the dictionary plan,^
in which the attempt to subordinate individuals to classes, and classes
to one another, is abandoned, and the subjects, special or general, are
arranged like the words in a lexicon. Thus, if a book treats of natural
history, it is put under that heading ; if it treats of zoology alone, that
word is the rubric ; if it is confined to mammals, it will be found under
Mammals; and, finally, if one is looking for a treatise on the elephant,
he need not know whether that animal is a mammal; he need not even
be sure that it is an animal; he has merely to be sufficiently acquainted
with his alphabet to find the word Elephant, under which will appear
all the separate works that the library contains on that subject. Nothing,
one would think, can be more simple, easy to explain, easy and expedi-
tious to use than this. No matter what he wants he will find it at once,
2)rovidcd (1) that the library has a book on just that subject, and (2)
that it has been entered under the very word which he is thinking of.
If these conditions are not fulfilled, however, there is more trouble. If
(1) the library has no book or article sufficiently important to be cat-
alogued on that topic, he must look (a) in some more comprehensive
work in which he will find it treated, (as the history of Assyrian art is
related in the histories of Art,) in which case he will get no help what-
Ou the use of the name '' dictionary," see p. 560.
Library Catalogues. 533
ever from any dictionary catalogue^yet made, ia finding the general work,
but raust trust to his own knowledge of the subject and of or.linary
classification to guide him to the including class; or [h) there may be
something to his purpose in less general works, (as books on Iron
bridges or Suspension bridges might be better than nothing to a man
who was studying the larger subject Bridges,) but in this case also he
will very seldom get any assistance from dictionary catalogues, and
must rely entirely uport his previous knowledge of the possible branches
of his subject. If (2) the books which the library has are entered under
some other word than the one which is in his head, (under Development,
or Evolution, or Origin of species, or Species, when he is thinking of
Darwinism,) nine- tenths of the dictionary catalogues will again fail him )
he must rack his brain to recall all the synonymous names of his topic.
And even in those which relieve him of this trouble by giving cross-
references, he must look twice, first for his own word, and then for the
word to which he is referred from that.
The plan is undeniably convenient, but its advocates have in general
so entirely overlooked these defects that they have made no attempt to
remedy them. A minority have had recourse to cross-references, which
almost remove evil No. 2; but evil No. 1 generally remains untouched
There is considerable variety among dictionary catalogues, which may
or may not have imprints under the subject-entries and contents under
the authors; which may have cross-references or not; which may limit
each title to a single line, or abandon such procrustean attempt and
allow whatever space circumstances demand; which may include classes
of literature or not; which may make subject entries merely under words
taken from the title of the book, as proposed by Panizzi and Crestadoro
and practiced by nearly all; or may take the subject of the book as a
heading, whether expressed in the title or not. This latter difference is
of more importance than may appear at first sight. The catalogues
which limit themselves rigidly to the title abandon all attempt at com-
pleteness, since many titles do not even pretend to express the subject
of the book, and many signally fail in the attempt.
The history of dictionary catalogues in regard to this matter is worthy
of note. The early catalogues were all either of authors or classed.
Those which, like Georgi's Europiiischer Biicher-Lexicon, (1742,) were
by authors, (with title-entry, of course, for anonymous books,) were said
to be "Nach Ordnung Dictionarii."' The next step was to make the
title-entries not merely for anonymous books but for all which bad any
good word in the title from which to refer, the object being to provide a
means by which any one who had heard of a book could easily find it.
If it was thought of at all, it was apparently considered as a subsidiary
merit that one could find by aid of these entries what the library coii-
^This is the earliest use of the coiuparisoQ I have met with. Lexicon is a very com-
moa name for an alphabetical list of authors, (Moser, 1740, Jcpcher, 1750, Felder, lfi2'\
Kayser, 18:?4.) Danz's Wurterbuch (1843) is a subject catalogue.
534 Public Libraries in the United States.
tained on certain subjects. Niueteeu such catalogues were made in this
country between 1815 and 1854, the comparative number of entries
under subject-words gradually increasing. lu 1854 the Boston Mercan-
tile Library jiublished a catalogue made by Mr. W. F. Poole, upon a
plan proposed by him in April of that year :
Short titles liave beea adopted ; eacli work has been cataloj^ued under its author and
under its suhject, and works of fiction have been placed under their titles as well as
authors. The whole being arranged in one alphabetical series, a work can be easily
found if either its author, subject, or title is known. Whatever advantages other sys-
tems of cataloguing may have in particular instances, no other system appears to com-
bine so many advantages for a circulating library like ours. — Preface.
Each entry was limited to one line. The imprints were given under
each entry whether author, title, or subject- word, but there icere no
cross-references. This is the first complete triple asyndetic dictionary
catalogue. From its economy of space, its facility of use, the ease with
which any one who can copy accurately can make it, and its apparent
completeness, it has been a favorite type with town and mercantile libra-
ries. In these catalogues some word of the title is taken to make the entry
under, as an indexer makes his reference from some word that he finds in
the text of the work he is engaged upon. If there is no suitable word the
cataloguer generally omits the work altogether ;^ sometimes chooses a
word under which be thinks the book may be looked for, the idea alwaj s
being that the inquirer is searching for some book that he already knows
of, and this being merely another way of finding it in case the author's
name has been forgotten. The entries are really, therefore, only title-
entries. The idea of subject-entries, though probably always vaguely
co-existent with this, is, as a distinct and dominant idea, of late growth.
Consequently we cannot reproach these cataloguers with their want of
system, their abundance of synonymous headings, their continually
suffering works of precisely the same character to be separated by the
mere chance of the use of a different word in the title, their not seldom
jumbling together works of very different character which have the
same word (used in different senses) in the title, with their frequent
failure to enter books treating of several subjects under more than one,
or with the total absence of cross-references. They are not generally
intending to make subject-catalogues, by which they would probably
understand classed catalogues. As they deal almost entirely with books
in the English language there is nothing to prevent their confining
themselves to the title. Foreign books lend themselves less readily to
this kind of entry and suggest emancipation.
In England the immediate predecessor of the dictionary catalogue was
' As late as 1869 a librarian explains tha plan of His catalogue, made in imitation of that
of the Boston Public Library, thus : "Books are entered uuder the author's name, the
title, and the subject where the title admits of it." And in 1875 a librarian writes, "I
think the plan of a dictionary catalogue is to give specific information concerning the
author, title, and subject of a book, so far as they appear on the title-page."
Lihranj Catalofjues. 535
the series of London book lists, ending in the "Classified index to the
London catalogue of books published in 181G-'5L" In this last, under
thirty-four classes, references are arranged in the alphabetic order of
the words of the title which expressed, or. were intended to express, the
specific subject of the book. The object of the publisher was stated to
be "facility of reference and simplicity of detail." The next step in
facilitating reference was naturally to throw the classes into one alpha-
bet. This was partly done the next year by Sampson Low in his " Index
to the titles," contained in the " British catalogue of books published in
1854," with this explanation :
Under the old system of classification the difficulty has always been to find a given
title, although enabled to find a group of books published within a scientific definition.
The preseut plan, it is hoped, will, by following out the author's own definition of his
books, and presenting a concoudaxce of titles combine both of these advantages.
Not a word about subject information, which indeed was not to be
expected, the British catalogue being merely intended as a read}' guide
for booksellers and others to the publisher's name and the price of each
book. The phrase "concordance of titles" is noteworthy. Whether the
plan was due to Mr. Low or his assistant, Mr. Crestadoro, does not
appear. Eight years before this Mr. Panizzi had told the British
Museum Commission :
Those who want to consult a book of which they know only the subject, or to find
what books on a particular subject are in the library, can obtain this information (as
far as it can be obtained from a title-page, which is all that can be expected in a cata-
logue) more easily from an index of matters to an alphabetical catalogue than by any
other means. (Answer 9869.)
In 1856, Mr. Crestadoro, in a pamphlet on " The art of making cata-
logues of libraries," recommended (1) an iuventorial catalogue of un-
abridged titles arranged in no order, but numbered ; and (2) referring to
the inventory by these numbers, an alphabetical index of names and
subjects. For this in'dex the headings were to be words from the iuven-
torial title; and he would have the cataloguer supply in that title the
author's name, the subject, and the "nature" of the book, (sermon,
thesis, oratorio,) if the author had failed to do so himself in his title;
moreover he would make as many references as there are words in the
(amended) title worth referring from, whether those words be the author's
or editor's or translator's or publisher's names, or indicate the subject or
the "nature" of the book ; and lastly, he would make cross-references from
synonymous headings (as Death penalty and Capital punishment) to
one another, so that whichever one looked under, he would be guided
to all that was under both ; also from class-headings to all the subordi-
nate (or, as he calls them, partially synonymous) headings contained in
the catalogue, (as from Agriculture to Aviary, Bees, Cattle, Cows, Dairy,
Drainage, and many more.) The result of it all is that one has, under
every word under which one is likely to look for a work, a reference
to it, and under each subject a list of works about it, with references to
536 Public Libraries in the United States.
those places in the index where other works treating of any of its parts,
or of similar subjects, could be found. The cross-references bind to-
gether the different parts of the catalogue, bring them into one system-
atic whole, and make the catalogue constructively an alpbabetico-
classed catalogue ; not actually, take notice, for it is one tiling to be
told that somewhere else in the index is a title which you might like to
see, and quite a different thing to have it displayed on the page before
you.
An admirable plan, which by the addition of imprints and fuller titles
becomes the plan of the quadruple syndetic^ dictionary catalogue. It is
worthy of note, however, that such additions to the title as he proposed
were not made or referred from, and the " nature" lists were not inserted,
nor were full cross-references made, in any catalogue published by him or
similar to his in England. I called the plan admirable; it had, how-
ever, one defect — its close adherence to the title. Crestadoro allo\\ed
additions to be made for purposes of reference when there were lacuna;
in the title, as all cataloguers direct the author's name or the date of
publication to be supplied, but if the title named the subject, its choice
of a name was final ; the cataloguer was obliged to follow it. The result
is that works on precisely the same subject are separated, merely be-
cause the phraseology of the title is different. Crestadoro was consist-
ent and adhered to the title throughout.
If, he says, works have been published uutler thre^ different names, as Gower, Eger-
tov, and EUesmere, all belonging to the same author, it would be wrong to enter any
of them otherwise than as they appear. Let each name, as it becomes a heading in
the index, commence by a short entry of [i e., a reference to] all the other names be-
longing to the same writer, and then let a full entry of the works that bear that name
follow after.
In this he is not followed by any of the dictionary cataloguers, but in
applying the same ideas to subject-headings, he is. If works, they ap-
pear to think, have been published under two or three different names,
as Insects and JEnto)nolofjy^ or Free trade, Protection, and Tariff, it would
be wrong to enter any of them otherwise than as they appear. They
are not consistent. Every one sees that to separate an author's works
and oblige the reader always to look in two or three places for them
is to cause a greater inconvenience than to refer him, two times out of
three, from the name he looks for to the name chosen by the cataloguer.
"Why is it not likewise a greater inconvenience to be compelled always
to look in two places for the works on a given subject than half the time
to be referred from one heading to the other? We cannot always take
the " author's own definition of his book." He knows what the subject
is, but he may not know how to express it for cataloguing purposes ; he
may even choose a title that misleads or is unintelligible, especially if
his publisher insists on a striking title, as is the manner of publishers;
1 1 call that dictionary-catalogue connective or syndetic in which the different head-
ings are thus bound together by cross-references.
Library Catalogues. bSl
aucl different writers, or even the same writers at different times, may
choose different words to express the same thin<^.^
There is ''A defence of the Constitution of Great Britain," of which
the author says, in his preface, " The object of my attack is a proposed
measure called parliamentary reform." Here, if one is to be confined
to the title, one would be obliged to violate the first principle of the
dictionary catalogue, and give the book class-entry, as if it treated of
the whole of the British constitution, instead of treating of one
clearly defined part. Gallaudet's " PIjju of a seminary for the education
of instructors of youth " would be lost if put under Seminary or In-
structors, and it does not belong in the mass of general titles under
Education. Its proper place is under Normal schools. It is urged
that the author may have reasons for calling his book " Travels
in the Holy Laud " rather than " Travels in Palestine," and that
therefore we ought to have a heading Holy Land as well a head-
ing Palestine, — n non sequitiir. That is a reason for copying his title
and not altering it to suit our fancy, but it is no reason whatever for
arranging it in one part of our catalogue rather than in another.
For the title-entry we of course take the author's word ; for the subject-
entry — made that our readers may not miss the book when they are
studying the topic or topics of which it treats — it is much better to
take the cataloguer's estimate of the subject. For each unit of inquiry
let him select one lieading, (referring of course from all synonyms,) and
entering under it all the books which iu his judgment belong there.
But, it may be said, imposing jour own names on subjects is as objec-
tionable as classification. How is one to know what heading to look for ?
It is even worse than classification, for with that one does not have
the whole catalogue to range through: the reader is limited by the
first great divisions, and does not expect to find Painting in the section
History, but in Art, and is sure that Zoology will be somewh«'re in that
fourth of the catalogue which is devoted to Science ; whereas in a dic-
tionary catalogue with arbitrary headings, there is no such preliminary
narrowing of the field ; what one wants may be under Animals in the first
letter of the alphabet, or under Zoblogy in the last. A seemingly strong
objection, but of little practical account. In the first place, almost all in-
dividual subjects, and the majority of general subjects, have single well-
known names -, and in the case of pseudonyms or synonyms, he who
is looking up any subject, not having a .particular book in mind, is
at least as likely to look under the name which the cataloguer has cliosen
as under any other. The heading is selected for the very reason that it
is the most usual name of that topic or class of topics, the one under
which most people would be likely to look; a vague and unscientific
' Take an example, one of thousands. Fromeut has written " Sur I'histoire de I'elo-
quence judiclaire en France avant le 17e siecle," and also " L'eloquence et lo barreau
dans la premiere moiti^ du 16e siecle." On the subject-word principle, the first of these
■will be entered under France, the second under Bar, yet they treat of almost pre-
cisely the same topic.
538 Public Libraries in the United States.
rule, perhaps, bnt a thoroughly useful one; for the result is that iu
uinety-eight cases in a hundred there is no room for doubt where to
look, and for the ninety-ninth the inquirer will hit the right heading at
first, and therefore will be referred only once in a hundred inquiries.
The inconsistency originated from not distinguishing between the
wants of the man who seeks a certain book and remembers not merely
in a vague way its subject, but the very word which the author has
used to designate that subject, (who of course is best served by an entry
under that word,) and the wants of the man who is studying a certain
topic, (who is best served by the entry of all relating to that iu one
place.) Both can be completely served only by double entry ; the eco-
nomical dictionary-catalogue could not aftbrd double entry, and in choos-
ing between the two it inclined towards the particular-book-seeker, and
at first did not aflbrd the other even the help of a cross-reference.
The Boston Public Library, under the guidance of Mr. Jewett, who
had already made an excellent subject-index to the author catalogue of
the Brown University Library, took the first steps, somewhat wavering
steps, it is true, in a different direction. In its Lower Hall index (1858)
it still retained title entries; it did not discard synonymous headings, —
Gardening and Horticulture, Birds and Ornithology, both find a place in
its columns, — but it did make an attempt to enter polytopicaP books
under more than one head, and, greatest improvement of all, it made
many cross-references from various subjects to others of a similar char-
acter. In its style of printing, too, it implied a greater respect for sub-
jects by putting the author's name first under subject-headings. As
the library proceeded from its Lower Hall index, designed for popular
use, to the Bates Hall index, and, six years later, to its supplement, the
subject-idea gradually assumed more prominence.
To return to England. In 1858, the year in which the Lower Hall
catalogue was issue<l, Sampson Low, in the British Catalogue, com-
bined—
in one single alphabetical series both subjects and names (whether of authors or
otherwise) so far as they are to be gathered from the titles . . . ; the alphabet of
authors and titles, and the alphabet of subjects being thrown into one.
Here, then, we have not indeed a dictionary catalogue but a diction-
ary-index, (the reference being by means of numbers to the titles given
chronologically in. the "Publishers' Circular" for 18o7.) Catalogues of
the sam© sort followed in the course of time, that of Manchester in 1864,
by Crestadoro; that of Birmingham, by Mullius, in 1869. The catalogue
of the Liverpool Free Public Library, by S. Huggins, (1872,) is profess-
edly on the plan of the Boston Public Library, with considerable varia-
i Will the convenience of this word excuse the twist given to the meaning of rdrjog
iu its formation ? Polygraphic might serve, as the French use polygraphe for a mis-
cellaneous writer; but it will be well to have both words, polygraphic denoting, as
now, collections of several works by one or many authors ; polytopical denoting works
on many subjects.
Library Catalogues. 539
tions, the most noteworthy being the dififerent method in which the prac-
tice of specific entry is carried ©ut. "The subjects generally are more
concentrated, brought into fewer and larger groups," and yet "a book
on a science or art, with a geographical limitation, will be found, not
under the scientific subject of which it treats, but under the name of the
country or place to which the scientific research is confined." Such is
the English history. A comparison of dates makes it probable that it is
independent of the American. Librarians, having similar wants, hit upon
similar means to supply them. It is true, Mr. Crestadoro's pamphlet ap-
peared two years before Mr. Jewett's first dictionary-catalogue, and the
two points in which that differed from Mr. Poole's were both recom-
mended by Crestadoro. They are, the omission of imprints under sub-
jects,^ (an economy of very doubtful expediency,) and the insertion of
cross-references. But it does not follow that Mr. Jewett took these from
Crestadoro. He was already familiar with both of these features in his
subject and title index of Brown University Library, (1843.) And he
differs from Crestadoro in a rather imi)ortant point. The latter, as his
whole system demanded, arranged his entries like Mr. Poole's, in the
alphabetical order of the words of the title that followed, and put the
author's name last, as if referring to it :
Rome, ancient and modern. Card. Wiseman.
— and environs.
— — other climates. A. Taylor.
— — — places. Mrs. Westropp.
— — the war.
— contest with. W. Gresley.
— liistory. 0. Goldsmith.
Mr. Jewett, however, arranged his by the alphabet of his authors, who
were put before the titles, thus :
Rome. Adam, A. Roman antiquities.
— Akerman, J. Y. Catalogue of unedited Roman coins.
— Dezobry, L. C. Rome an siecle d'Anguste.
— LeClerc, J. V. Des journaux chez les Romains.
The effect of this trifling difference is obviously to give greater prom-
inence to the subject idea; it impresses the reader as a list of the au-
thors who have written about a topic rather than of books which have
a certain word in the title. It was a slight change, but it meant that
Mr. Jewett was thinking more about those who are seeking information
than those who are searching for a book. And to the cataloguer it
showed a way by which subject-entries and mere title-entries could be
at once distinguished. The idea was not thoroughly carried out, but it
Lad been conceived.
A few months after the publication of the first Bates Hall catalogue,
Mr. (now Professor) Abbot planned and began to carry into execution a
' By this omission his Index is not, strictly speaking, a triple dictionary-catalogue,
but an author-catalogue, mixed alphabetically with a subject-index and a title-index.
540 Fitblic Libraries in the United States.
system of which one fandamental idea was that every book which had
a subject should have a subject-entry, which entry was to be determined
by the contents of the book, and to be entirely independent of the title,
so that works which the ordinary catalogues would scatter widely for
the accident of their names, would be brought together according to
their natural affinity, and works of the same name might go to different
places. The introduction of classes of literature, which none of the
early dictionaries had, gave to Harvard College Library the first plan
ever made for a complete alphabetical catalogue. It is sometimes
termed the "mixed" or "half-way" system; a better, because more
definitely descriptive name, is " alphabetico classed," inasmuch as its
differentia3 are class entry and alphabetic order, the differentia' of
dictionary catalogues being specific entry and alphabetic order.
"The arrangement of classes or subjects," he says, " is alphabetical, not scientific; but
the plan differs from the dictionary scheme in this, that a large part of these classes
or subjects have numerous subdicisions, which, instead of being dispersed through the
great alphabetical series, and thus widely separate I from each other, are arranged in
a secondary alphabetical series under the general head.''
It will be unnecessary to discuss here the comparative merits of the
two systems, as it has already been done at length in the Report of
the Library Committee of Harvard College for 18G3 and in the North
American Review for January, 18G9 ; but 1 will add to what was said
in the latter place that, after fifteen years' constant use of the two
catalogues, I am convinced that there is very little difference in their
convenience for a person who understands both. The Abbot system
is best adapted for the thorough investigation of comprehensive sub-
jects; the dictionary system for finding quickly what relates to a per-
son, a place, or other special topic.^ There are, of course, many things
that can be found with little trouble in the Harvard catalogue, and on
the other hand the dictionary plan, with proper references, ipsures find-
ing everything on a given matter, (so far as any catalogue can do that,)
although it must be granted that the cataloguer may very easily fail
to make all the proper references, and the inquirer may lose his
patience in following them up. Under either system, he who wishes to
find all that the library contains on a given topic must usually consult
several parts of the catalogue, and spend some time and thought in the
search. To a man accustomed to one plan alone, the other will appear
inconvenient, incomplete, ill-constructed, the easv use of a catalogue
being very much a matter of habit. With one w ho knows neither sys-
iThis may be illustrated by a comparison with the use of scientific works. One cau
study chemistry, for instance, best in a systematically-arranged treatise; one could also
study it well in an encyclopa'dia, in which the great divisions of chemistry should be
arranged in alphabetical order, and the minor topics treated together under those
heads ; but it would be very hard to study in Watfs's Dictionary of Chemistry. Yet to
the practical chemist, desirous of instant information about caryophyllin or arsenides
of methyll or sulphotriphosphamide. Watts is indispensable, and his arrangement de-
cidedly the best.
Lihrary Catalogues. 541
tern, the dictionary has this advantage, that its plan is more easily
explained, and there is no appearance of complexity to discourage him
at first sight. When he attempts any thorough investigation, he will
feel the need of an acquaintance with the relations of the different
branches of human knowledge just as much as he would in using Mn
Abbot's catalogue, which by its very plan would help him better to
that acquaintance. Bat this difficulty will not come to him at the
outset — he will learn it gradually; whereas in the Harvard plan the
classes and branches and sections make a great show of difficulty.
Inquirers maybe roughly divided into (1) those who want something
quickly ; (2) those who want to make a thorough study of some specific
subject ; and (3) those who want to study fully some general class of
subjects. The first class depend most on a catalogue. The other two
have generally more time. They can supplement the deficiencies of a
catalogue by their own research and thought, but the first must be an-
swered at once or not at all. It is this class, the largest and loudest of
our readers, who have caused the popularity of the ordinary dictionary
catalogue. For that gives an answer, or seems to give one, at once. It
may not be a complete answer, for a number of works on the subject
sought for may be hidden away under synonymous headings, and others
may be concealed under more general rubrics. It may not be a true answer,
for the inquirer maj'^ find nothing under the heading he first thinks of,
and it may not occur to him to try any other. But some sort of an-
swer is given at once, either "We have such and such books on this
subject," or " We have nothing on it." He does not have to puzzle over
a system of classification, and he does not see that if he wants to ex-
haust the catalogue^he must stop and think of synonyms and related
subjects and general works. On the other band, the second and third
classes of inquirers are helped very much by a classed system, which
brings together books of a kind and enables them to see at a glance the
different relations of their subject ; and they get nearly all the practical
advantage of classification in the alphabetico-classed catalogues, be-
cause it is not so much the relation of class to class as the relation of
subdivision to subdivision that most men will want to follow out. Inas-
much, however, as it is absolutely impossible to devise a system of clas-
sification which shall exhibit each subject in all its relations to other
subjects, and always bring together all the books which a course of in-
vestigation may oblige one to use, any classed system, and still more the
alphabetico-classed, will sometimes seem as inconvenient and as dis-
junctive as the dictionary. No catalogue can exhibit all possible con-
nections of thought. Enough if it exhibit the most common, and give
some clew for tracing the rarerones. Those that claim perfection for any
system show that they have no idea of the difiiculties to be overcome.
I had written a detailed account and estimate of " the combined
plan," devised by Mr. J. Schwartz, jr., of the New York Apprentices' Li-
brary, and exemplified in a catalogue printed in 1874, but inasmuch as
542 FuhJlc Libraries in the United States.
he has been led by certain criticisms to change the plan somewhat, I
shall here only give a sketch of his modified system, referring for de-
tails and explanations to the pamphlet about it which he is preparing.
He intends, in brief, to get the good of both systems of arrangement —
the dictionary and the classed — by combining them in the same book ;
to have first a classed catalogue without imprints, (24 classes, capable
of 216 divisions and 1,944 subdivisions;) and secondly, a dictionary
catalogue (author- and anonymous title entries with imprints, subject-
entries, and other title-entries without imprints, subject-references to
the classed part.) The plan is in many respects much superior to the
dictionary, (see what was said on pages 529-30 of classed catalogues,) in
some respects inferior, and in some equal. The author claims that it
combines all the advantages of the dictionary and the classed catalogues.
Substituting "many" for "all" the claim maybe allowed. We can-
not say " all," because the fi:rst part is merely a classed index, not a
classed catalogue, and the second part is an imperfect dictionary; that
is, a catalogue of authors mixed with an index of titles and subjects;
and an index cannot have all the advantages of a catalogue.^
I will just glance at three other points of comparison. It is a great con-
venience that all the works, both general and special, on any branch of
knowledge, should be brought together ; to have, for instance, aZUhe works
on architecture spread out on one or a dozen pages, instead of having only
the general works together and being sent off to other parts of the al-
phabet for Assyrian or French or Italian architecture, or for works on
the construction of railway stations, of school houses, of temples. It is
also a convenience, if you have forgotten the author's name, that many
of these special books are entered again under that word of their title
(if there be such a word) which indicates their subject — Temple or
School house, or Eailvay-station. But it must be remembered that this
double entry consumes much room. The catalogue of the Boston
Athenpeum fills 5 columns with 176 titles of general works on Architec-
ture, and then refers to 92 other headings under which special works
may be found. All these, if repeated under Architecture, would have
filled 10 or 15 more pages ; and carrying out such a system would have
very considerably increased the bulk and cost of the catalogue. It is
true that part of the room needed for these additional titles might have
been found under Architecture by very much abridging the titles and
leaving out imprints, but that would simply amount to sending the in-
quirer to other parts of the catalogue for necessary information in re-
gard both to general and special works, instead of so sending him off,
as it does now, for the special works only.
Lists under various literatures and classes of literature are convenient ;
indeedjina popular library, they are indispensable; and in Mr. Schwartz's
1 These remarks apply to a catalogue made for scholars. When all impriuts are
omitted (as may well be done for small popular libraries) the objection above stated
loses its force.
Library Catalogues. 543
plan they will more appropriately be put in the classed than in the al-
phabetical part; but why they should not be included in any dictionary
catalogue, and why it is more inconvenient for a man to look out his
novels under " Novels" (or " Fiction"' or " English Fiction ") than under
" Literature " or " Prose," it is not easy to see.
There is also an objection — that the necessity of having only twenty-
five classes and only nine divisions under each can hardly be consistent
with any scientific and satisfactory division of human knowledge. The
system is not elastic enough to suit the expansiveness of science.
Again, the classed part of the catalogue of 1874 works well now because
there are few titles in it, about 9,600 for 250 classes ;^but in a larger
library making any attempt at analysis, either each class would contain
so many titles that it would be hard to find any particular subject in it
or else the introduction of divisions and subdivisions would bring on
that appearance of complexity which is so discouraging to the inex-
perienced inquirer. There is the same difiiculty both in the Abbot and
the dictionary systems, as applied to large libraries, but it is not so fre-
quent in the latter, occurring chiefly under the names of a few great
countries, and in the former it is not so troublesome, because the sub-
divisions are arranged alpiiabetically, and every one knows the alpha-
bet; whereas in the combined system they are arranged according to
the ideas of the cataloguer, which no one knows beforehand. The difii-
culty will be almost entirely removed, however, by the index of subjects,
which, in any future issue, will be added in the dictionary part. With
that the system becomes as complete as the alphabetico-classed, as well
fitted for common use as the dictionary, and as easy to explain (no
slight merit) as any.^
As the Boston Public Library heliotypes its cards, so that the expense
of an extra copy of each is trifling, there is nothing but want of room to
prevent it from adding to its present dictionary system a classed cata-
logue, as Mr. Schwartz does, or it could insert in its present alphabetical
arrangement the classes of the Abbot system. It would probably be
found that the addition in either case would not perceptibly increase
the practical value of the catalogue.
Four other plans may be mentioned, three of them varieties of the
alphabetico-classed, one a, variety of the dictionary. The first is em-
ployed by Mr. Stephen Noyes, in a catalogue now printing of the Brook-
lyn Mercantile Library.
" I propose to throw everythiDg," he eays, " into one alphabet of authors, titles, and sub-
jects, giving, as a rule, the contents of the works of an author under the name of the
' Yet there is one thing that the general reader may not easily understand — namely,
on what principle the distinction is made between general subjects, (classes,) which
are put in Part 1, and special subjects, which are to be looked for in Part 2. It may
be noted, in regard to Mr. Schwartz's plan, that, even if the distinction between Parts
1 and 2 should be abandoned, and the two thrown into one alphabet, it would differ
from the alphabetico-classed catalogues in enjoining specific entry, as the dictionary-
catalogue does.
544 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
author. Titles are inserted where they are proper names, so to speak, like names of
novels, peculiar to the individual work.
" In the matter of classitication I carefully avoid all theorizing, assuming that it is not
the office of a catalogue to instruct the public as to the proper philosophical relations
of all the products of intellectual activity, but simply to present the resources of any
one library, so as best to enable any reader, whether scholar or school-boy, to get at
what he wants with the utmost directness. The encycIopaMlias of the time are
arranged on this practical principle. The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, arranged on
theoretical principles, is, I think, very rarely consulted. In looking for information
upon special subjects inquirers cannot afford the time necessary for mastering elaborate
logical arrangements. On the other hand my experience has been that readers like to
find the subdivision of a comprehensive department of knowledge entered under the
more general heading. They ask for the catalogue of biography, of history, of voy-
ages and travels, of fine arts, &c. It becomes, therefore, a purely practical question,
how to secure the benefits coming from a comprehensive survey of an entire branch of
knowledge with the undoubted utility of a special index. I shall try to refer in all
cases from the special to the general, which is made np of the specials, arranged in
alphabetical order. Of course I shall not enter in the general alphabet the name of
every subject of a biography. We cant^ot afford the space, and I do not think it is
necessary. The simple question is, how most effectively, consistently with du.e economy,
to meet the wants of the average reader.
"I have great faith in classed lists as stimulants to tolerably healthy reading or
as aids to courses of reading, and I think that the special lists of Biography, Voyages
and Travels, Fine Arts, Poetry, Useful Arts, etc., will penetrate into families and circles
where the catalogue as a whole will seldom be found.
" I shall take great care in the typographical display of the subdivisions of a class to
avoid a complex arrangement or wheels within wheels; that can always be avoided
by making the wheel within a wheel an independent heading. I think I shall throw
Ecclesiastical history, Bible, and Theology into oue general alphabet, as in a theological
dictionary. Fiction will be a class. Biography another, the names of the subjects of
the lives forming an alphabetical arrangement."
Mr. Noyes's plan, it will be seen, is eclectic. He has the single alpha-
bet of the dictionary. Within that he makes the class-entry of the alpha-
betico-classed. But in many classes we return to the dictionary plan
by specific entry. For example, under Theology, Mr. Abbot makes the
divisions Catechetical, Creeds, Dogmatic, Pastoral, Practical, Ritual, etc.,
and under the division Dogmatic^ the sections Christ, Conversion, Elec-
tion, Grace, Justification, Sin, Trinity, etc. Mr. Noyes will have but oue
ali)habet under Theology, iu which Catechetical Theology, Christ, Con-
version, Dogmatic Theologj^, Election, Future Life, Grace, Justification,
Pastoral Theology, Practical Theology, Trinity, will stand side by side,
together with every topic in the extensive classes Bi'ole (considered a
a subject') and Ecclesiastical history, such as Amos, Bible, Councils,
Deuteronomy, Evangelical party. Fathers, Geneva, Hosea, Inquisition,
Jesuits, and a hundred others. So that we have a dictionary of the
theological sciences. Why should we not also have one of History,
Geography, and Travels, another of Fine Arts, another of Technology
and Science, and so on, as iu the class-list system begun ia the Boston
Public Library Lower Hall ?
'The title-entry of Bible is probably to be included iu this, which is sjmewhat anom-
alous.
Libranj Catalogues. 545
If tbat were done, it would be a catalogue easily explained to the
public. As it is, this mixture of partial dictionary and incomplete
classification is its weakest point. There is no brief formula to give
to the public for its guidance. The dictionary says " Look for what
you want under its own name;" the classed says "Everything will be
found in its own logical i)lace." Mr. Schwartz gives both directions.
But this alphabetico-classed catalogue can only s:iy vaguely, "You will
find comprehensive subjects uiider their own name, and those that are
less comprehensive under some class." Bat it cannot easily say what
is sufficiently comprehensive for indepsndence, and the criteria by which
the maker determines this point appear to vary extremely in different
cases. Nevertheless, it may prove a most successful catalogue. The
selection of classes, though irregularly made, may be so contrived, (it
is intended so to be,) as to correspond to the public's unsystematic
association of ideas; if so, readers will generally look in the right
place at first, and the number of cases in which they will have to use
the cross-references will be reduced to a minimum. The avoidance of
complexity is a great point in favor of this, as it is in favor of Mr. Ab-
bot's i)lan.
The second plan, that of the Library of Congress, is similar to this
but more complicated. The general subjects are arranged alphabetically,
but under them the arrangement of divisions is not alphabetical; and
occasionally a complex class is subordinated to another class instead of
being made an independent heading; thus the subject Bible, with all
its divisions and subdivisions, is included in theology, a very proper
classification but extremely perplexing. Those who are accustomed
to it perhaps find the catalogue easy to use ; to a strauger the plan
seems to have neither philosophical system nor practical convenience.
There is a class Biography with a long list of individual biographies;
but by a wise exception, names of places are not subordinated either
toaclass Geography or to the more comprehensive geographical names.
Europe, England, London, are each independent headings.
I shall mention one other alphabetico-classed plan, (as yet untried,) not
because it is to be recommended, but to exhibit more fully the possibilities
of cataloguing, and also to show how a plan may lose on one side what it
gains on another. The one proposed would be half way between Mr.
Abbot's and the dictionary. It would unite in one alphabet the author
and subject catalogue, would retain classification for general subjects,
putting the specific under the comprehensive as at present, but it would
disperse individuals through the alphabet. Thus there would be classes
Biography, Geography, History, but the name of a person or place
would be found in the main alphabet ; there would be a class Zoology,
under which Horses would appear in their proper place, but an account
of any particular horse, as " Lady Suffolk " or " Bucentaur," would not
be there but under its name ; there would be classes Ship-building, Ship-
35 E
546 PaUic L'lhraries in the United States.
wrecks, but the launch of the Great Eastern or the wreck of the Glide
woukl appear under Glide and Great Eastern. It will be seen that this
is merely an extension to all individual subjects of the practice of the Con-
gress Library in regard to places. In its favor it may be urged that there
is very little ac^vantage in putting together in one or several neighbor-
ing drawers all the lives, and in another drawer or series of drawers all
the bibliographical treatises on individuals. It is not once in a hundred
years that any one would wish to survey all biography.' In a small
library this question is often asked with a view of selecting something
to read ; but of what assistance to such selection is a list like that now
in Harvard College Library of over 15,000 names t A bewildering mul-
tiplicity of entries is as great a hinderance to choice as the widest dis-
l)ersion. But it is practical use to have all that relates to a man, whether
biographically or bibliographically or inany other way, brought together
and given, as it is in dictionary catalogues, in immediate connection
with the list of his writings. The same thing is true in regard to Geog-
raphy. Probably in the fifteen years since the Harvard College Library
catalogue was begun the list of individual geographical titles has not once
been consulted with a view to the general study of geography, nor has
it been of the slightest service to OHe looking up England, let us say, that
the names of the various places in England are in the same series of
drawers. If there is to be subordination it would be much more useful
to take the country as the unit and arrange all cities, etc., under it; inas-
much as the country would often be the unit of inquiry, and the class
Geography, never.^
True, the dispersive method is somewhat less convenient to show
the richness or poverty of the library in any department. If, for example',
an auction-catalogue, rich in biography, should be sent to the library,
it would be much easier for the librarian to examine it, and ascertain
what he had and what he wanted if the biographies were collected in
a dozen drawers or two hundred pages, than if they were dispersed
through two hundred drawers or three thousand pages. Yet, after all,
the saving of time and trouble in this way by collecting individual titles
is slight, and the occasions wiien it would be made rare.
Again, putting the Greek authors and the Latin authors under those
heads in the classed catalogue, with divisions into prose and poetry, in-
stead of under their respective names in the alphabet of authors, though
iQa the other hand, it must not be overlooked that by this dispersion of individuals
-w-e should forfeit the advantage which one who is looking up a man's life, for example,
gets by having the collective biographies or geographies or histories in immediate
connection with the individual. If, in the present catalogue, he does not find any life
of Thomas Home, he is reminded, by the very fact that he is looking under a class bi-
ography, that there are biographical dictionaries in which he may find some notice of
Home. This, of course, might not occur to him if ho wore looking for Home in the
general alphabet. Most people, however, one would think, might be relied upon to
B'ck in general biographical works for iu^or;uitiou ab)ut a mi'.i on fludiug no special
life of him in the library.
Library Catalogues. 547
it is iu accorilance with the general system, sacrifices, it seams to me,
a great and daily convenience for a slight and infrequent advantage.
Eeferences would of course be made from the classes to the names of
all those individuals which illustrate them ; as from Music to the names
of musicians, from Geology to the names of places geologically surveyed.
This plan retains most of the advantages of Mr. Abbot's; and yet,
by an easily explained exception to his general practice, it relieves the
inquirer of the necessity of looking under at least two headings to find
whatever concerns a person, and under many more for whatever con-
cerns a place, and also relieves him from all doubt where to looJc. Now
persons and places are the most common objicts of inquiry.
That any of these systems, well carried out, will attain the end of a
catalogue, can easily be shown. First, the dictionary catalogue, not as
it exists in any example," but as one might be it there were plenty of
time "to niake it and no need of economy in printing. 1° A man asks
for a book by the author's name. He finds it in the alphabetical place
of that name. That he may not fail to get it by a disagreement as to
who is its author, references have been made from pseudonyms, editors'
names, when prominent, translators' names, especially for poetical
translations, and from any other names under which it is likely that
any one will remember it. 2° lie wants to know what works we have
by a particular author. He finds them ail enumerated under the
author's name, with a uote of the more important parts of books writ-
ten by that author in other men's works or iu collections of memoirs, in
the publications of societies, and perhaps even in periodical literature.
3° He aslis for a bcok by its title; he finds a reference under the first
word not an article, or under the word which indicates the subject, or
from some prominent and memorable word; if it is a novel, he finds a
full entry. 4" He asks for a book on a certain subject; he finds it
under that name of the subject with which he is familiar, or he finds
there a reference to the synonymous^ word, which, for reasons, the cata-
loguer has preferred as a heading. And if it is a general subject, he
finds references to all the subordinate subjects treated of. If, for
instance, the subject is Middlesex County, he finds a reference to the
name of every town in that county which occurs in the catalogue. He
^The dictionary catalogue is sometimes reproached with the trouble arising from
synonyms, as if it alone was affected by those difficulties. But the alphabetico-classed
catalogue is in the same plight; it has a subject which must be called either Natural
Philosophy or Physics. Which will it choose ? Ethics and Moral Philosophy, Religion
and Theology, (Practical.) Military art and War, Art and Fine arts, Sanitary science
and Hygiene are synonyms as troublesome to it as to the dictionary. These are in its
main alphabet ; but its difficulties do not stop here. Every one of the synonyms whicli
plague the dictionary cataloguer must appear somewhere in the alphabetico-classed ;
if not in the main alphabet of classes, theu among the branches and sections, and the
same doubt will arise as to the selection. It must be confessed, however, that though
the occasions for doubt are as frequent the doubt will not be so troublesome, at le; s j
among the subdivisions, because the separation of subjects in a secondary alphabel;
cannot be great.
548 Public Libraries in the United States.
will also fintl references to subjects wliich illustrate the one be is look-
ing up; and in certain cases be will find references to tbe subjects
wbicb include bis. Tbese last references will, bowever, in general, be
left to bis knowledge and intelligence. They are necessary to the com-
pleteness of tbe system, but they are not, in a majority of cases, of sucb
practical use as to pay for tbeir uniform insertion. As be may, bow-
ever, want to study the relations of bis subject to others, and to follow
it up through all possible ramifications, be will find at the end of the
catalogue a scheme of classification, in wbicb every beading in the cata-
logue is included and set down in its proper place. 5° and lastly, be
asks for a book in some form of literature, (as an encyclopaedia, a book
of enigmas, or one in tbe Ilungarian language,) and be finds, under
those names, lists of all in tbe library.
It is objected to tbe dictionary catalogue, and with much truth, that
it gives no help to tbe man who wishes to glance quickly over all the
literature on a comprehensive subject, including the books on its vari-
ous brancbes, and that it treats the desultory reader as badly. It seems
to me, however, that the objection is sometimes a little overstated, or
too much is made of it. The inquirer above [mentioned will find tbe
general works under the general bead, and with them a number of cross-
references, perhaps five, perhaps fifty. If bis needs oblige him to look
them all up, bis case is indeed pitiable. But bow often would that hap-
pen? Generally, be will run bis eye over the references, find two or
three inwbicb he is interested, look them up, and get reading enougb
for one day at least; and tbis will be the easier if tbe references are
classified, as they ought to be when they are numerous. But it is use-
less to deny that here is the weak point of the dictionary catalogue.
Here is an evil which it tiies, not unsuccessfully, to reduce to a mini-
mum, but can never away with altogether. Mr. Schwartz gets over tbe
difficulty by adding a classed catalogue to a dictionary — a perfect but
a somewhat expensive remedy. That the cost is not justified by tbe
gain in a li,brary where tbe public have access to tbe shelves, and tbe
books are tbeir own classed catalogue, better than any that tbe libra-
rian can -make, is undoubted. How it is in town and city libraries,
where tbe public do not go beyond tbe delivery-room, tbeir librarians
must say.
In tbe alpbabetico-classed catalogues, the first two questions are
answered in tbe author-part, where will be found an entry of the book;
the third in tbe same part, by a reference to the author; the fourth in
the subject-part, by an entry either under the subject asked for or under
some including subject, to wbicb a reference will be found from tbe sub-
ject asked for; the fiftb in the same pait, generally under tbe very class
asked for, synonyms not being very troublesome here, and kinds of lit-
erature not being generally included in larger classes.
In tbe Schwartz system tbe first three questions are answered, in
Part 2, (tbe dictionary part;) the liftli in Part 1, (the classed part;) the
Library Catalogues. 549
fourth is partly answered in Part 2, if there are any books about that
particular subject; but for full information, to find not only the books
devoted to that subject but those which treat of it in part and those^
which treat of similar subjects, one must turn to Part 1, guided to the
right place^there either by a reference found alphabetically in the other
l)art or by the study of the scheme of classification prefixed. So that
either of the systems answers all the questions if it bo well carried out.
Which answers the most usual questions quickest, and reserves its
difticulties for the rare questions?
There remain one or two points to be considered, the fullness of the
catalogue, the insertion of biographical data, of contents, of analysis,
and of notes. As to fuluess, the general rule is, the larger the library
the more elaborate the catalogue. Travellers who need no guide in a
grove would be lost without one in a forest. As there are more chances
of similarity between the various objects, there is need of more detail to
distinguish them. Xames must be given in full, dates inserted in ref-
erences, divisions made under more subjects; more exactness and more
system are required in the selection of subject headings, and in their in-
terconnection by references. So that the difficulty of making the cata-
logue and its bulk increase in faster ratio than the size of the library.
For a very small town library, especially if it be poor, a very brief, cheap
list may suffice. If it would cost $20 to add imprints,^ for example,
it would be better to spend the money in books, for the questions which
imprints are designed to answer would occur so seldom that it would
not pay to answer them. A printed catalogue need not be so full while
the library is small as it must be afterwards, because as its library grows
it can be reprinted with the necessary additional details. But a card-
catalogue should be made as full at the start as it is ever to be, other-
wise there will be no uniformity between its different parts, and the task
of filling out the first defective entries will be troublesome, and nothing
gained after all.
The ideal catalogue would give under every subject its complete
bibliography, not only mentioning all the monographs on that subject,
but all works which in any way illustrate it, including all parts of books,
jnagazine articles, and the best encyclopaedias tbat treat of it; in short,
the catalogue would lay out just that course of reading which a man
who thoroughly studied the subject, with a view not only to learn it,
but to master the history of its treatment by others, would be obliged
to pass through.
This can rarely be done, because it is beyond the ability of librarians
and the means of libraries. The Boston Public Library, in its excellent
Class-list of History, Biography, and Travel, has shown what such a
'lu most cataloi^ues that I bave seen, uothiug has beeu saved by such omission ; the
empty spaces at the end of the lines (for which the printer is paid a9 mncli as for tho
rest of the lines) would have held imprints iu nine cases^out of ten.
550 Public Libraries in the United States.
catalogue might be aud Low much can be done in the way of encourag-
ing, directing, and improving the popular taste for reading. In con-
nection with the names of persons, a brief indication of what they were
and when they lived is given. Elaborate notes under many headings
give a concise history of the literature of the subject, and often charac-
terize the more important books, or state their general repute, with the
design of assisting the reader in his selection. Copious references to works
and parts of works treating of those subjects, make it easy for any one to
pursue courses of study. The public is not merely guided in its read-
ing but stimulated to it. Many a man must long to follow up the lines
of investigation presented here, who, if he had never seen the volume,
would not think of touching the subjects, would merely read at random,
or take refuge in fiction. A mere catalogue is rather disheartening to
an uidearned reader. The common dictionary catalogue, especially, is
a mere collection of fragments, unconnected, and all alike. There is no
light and sliade, nothing to fix tiie attention. Admirable as a help to
one who knows what he wants, it makes no special provision for the
more numerous class who merely want something to read, most of
whom, however, would prefer, if they knew how, to improve their minds
and increase their stock of knowledge. Where shall such men begin,
and when they have begun what shall they read next? In this history-
catalogue the notes catch the eye; they are entertaining reading in
themselves; they promise a rich accession of learning to those who wil
follow their directions. The service which such a catalogue renders to
a library is clearly shown in the following extract from the 43d monthly
report of the superintendent, January, 1874:
In November it was reported that the increase of use in books of history, biography
and travel — arising, it is thought, from the new catalogue of the Lower Hall in those
departments — over the corresponding period of last year was 73 percent., while the
entire use of the Lower Hall increased only 8 per cent. During December, the relative
increase was respectively ovtr 100 per cent. f.nd 7 per cent., and during January, 145
l)er cent, and 6 per cent.
The catalogue of the Public Library of Quincy, Mass., also deserves
mention as a successful effort in the same direction. The general plan
is similar, but this catalogue by omitting imprints has gained room for
such brief but meaning notes as Illustr.^ Portraits^ Fiction, Juv. Fict.;
or phrases explaining obscure or misleading titles, as " [Journey to the
South during the Rebellion]," for Lawrence's "Border and Bastille;"
" [London Firemen] " for Ballantine's "Life in the Red Brigade." Tables
of contents are given and considerable analysis, at least so far as to
refer under subjects to topics discussed in certain books incidentally but
not at sufficient length to justify the insertion of»the book in the sub-
ject-list. But a new feature, at any rate tor a town library, is the clew
given to the valuable matter buried in periodical literature. There are
nearly 4,000 references to magazine articles, which is much the same to
those who are looking up subjects as if 4,000 volumes had been added to
the library. The articles in our best periodicals are fully equal in ability
Library Catalogues. 551
and learning, anl, what is more, in readablenes^, to our books; in fact,
our books are in great measure republications of them ; but they are
ordinarily accessible only for desultory — that is, for the least valuable —
reading.
The money that this catalogue cost might have bought 2,000 vol-
umes, but it is plain that 7,00D volumes read as these will now be are
worth twice 9,O0U used in the unintelligent, aimless way in which many
town libraries are necessarily used. It might be well for those whii^h
have little money to sp3nLl in printing to procure a few copies of this
catalogue for use in their reading room, to mark those books which thoy
have, and to ])ublish a list, annotated if possible, of all their books
not in the Quincy Library us a supplement.^ A similar use might be
made of the Boston Catalogue of History, etc., of its List of historical
fiction, and of its lately publislied Catalogue Notes on English History.
It is to be hoped that these are not the only annotated catalogues which
wo are to have from this source; that a Science list, a Fine Arts list, a
Political and Social Science list may in time appear; if not, some other
large library should take up the work.
But, without going so deeply into the matter as the Quincy and Boston
<;atalogues have done, every librarian must do something of what is called
analysis, that is, catalogue under author or subject, or both, treatises which,
as he has them, are not separate booksi, such as the pami)hlets in Force's
or Somers's tracts, the lives in Sparks's American biography, the works in
various '' libraries," so called, articles in periodicals, etc. The character
of the works selected for analysis will differ much, according to the needs
of those who use the library. Articles in Harper's Monthly, Appleton's
Journal, etc., should be brought out where school-boys are the chief
readers, for whom the analysis of Rundschau, Archivio Storico,
Archiv fiir Chimie, would be utterly useless, supposing the library
by any chance to have those periodicals. Something similar is true of
city libraries, but for colleges and learned societies just the reverse.
Analysis is less needful for those works which there are other means of
getting at, whether by general indexes, (as Poole's Index to Periodicals
and its expected continuation, the Koyal Society's Index to Scientific
Papers,) or special indexes of any periodical for a series of years, (as
those of the .Revue des Deux Mondes, Historisches Jahrbuch, His-
torische Zeitschrift, Harper's Monthly, Bibliotheca Sacra, etc.,) or other
catalogues, (as the Congress, the San Francisco, the Boston Athe-
naeum.) Yet any one may for special reasons bring out some particular
article or a whole class of articles already referred to in these indexes,
' It would be economical for several neigbboriug libraries to publish a joiut catalogue
iu a single alphabet, the books belonging to each being denoted by its initial, as is done
in the bulletins of the Boston Public Library lor its branches. The expense should be
■divided in proportion to the nunober of volumes in each library. Each would have to
pay for somewhat more paper than if its catalogue were issued separately, but so
many books are common to our town libraries that there would be a great saving in
type-setting ; especially if impriuts were omitted, so that different editions would need
■only a si.jgle entry.
552 PuUic Libraries in the United States.
or ill a note make a reference to the indexes ; for, after all, there are
many subjects for which one might not think of consulting them, and
it is not every reader who knows of their existence.^
The author- and subject-catalogue may be kept separate or mixed in
one alphabet. When the subject-part is systematically classed, conjunc-
tion is impossible; when it is made on Mr. Abbot's plan, conjunction
is possible, but inexpedient. For the dictionary system one alphabet is
decidedly to be preferred, if for no other reason, because it admits of
bringing a man's own works into juxtaposition with works about l\im —
lives, eulogies, criticisms, replies, etc.,— instead of separating them, as
ii, done in Watt's Dictionary, etc., and in all classed catalogues. Yet
t'lere is the slight disadv^antage that the mind is diverted from its
object by the presence of headings of other kinds than the one wanted j
title- and subject-headings especially interfering with one another.
IL— FEINTED OR MAXUSCRIFT ?
Wliether or not the catalogue should be printed depends in large
n;easure upon circumstances.
The advantages of a printed catalogue are briefly :
1. That it is in less danger of partial or total destruction than a manu-
script volume or drawers of cards. To be sure the destruction of any
part of a catalogue is very unlikely except by fire, and if the library
should be burned, the catalogue generally might as well be. It would
i;ideed be of use in replacing the library, and if it had been carefully
made, it would help the making of a new catalogue, even if the library
should be only partially replaced. The research and thought that go to
the making of a catalogue are considerable, and it would be a pity if all
were lost. This reason, however, is not of much weight, as the circum-
stances under which it would apply are not likely to arise.
2. That it can be consulted out of the library. This reason has
always some force. How much it has in any given case depends on
the character of the library and of those who use it. In the case of
college libraries, for instance, it is very weak. Both professors and
students usually live near the library or go near it several times a day
in their attendance on lectures and recitations. Besides, they must
go or send to the library to get the book after they have discovered by
the catalogue that it is there. For town and city libraries, especially
in large cities, where the hurry of modern life makes it important to
save every moment, the printed catalogue has a greater chance of use-
fulness at home; and yet it is doubtful if its use there very often saves
trouble. What the general feeling is on this point may be gathered in
some degree iroin the very limired sale of catalogues. In nine libraries,
which have published them witliin the past few years the sale has
averaged 205 co])ies each.^
^Aualysia is Ji useful exercise lor the cataloguer. It lifts his niiucl out of a shite
of abject depeiideuce ou the title. To analyze, one must look inside the book.
-See tLe table on pn<;e 5()f^-71.
Libranj Catalogues. 553
3. That it cau be consulted in other libraries. Here again much
depends upon the size of the librar}' and the character of the catalogue.
Those of the Library of Congress, of the Boston Public Library, (espe-
cially its late Class-list of History,) of the Mercantile Library of San
Francisco, are continually consulted in other libraries, but an ordinary
catalogue of a small town library is not likely to be of use in any other
town. And it may always fairly be questioned by trustees how far the
benefit to any other library is a justification for incurring the exi)ense
of printing.
4. That it is easier to read than the best manuscript volume,^ and
very much easier to consult. A card presents to the eye only one title
at a time, whereas a printed catalogue generally has all an author's
works on a single page. Time and patience are lost in turning over
cards, and it is not easy either to find the particular title that is wanted
or to compare different titles and make a selection. It is difficult also
to pick one's way among the confusing series of names like Godefried,
Godefroi, Godofredus, and Gottfried, or among the Aliens, the Will-
iamses, or the JoUu Smiths. Here again everything depends on the
hurry or impatience of those who consult the catalogue. If that is so
great that a very slight impediment will cause them to give up the
search altogether or never undertake a search after having failed once,
printing is necessary; but in college and country libraries this can
hardly be the case.
5. That several persons can consult it at once. In the case of much
used libraries this is decisive. At Lawrence, fifty copies are in constant
use in the delivery-room. To make fifty copies of a manuscript cata-
logue and to renew them as often as they wore out, would be more
expensive than to priut. A card-catalogue, to be sure, can be so
arranged in drawers as to admit of simultaneous consultation. At
Harvard College Library forty-eight persons could use the cards at
once, provided none of them wanted to see the same part of the cata-
logue. Indeed, by taking out the drawers, which is allowed, 335
persons could be accommodated at once if their wants happened to be
spread evenly through the alphabet. Of course that would never be
the case. Certain drawers are often in request, others not at all ; but I
believe little practical inconvenience arises, because people do not often
wish to consult a catalogue long at a time. One moves away as another
comes up.
The disadvantages of a printed catalogue are:
1. That it is costly, and, if full and accurate, very costly.
2. That a mistake once made is made forever; whereas in a card-cat-
alogue a mistake in name or in classification or in copying the title can
be corrected at any time. (On the other hand the order of a printed
'This is especially true in regard to loDfr notes, such as those concerniug courses of
reading which make the Quincy catalogue so valuable.
554 Public Libraries in the United States.
catalogue is fixed, butf in a card-catalogue order is easily disturbed, and
a card misplaced is a book lost.)
3. It is out of date before it is i)ublished. As it cannot contain the
newest books, the very ones most sought for, fresh supplements are
continually needed, each of which causes an additional loss of time and
l>atience to consulters. The average man will not look in over four
phices for a book. A few, very persevering or driven by a great need,
will go as far as five or six. It becomes necessary, therefore, if the cat-
alogue is to be of any use, to print consolidated supplements every five
years, and that is expensive. The Boston Public Library reprints the
whole catalogue of some particular class, as fiction or history, every two
or three years. The Library of Congress has printed annual supple-
ments, and reprints its whole catalogue from time to time. But it is not
every one that can afford to do this. The card-catalogue has no such
difficulty. Additions can always be made without disturbing the alpha-
betic order, and the titles of new books can be inserted on the very day
on which they are received.
If the library is too poor to keep up with current literature (to say
nothing of supplying gaps in the past) it seems very extravagant for it
to spend any money on type, paper, and press work. But if the library
is not as much used as it ought to be, it may be worth while (since a
library so far as it is unused is useless) to increase the call for books
by printing and circulathig a catalogue — in short, to advertise. It
is true that the parallel here suggested is not exact. The increase of
business which is profitable to the merchant brings in no money to the
free public library, but it may prevent the money already spent in books
being a loss, as it certainly is while the books lie idle on the shelves.
It may be well, however, for a library committee to consider whether
there are not other means to increase their circulation — an occasional
lecture from some competent person on the benefits and the best meth-
ods of reading ; words in season from the miuisters and the school-
teachers, and the addition to the library of attractive books, especially
if lists of additions, no matter how brief, be published from time to
time.
It may be asked why printing the catalogue should always be spoken
of as a source of expense, and why the printers' bills cannot be paid by
selling copies. Because, however much the inconvenience of having no
catalogue may have been felt, however loud the demand for one may
have been, when the work is ready for delivery very few persons can be
found who are ready to pay for it. Similarly, if a town library, should
charge for the loan of its books anything like what it costs to buy
them, store them, and keep them in order, it would almost annihilate its
circulation; it would certainly cut it off from those who need it most.
People may be willing collectively to vote the money in town meeting,
but they will not pay individually for either books or catalogue.
In conclusion, a printed catalogue is a great convenience. If there is
Library Catalogues. 555
money specially intended for printing, or if money can be obtained for
this purpose, without diminishing the funds for the purchase of books,
by all means print. But if the printing is going to stop or seriously
diminish the purchase of books, try the card-catalogue. See if you can-
not educate your people to use that, and to get full as much good from
it as they would from printed pages. Or combine with the cards one of
the cheaper forms of printed catalogues. This will accomplish many
of the purposes of the more expensive catalogues, so many that its
deficiencies will hardly be noticed. But if the library has any prospect
of growth it ought to be accompanied by a i^roperly made card-cata-
logue.
To turn from the smaller to the larger libraries. In 1873 the examin-
ing committee of the Boston Public Library writes :
We have long passed tlie period \\bon it was possible to print iu one alphabet, upon
any intelligible .'•jjleni, the titles of all ihe books contained iu our libraries.
Tbis amounts to saying that it is impossible to mal;e a catalogue of a
large library in one alidiabet, for of course a system which is intelligible
on cards will be still more intelligible iu print. There is in fact no im-
possibility in printing upon the dictionary system the catalogue of a
million volumes. It is simply a question of money. Of course it cannot
be done in any reasonable time by one man. A library which has ten
times as many books must have ten times as many cataloguers and ten
times as many revisers to do the work in an equal time — an evident fact
generally overlooked. " Such an undertaking would be enormously
expensive.'^ Tes; but if it is worth $4,000 to print the catalogue of
20,000 volumes, why is it not worth $40,000 to print the catalogue of
200,000 volumes? The larger catalogue will bring ten times as many
books before the notice of each person, and will contain books likely to
be of use to many more i)eo])le. '"• When concluded at the end of five
or ten j'ears, the continual additions during that period would require
the whole to be done over again." By no means; they would simply
require the printing of a supplement. Let supplements be reprinted
occasionally, as their multiplication requires; when they contain as
many volumes as the original catalogue, it will be time to talk of reprint-
ing the whole in one alphabet. Additions previous to the jirinting of a
supplement can be kept upon cards even for some jears ; but the incon-
veniences of a card-catalogue increase iu much greater ratio than its
bulk. The card-catalogue of 100,000 volumes needs very careful manage-
ment to be endurable.
It may be well to warn the cataloguer who is thinking of giving his
labor typographical permanence, that a printer's idea of a handsome
page is one in which there is no break whatever; absolute uniformity
of type and lines. Whatever disturbs this — paragraphs, spaces within
paragraphs, spaced words, italics, small capitals, heavy-faced type,
figures — is in his eyes a blemish. Ko matter how necessary these varie-
ties may be <to express the thought clearly, they are to him only a
556
Public Libraries in the United States.
necessary evil. A catalogue, therefore, is at best a typograpliical
abomination; and if yoa insist upon such a variety of type as is
employed in the catalogue of the Boston Athenteum you will meet with
a determined opposition. The declaration that such a page is very
ugly you may believe or not, following your own judgment, but credit
him when he says that it is costly. The copy must be marked with great
care for the different varieties of type ; the cases in the composing-room
must have a special arrangement; there must be special composers for
the work, who will need considerable practice before they will set rap-
idly; and the proof must be read very carefully. Nevertheless, a large
library should use at leas" the heavy type and the small capitals. It is
essential that the distinctions which are emphasized by their use should
be emphasized. A difference of type expresses a great deal very briefly,
and, as soon as it is understood, conveys an idea much better than many
words. Care should be taken to secure the most economical indention
consistent with clearness of effect; notes and contents are often printed
wastefully.^ Whether a single or double columned page is be preferred
depends, as to economy, upon the proportion borne by the length of
the columns to the average length of titles; and, as to looks, upon the
proportion of the size of the type to the size of the page. If a column
is more than 30 ems wide, the eye will be fatigued in following so long.
a line; if it is narrower than 20 ems, it will be fatigued by a too fre-
quent transition from one line to another. Too wide pages give the
printer much '• fat;" too narrow pages in a title-aline catalogue lead to
improper shortening of titles, important facts being left out, or words
awkwardly abbreviated.
The mechanical arrangements for a card-catalogue are described at
sufficient length in Professor Abbot's report on the new catalogue of
Harvard College Library, included in the Examining Committee's Keport
for 1863.2
^I have examined two catalogues printed in the same type, one of whicii has 2,867
■words for every 10,000 ems, the other onl^' 1,227 words ; the ditference arising entirely
from different indention, and the first, notwithstanding its economy, being very clear.
2 Form of the card, on a reduced xcale.
Edwa
,.d.s.
Edward.
3.36
1
Memo irs of Librarie.^, including a Handbook of
' 1 Lihrarv Econnmv. 2 vol. L. 1859. 8°.
1 1 1-
Lil.r. 1
1 '
! 1 1
! ! 1
(Jin.) 5 in., or 12.8 centimetres.
The cards composing this catalo.fie are kept in drawer.-i, twenty-eight of which oc-
cupy the upper part of a case, and are arranged in seven tiers, being placed at such an
Library Catalogues.
557
To tbis it may be added that the contents of the drawers may be indi-
cated by a card inserted in a slit in the front of the drawer and showing
in part through an oval opening turned in the front.
6 opening.
c c bandies.
altitude that the hiohest drawer is not too high nor the lowest too low to admit of a
convenient examination of its contents. Each drawer is about 15|- inches long, iCf
inches wide, and 2^ inches deep, inside measure, and being divided by a thin partition
running lengthwise through the midille, contains two rows of cards. It is prevented
from being pulled out accidentally by a wooden button screwed on the inside of the
back of each half drawer, and, wlien turned np, projecting a little above it. The
drawer, on being pulled out, is therefore stopped by the buttons when thej' reach the
horizontal partition in front on which the drawer above it rests. If the buttons are
turned down, the drawer may be taken out.
The cases of which these drawers form the upper part are eacli about 4 feet 3 inclies
long and 19^ inches wide, and stand on casters. Their height is such that the bottom
of the lowest drawer is about 32 inches from the floor, and the top of the highest 54
inches. They are closed at the back, and the space in front below the drawers is left open
to be occupied with books, so that no room is lost. . . . Suppose a drawer half full
of cards; how shall these be retained in their proper position, so that they shall not
fall down, and so that they may be easily manipulated, always presenting their titles
fairly to the eye ? This object is effected by two wooden blocks. The first of thes j is If
No. 1. No. 2.
Jin.
No. 1.— Fixed block in the front of the drawer. No. 2.— Movable block behind the cards,
inches high, | inches wide at the base, \ inch wide at the top, and in length just equal
to the width of the half-drawer, in the front of which it is fixed, with its sloping side
facing the cards. The second block IJ inches wide at the bottom, | inch wide at
the top, 1 inch high, and in length about 5^ inch less than the width of the half-drawer,
is placed directly behind the cards, in contact with them, and is prevented from slid-
ing back by a thumb-wedge, easily movable, interposed between the right end of the
block and the side of the drawer,* so that, although the drawer may contain only a
very few cards, they are kept in their proper place between the two blocks. This
block, presenting its oblique side to the cards, gives them a tendency to incline back-
* Or by pins projecting from the bottom of the block and fitting into holes in the bottom of the drawer ,
or by ueedles driven aslant through the blocks, ah is the needle, c the back of the drawer. — C. A. C.
558 Fiihlic Libraries in the United States.
I will only add that, although the 2 by 5 inch card is long enough for
all titles, a useful addition can be made to the plan by having cards C
inches long by lOi inches wide for long notes or "contents," these cards
to be kept in a separate drawer, filling the space of two of the ordinary
drawers, and properly labeled; also, that the lettering of the drawers
should be large and distinct, and that the guide-blocks ought to be put
at very short intervals, never over 1 inch. It is well, also, to insert
special guide-blocks for all noted authors who are likely to be much
looked for, adding to the family name some epithet besides the Christian
naQi3, which to most people gives very little help ; thus, " Macaulay,
T. B., the historian;''^ "Smith, Wm., (Dictionaries);" not merely " Ma-
CAULAY, T. B.," " Smith, Wm." Attention to such details will make a
catalogue easy or even pleasant to consult, when otherwise it will weary
and repel. The Taylor patent drawers are by far the best, but they cost
$2 each more than ordinary drawers ; nearly the same result can be had
by prolonging the sides of the drawers beyond the part filled by cards,
so as to furnish a good supporting leverage.
In 1874: M. Bonnange published a Projet d'un catalogue universe!
des productions intellectuelles, which is simply a plan for a card-cata-
logue whose parts cannot be disarranged.^ His cards are in two parts ;
ward ia that position whicli is found to be most conveuieut when one wishes to exam-
ine them in search of a name. Those which have been passed by in the manipulation
lean forward, resting on the block in the front of the drawer so that a wide opening is
left at the place of examination, and one can read the title with facility without
raising the card from the drawer.
The cards are supposed to stand on their edges between the two blocks, in their
normal position leaning against No. 2.
But there is another difficulty to be overcome. We have a drawer containing per-
haps five hnndred cards, forming a mass about seven inches in length, and embracing
the titles and references under the names of authors from Abarbanel to Aixileim. Sup-
pose that I wish to find Aiktii, or Ames, into what part of that mass shall I plunge ?
This difficulty is relieved by the use of wooden blocks about one-eighth of an inch thick
of the same length as the cards, but a little higher, with the top beveled at such an
angle that when placed among the cards as they stand in their normal position, leaning
against the block behind them, it shall present to the eye a level surface. The upper
part of each of these blocks is covered with buff-colored envelope paper, smoothly
pasted on. Ou their beveled edges, thus covered, we write or print Ac, Ad, Ae, Af,
Ag, Ai, Ak, Al, Ale, Aim, etc. The blocks so labeled being inserted in their proper
places among the cards, perform the same office as the head-lines in a dictionary, en-
abling a person to find a title in one quarter of the time which would be required with-
out them, and facilitating in an equal degree the distribution of new cards in their
proper places among the old. The advantage of the beveled edge is this, that in what-
ever position the cards in the drawer may stand, inclining forward or backward, the
labels are easily read. A tolerable substitute for these blocks, if the room which they
occupy is grudged, may be found in cards about one-fifth of an inch higher than the title-
cards in the drawers. Ou the projecting margin of these the labels are written, which
are very conspicuous when the cards lean backward; when they do not, it is easy to
give them that inclination. These projecting cards and blocks also facilitate the ma-
nipulation of the title-cards, and partially save them from wear.
' M. Bonnange falls into the mistake of asserting that card-catalogues were abandoned
in the United States because the only method of preventing the displacement of cards —
Lihrary Cafalorjues. 559
the upper (containing the title) is connected with the base (on which is
the accessions-number) by a cloth joint. The base is in the form of an
arch, of which the sides are broad in proportion to the archway.
Through the tunnel formed by many cards standing side by side,
passes a long screw, resting in a fixed block at one end of the line of
cards; at the other end is a nut as large as the base of the cards. As
the screw is made to revolve, this nut moves forward or backward
and presses the cards together or lets the/n fall apart, \yiieu they
are pressed together they resemble a book, the screw being the bind-
ing, the upper part of the cards corresponding to the leaves. Xew
cards can be inserted bj" merely loosening the screw. If the upper part
of t'le card is accidentally or maliciously torn away, the base will re-
main, bearing the accessions-number, by the aid of which the upper
I)art can easily be rewritten. The cards may be shut up in drawers or
be arranged on an inclined plane of the height of a standing desk, and
in this position, besides being more likely to have a sufficiency of light,
which is sometimes not the case with cards in drawers, they may, by
reason of their joint, be turned from right to left or the reverse, like the
pages of a book, and so, very economically, be written on both sides.
By a different disposition, they might be made to move up and down.
Tbe joint arrangement is the distinctive point of M. Bonnange's system.
Whether the cards are kept in drawers or on a stand, they will occupy
more room than those now in use in American libraries, by all the space
which the base occui)ies; if kept on a stand they will need very much
more space.^ M. Bonnange gives a lithograph of a stand containing
1G,000 cards. One of similar size in Harvard College Library will contain
225,000 of the cards used in Professor Abbot's system. The library now
has three such cases, and will need three more to hold its complete cat-
alogue, covering 1G8 square feet. With M. Bonnange's cards it would
require eighty-four such cases, covering 2,352 square feet, which is more
space than most libraries can command. The cost, too, as given by the
author, is nearly five times that of the Abbot cards : $ 11 instead of $2.25
a thousand. The systeme Bonnange has one advantage — it is easier to
read the pages of a book than cards placed in a drawer ; but, if the al-
phabetical arrangement is to be observed, only one title can be put on
each of his cards, so that he does not get the chief advantage of a printed
catalogue. There remains, then, only his method of fastening the cards
so that the careless public cannot take them from the drawers and ruin
the order. It is perfectly effectual, but so is the simpler method used
when cards were first introduced, thirty years ago, then abandoned, and
lately revived at the University of Eochester- — passing a wire through
ruanLng a rod through tbenj — Avas found to be too cluujsy. Ou the contrary, their use
is becoming more general; even those libraries which print their catalogues make them
on and print them from cards.
' Mr. Wiusor has constructed a case somewhat ou the Bonnange plan, but less sloping,
for cards without the Bonnange bases. This is- designed to be used in a narrow place,
where it would be impossible to pull out drawers.
560 Public Libraries in the United States.
a comparatively large hole in the lower part of the cards. It appears that
a Paris librarian, M. Pingon, has tried this, but that his plan interferes
with patting in additions and prevents the cards turning readily, so that
they cannot comfortably be consulted. Evidently M. Pingon's rod was
too largeor his hole too small. The rod employed by Professor Eobinson,
of Pochester, is removed and replaced without any difficulty,^ and does
not affect the mobility of the cards at all.
A drawer 21 inches long and 10| inches wide will hold comfortably
3,G00 of the 2x5 inch cards, with all the necessary guiile-blocks. (If
cards are used for guides instead of wooden blocks, the drawer will hold
400 more cards.) According to an account kept at Harvard College
Library, (alphabetico classed catalogue,) 32,727 volumes (or 15,108 works)
required 2.136 cards per volume. In an account kept at the Boston
AtheuiTeum, (dictionary catalogue,) 7,500 volumes required 2.75 cards
per volume. In the latter case there were hardly any long sets. At
this rate the drawer mentioned above would hold the catalogue of 1,300
volumes.
III.— TABLES.
Etymologically, the name "dictionary," applied to catalogue would be
synonymous with alphabetical, and would include the Harvard College
type; but inasmuch as it came into use when the alphabetic cata-
logues, with specific entry, were the only ones in use, and was first
employed by men who had catalogues of that kind in mind, and as a
name is still needed for these, it seems best to restrict the term to that
branch of the family alphabetical which includes its entries and cross-
references in one undivided alphabet, and prefers specific to class
entry; that is, to such catalogues as those of the Boston Mercantile Li-
brary (1854) and the Boston Public Library (1861).
The early dictionary catalogues had little form entry, chielly because
they considered it unnecessary, but partly, perhaps, because form entry
is (in one sense) class entry, and anything of that sort, even in alpha-
betic order, shared the disfavor of sj'stematic classed catalogues. But
form entry having been fouud very convenient in certain cases, more or
less has been introduced in various catalogues, which are therefore de-
clared by some to be no longer of the pure dictionary stock, but hybrid,
part of a classed catalogue being grafted, and badly grafted, on a dic-
tionary.
To me it seems that this new variety, as it retains, throughout, both
of the characteristics of the dictionary species, alphabetical arrange-
ment and specific entry, should retain the old name. I would call the
ordinary variety the triple dictionary, (author, title, and subject,) the
new one the quadruple dictionar^^, (author, title, subject, and form.)
' Hole -,■'; of ;\u i»c!i iu diameter, rod ^ iuch, slij^htly pointed. Whea insertiug the
rod the cards are to be brought together agaiu.st one side of the drawer by a tin ruler
applied on the other; whole process momentary.
Library Catalogues.
561
i I
i \
S I
TABLE I. — CLASSIFICATION OF CATALOGUES.
a. Possihls.
EXAMPLES.
SPECIES.
r
VARIETV.
f Author. Common.
Single: <!
Title.
Used in some fiction-lists.
I Subject. Chiefly used in indexes to author-catalogues.
[ Form. Chiefly used for single forms or
f A. it T. Common.
I A. & S.
I A. & F.
I T. & S. Chiefly used in Indexes of author-catalogues.
I T. &F.
t S. & F.
r Divided as they have
^"Dictionary" J S. or S. W.
( par excellence. ] cr.refs. or not.
_ . . A., T., F. . Contents or not.
Triple: -^ '-
I A., S.,F.
r A., T.,
I T., S., F.
I Quadruple: A., T., S.,
2 ; Quadruple: (A., T.,S.,F.)
>^ 1
li
Q- I Triple : A., T., S.
( With uniform class subentry.
i With class or dictionary subentry.
O (^ Quadruple : A., T., S., F.
With uniform class subentry. (Abbot.)
! With class or dictionary subentry. (Xoyes.)
2 t
36 E
562
Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
TABLE II.— CLASSIFICATION OF CATALOGUES.
I. Kinds in actual tise, toith typical examples.
Single : i T.
[s.
^ fA.&T.
0 Double : i A. & S.
1 I T. & S.
n
- Triple: A.,T.,S.
A., T., S. "W. Asyndetic. Boat. Merc, Bost. Pub. in part.
A., T., S. Syndetic. Bost. Pub. in part.
Quadruple: A., T., S., F. Syndetic. Bost. Ath.
I\
Quadruple: A.,T.,S., F.
One alphabet. Brooklyn Merc.
Two alphabets. Harv Coll.
3 ■«
* Boston Athenaeum is an imperfect quadruple ; its title-catalogue might be fuller ; its form-catalogue
consists of entries for collections only, and references for individual authors. Bo.ston Public and Bos-
ton Mercantile have entries for collections, and so far might be classed as quadruple, but these are
rather title-entries than form-entries.
Library Catalogues.
563
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564 Public Libraries in the United States.
TABLE IV .
The different catalogues economize —
No. 1. Boston by limiting titles to one line ;
Mercantile, omitting cross-references ;
(1854.) omitting form lists, (as a rule ;)
combining title and subject references.
No. 2. Boston by omitting imprints under subjects ;
Public, omitting imprints under titles ;
(1860.) omitting form lists, (as a rule ; inserts more than the first.)
No. 3. Boston by omitting imprints under titles, except for anonyma and fiction ;
Athe:^^um. omitting form lists, (as a rule ; inserts more than the otl^ers.)
All three. by entering titles only under the subject-heading, and not under any
including class, and by making few references to annotators, edi-
tors, translators.
Harvard by entering subjects in one class only, with references from others to
College. which they belong.
N. Y. by omitting imprints in the classed part ;
Apprentices'. omitting imprints under subjects in the dictionary part ;
omitting imprints under titles in the dictionary part.
The three tables following present the same facts in three different
forms ; and the sum and substance of the whole is that the alphabetical
catalogue is best for ready reference, and the classed catalogue for thor-
ough study.
TABLE V.
The Dictionary Catalogue gives information about —
individuals (persons, places, bodies of men, nations, ships, etc. ;) with only one form of
name at once ;
individuals with more than one name or a pseudonym, by the law of average, part of the
time at once, part of the time after looking at a reference. (This is
comparatively rare.)
general subjects with only one name, at once ;
general subjects with two synonymous names, part of the time at once, part the time after
looking at a reference ; but if the headings are well chosen the in-
quirer is right at first more than half the time.
general subjects with several names, as above mutatis viutandis. (Very few such cases.)
all about a subject, if it is A^ery specific, so that there are no subordinate subjects, at
once, except that for what is in more general works one must look in many differ-
ent places, and the more specific the subject is the more including classes there
are likely to be; and the dictionary catalogue expects the reader to discover them
by his knowledge of the subject, seldom giving him the assistance of any cross-
references.
all the works in a language ; No. 1 gives no information ; No. 2 gives the lists of very
unusual languages, so that it is then found at once ; No. 3 gives naore such lists.
all the works in a literature, (French, German, etc. ;) No. 1 gives no information ; No.
2 gives lists of collections; No. 3 gives lists of collections and refers to individual
authors.
Library Catalogues.
565
■all the works ia a form of literature, (Drama, Poetry ;) No. 1 gives no information ;
No. 2 gives lists of collections ; No. 3 distributes them by nations, and then gives
lists of collections and refers to individual authors.
* ^* In these four cases, \i complete information is wanted, the dictionary catalogue
furnishes it very slowly and with much trouble; but the cases where absolutely
complete information is wanted being comparatively rare, and the dictionary cata-
logue being capable of giving such information as most people want without much
trouble to them, the plan works better in practice than it looks in theory. In cer-
tain cases where people do want complete information quickly, (as in regard to
novels, plays, French literature,) it is not unusual for dictionary catalogues to give
full lists, which they can do quite as conveniently to the reader as the other kinds
of catalogues.
The Alphabetico-Classed Catalogue gives information about —
individuals, after one has found out where they are entered, either by a reference or by
knowledge of the system.
general subordinate subjects the same.
classes the same as subjects in the dictionary catalogue.
all about an individual to one who looks in several classes.
all about a general subordinate subject, after one has found under what it is entered.
all about a class the same as subjects in the dictionary catalogue.
■ all the works in a rare language, in a literature, or in a form of literature, the same as
a class.
The Classed Catalogue gives information about —
individuals when one has found out in what class they are entered, and where the class
is, by studying the scheme of classification.
general subordinate subjects the same.
■classes the same.
all about individuals, general subordinate subjects, and classes the same.
The Combined Catalogue gives information about —
■individuals like a dictionary.
general subordinate subjects the same.
all about individuals the same.
all about general subordinate subjects and classes of subjects like the classed cata-
logue, with the advantage of having an alphabatical index of subjects to assist
in finding the places where they are entered.
TABLE VI.
The Dictionary Catalogue—
■brings together 1. All the works specially on any
subject.
separates 1. Related subjects.
2. Parts of classes.
■conceals 1. The information about subjects
(individual or not) which is to
be found in works more general
than the subjects.
Whether it be an individual or a
class, or belongs to one or to
several classes.
Hardly distinguishable from the
next number.
As Bones, Muscles, Nerves, which
a classed catalogue would bring
together under Anatomy.
E. g. The information about Apes
to be found in a general work
on Zoology. This happens with
almost every subject.
5^6
Public Libraries in the United States.
The Alphabetico-Classed Catalogue —
brings together 1. Many related subjects, (chiefly the
less extensive.)
2. All the works on subjects that
belong only to one class.
separates 1. Some related subjects, or, in other
words, parts of classes, (chiefly
the more extensrve subjects.)
2. Works on general subjects which
belong to more than one class.
3. Works on incPividual subjects
which belong to more than one
class.
conceals 1. Occasionally, the information
about subjects which is to be
found in works more general
than the class to which the sub-
ject belongs.
These form the " branches " and
"sections" under the classes.
Being dispersed by the alphabet,
they may be dispersed widely.
A frequent and serious evil, partly
overcome by making such sub-
jects independent headings.
A serious evil not overcome in the
present plans.
Infrequent, and not very impor-
tant when it does occur.
The Combined Catalogue
irings together
1
All the works specially
(in the
on any subject.
dictionary part)
f 2.
Eelated subjects.
(in the 1 3.
systematic part)]
All the works on sub-
jects included in one
I
class only.
separates 1
Some related subjects.
(in the
systematic part)
1.
Occasionally, the infor-
mation about subjects
which is to be found in
conceals
(in the <J
works more general
than the class to which
the subject belongs.
systematic part)
2.
Especially such informa-
tion about subjects on
which there is no mon-
,
ograph.
Whether it be an individual or a
class, or belongs to one or to
several classes.
No system of classification can
bring everything related to-
gether, but the dispersion in a
classed catalogue is not usually
so wide as in an alphabetical.
If there is no special work in the
library on the robin, the in-
quirer has nothing but his
knowledge of natural history
to tell him where to look for
general works containing ac-
counts of that bird.
Library Catalogues. 567
TABLE VII.
To sum up, the answer to—
is given by the—
Specific questions,
General questions,
Dictionary Catalogue,
Alphabetico-Classed,
Systematic,
Combined,
quickly,
less quickly,
with difficulty,
quickly,
with difficulty,
easily and fully,
easily and fully,
easily and fully.
There are numberless exceptions, drawbacks, and limitations to these
statements, but on the whole they are correct and exhibit the leading
characters of the different catalogues.
So much for facility of use ; as to facility of making there is not much
difference between the different plans, if thoroughly carried out. The
subject-word dictionary is very easy to make when applied to small
English, unscientific libraries. The syndetic subject dictionary is no
easier than the classed ; indeed, it has difficulties of its own which the
classed escapes altogether, and some which the dictionary part of the
Schwartz catalogue escapes by having no need of cross-references and
no trouble from synonyms.
TABLE VIII.
In June, 1875, a circular was sent to seventy-five libraries which had
lately printed catalogues. The answers received are given in Tables
yiii-xi.
What did your last catalogue cost to print ?
How many volumes did it catalogue ?
How long was it printing ?
How many copies were printed 1
How long is it since it was ready for sale ?
How much do you sell it for %
How many have you sold ?
How many have you given away ?
568
Public Libraries in the United States.
Table VIII.— Cos <
A., Author ; An., Analysis ; C, Having contents ; Cld., Classed ;
Name of library.
Amherst College.
2 Andover Memorial Hall.
3' Astor
1874
1857-'66
Baltimore Mercantile,
(fiction list.)
Bigelow Library Company
Boston Athenseum.
Boston Public Lower Hall
Hist.
Boston Social Law
Bowdoin College
Bronson, Waterbury.
Brookline Public
Chicopee.
Concord .
Congress, (author) .
Congress, (subject)
Detroit
East Walpole.
Hartford Young Men's
Hatboro' Union
Hollis Social ,
Holton, Brighton
Holyoke Public Library
Indianapolis
1872-801
1873
1865
1833
1875
1875
1863
1875
1873
1875
1872
1872
1375
1873
180
2,715
3,5001
304
231
832
470
1,236
1,744
143
7
63
18+336
4,253
Betw'n
80, 000
and
100, 000
6,000
Number (per paee)-
(; 2, 318
I 3, 744
C 3, 713
\ 6, 060
<; 5,130
U0,080
5,350
12, 790
3,700
9,000
<; 2, 442
i 3, 901
C 2, 534
I 4, 123
}■■
<; 2, 263
i 3, 630
C 3, 263
i 5, 335
C 3, 525
I 5, 225
2, 960
5,170
2, 613
4, 250
<; 2, 280
i 3, 643
}■
125
.070
.031
23.62
Ab. 33. 11
51.71
20.74
27.71
25.62
22.79
68.77
55.04
107. 33
43.71
23.14
23.43
Kind of cata-
logue.
D 3a 11
A. (fesubj.index
A. & T. Fict'n
D4 C. An
See Table IX.
A.,wi. subj. in-
dex.
A., wi. diet,
.subj. index.
A C.
Al.-cld....An.
A....
D3a.
D3a
D3a....C. 11
D 3a.
Al.cl
D 3a C.
* As a printer reckons, inclusive of tha headings. The numbers are the eras for a full pa?e of the
at the average proportion of the two kinds of type in the whole catalogue, giving the percentage of the
Library Catalogues.
569
of printing.
D 3a, Like Boston Mercantile ; D 3b, Like Boston Pu\)lic ; T., Title.
5 m
l,S57-'66 .
?450 00 I
460 00 i 108
(: 61152|j 1
4 m ; I Biudinji, ; I .123 \
146 88j 1
2' 000 oo; .2i6;i
300 ;«1.50,red. to 75
I c, now 50 c.
500 $0 50 !
3, 000 ! 20 00 ' (?)
1,000 , 40 c. paper;
I 50 c. cloth.
1, 000 ' ?0 25
6 8y;
ly
600
25 00
4,000; pa- I j
per covers, j |
(?) I 456 94 i .055 I
3, 0:0 75 c, afcer-
j wiird 50 c.
5:0 '
2y.
1, 500 00
Less than
6 months.
4 m
3m
, 050 05 I . 121
I
500 00 I . 121
6, 000 00 ' . 07
2y 6,150 00 .064
467 00 ! . 029
16 00 j .052
1,875 45 ! .078
200 00
3w ..
18 m.
59 41
1, 65:) 00,
incl. cloth
bind'g of
300 copies.
660 00
1, 753 26,
incl. bind-
ing.
.j 135 00
i
.1 1,070 14
.037
.183
1,200
150
200
1,500
; $2-2 50
i
■ Costof bind-
j Nominal
I $0 80
50 c. paper ;
$1 cloth.
$6, sheets., -j
.*3, h moroc. i
$8.20,sheets I
I fU.imorocJ
[ 10 50
I 05
■ 2 00
I
; Not sold
75cts , red. ti
45 ct.s.
1,500 j 10 45
750 j 2 00
300 Various pri's,
finally siven.
1,500 , $1 00
Sells stead-
ily.
None
Less than
100.
50
70
350 of all ;
i. e., of these
2 and5ann'.
catalogues.
43 mouths
8 m
Number given
away.
(.')
12 years.
Many to libraries.
450.
More than have
been sold.
To libraries only.
More than 100.
34 m
3y...
41.
950 of all and 200 ex-
changed; i. e., of
authors, 1864; sub-
jects,1860; annual,
5 vol., 18C7-'7I.
400.
None.
52.
144 ; one to each of
our members.
12.
200.
25.
200.
larger (title) type, and a full page of the smaller (note) type; the next column contains a rough guess
smaller.
570
Public Libraries in the United States.
Table \III.— Cost
Name of library.
(C- 0
0
a p,
s
Number (per page) —
Kind of cata-
logue.
i
Hi
t
0
1
0
1873
1873
1873
1858
1870
1871
1871
1868
1869
1874
1857
1873
1860
1872
1873
1872
1870
75
344
338
134
204
216
391
314
518
207
159
483
932
109
707
3,000
17, 000
16,000
12, 000
10, 000
4,560
3,800
40.00
49.41
D3a
07
Linonian Society, Tale
College.
Lowell
D 3a C
•^R
W
Massachusetts State
Meadville
35.50
74.62
22.35
17.59
A.,wi. cl. index
10
11
Medford
C2,205
i3,31l
C 1, 350
I 1, 767
1 .014
1 .040
34
39
Milton
D3a
31
34
New Bedford
5,000
40, 000
5, 658
2,563
15.92
77.22
27.33
I')
New York Apprentices'
Combined ....
D. (A.T)
3ti
37
3R
Peabody Library, George-
town.
Peabody Institute, Pea-
body.
Pennsylvania State
40
14,000
30, 000
7,457
C2,412
} 3, 864
!
40
28.98
32. 13
63.40
D 3a 11
A
41
A., eld. index..
D3
49
Philadelphia MercantUe .
Quincy Public
43
44
45
St. Louis Mercantile ....
St. Louis Public School. .
St. Louis Public School..
San Francisco
1874
1870
1873
1874
1873
1871
762
384
958
84
668
40, 440
24, 000
4,300
36, 000
4,732
.000
50
53.07
62.50
Cld., A. index.
Cld. index
46
47
^3,773
i 8, 064
1 .131
....
37.59
D3b....C. An.
A.&T C.
D 3a C
48
Somerville
4'»
Springfield
30, 000
30, 000
18, 500
8,108
7,560
20, 000
2,004
3,350
3,989
44.91
50
51
1871
1854
1875
1875
1874
1874
1874
432
164
260
233
98
108
251
42. 82
49.43
29.07
85.83
20.44
31.01
15.89
A., cld. index..
A., subj. index
59
University of Vermont ..
53
54
Williams College
Wilton, N.n
Winchester, Mass
Cld 11
D3b
5")
5fi
D3a 11.
D 3b
C 1, 125
( 1, 824
1 .126
45
* As a printer reckons, inclusive of the headings. The numbers are the ems for a full page of the
the average proportion of the two kinds of type in the whole catalogue, giving the percentage of the
Library Catalogues.
571
of printing. — Continued.
Time of print-
ing.
.9
J1
"A
Selling price.
1
1
a
a
1
5
Number given
away.
26
27
28
3m
3m
5m
2y
1 m
4m
2m
$116 77
875 00
1,470 00 +
(?)
300 00
800 00
700 00
600 00
1, 000 00
2, 663 34
875 00
400 00
Nothing
.038
.051
.116
.03
.175
.184
.02
r
.066<;
1
I
.154
.156
600
500
1,500
550
200
1,250*
700
600
500
1,000
gen.cat.
3,000
fict. cat.
1,000
300
20 ct8.,red. to
15 cts.
?0 75
50
125
Very few
450
2 years + .
2y
20 months
50.
150.
50.
?n
1 00
Very few .
A few to libraries
31
625
32
50
50
80
S .5.
i 3.
$1, aft. 50 cts
$1, red. to 50 c.
Very few .
4y
500 to 600; one to
every family in
town.
34
35
36
37
ly
ly
6m
7m
50
30
250
500
32
50
50
5y
4m ...1...
9m
I8y
20 m
250.
V
200.
18.
39
40
6m
1 y+
1, 510 00
.107
500
3 000
500
2,500
%\ 00
19m
47.
2, 700.
80.
40.
41
42
43
2m
8y
493 42
5, 000 00
.066
50
a2.50,then$l
75
900
2y
5y
44
45
46
6m
4m
2m
7m.......
5w
2m
ly
4, 200 00
1, 647 50
368 00
8, 087 31
250 00
3, 116 00
(?)
.103
.068
.085
.224
.103
1,000
2,000
1,000
1.650J
500
1,000
300
500
1,000
1.000
B'd.300
1,200
500
500
15, then $3...
%\, red. to 50 c.
25
Sab8'r8,S2 50
Others, 15 00
2 00
200
700
250
\ »
320
400
14m..../.
14m
50.
500.
500.
47
48
49
50
10m
2y
52 m
60.
10.
75.
393
■il
2 00
1 00
25
1 00
50
10
25
6
6W
150
4y
2iy
3m
2m
2y
14m
7m
150.
75
■iO
J
Pr. 393 00 )
B'g 333 00 5
1, 500 00,
incl. cleri-
cal labor.
600 00
250 00
190 00
502 33
.0484
.198
.03
.124
.056
.125
53
54
4m
2m
4m
4w
16w
55
56
57
320
175
600
25.
100.
larger (title) type, and a fall page of the smaller (note) type ; the next column contains a rough guess
smaller.
572 Public Libraries in the United States.
TABLE IX.
Do you think it worth while (for your library) to print?
1, Amherst ; 2, Andover. — Yes.
3. Astor. — It is absolutely necessary to print the catalogue of a large library. The
expense, however, is so heavy that it cannot be often repeated.
4. Baltimore.— Yes; provided the income of the library is sufficiently large to warrant
the expenditure.
5. Bigelow Library Company. — As we are situated, yes; absolutely necessary.
6. Boston Athenseiira. — Yes; and for the part of the library which might be called
" reference," even more than for the " circulating" department. (With us both
classes of books circulate.) The increase in usefulness of the library will be
greater than if the cost of printing had been expended in books.
7. Boston Public Library, (History, Biography, and Travel.)— Yes, of this kind; as it
has had a marked effect in elevating the character of the circulation. We do
not think it worth while to print any more general catalogues of our higher
departments.
8. Boston Social Law Library. — Yes.
9. Bowdoin College. — We think our catalogue has been an advertisement of the col-
lege. Whether the college has been paid for its labor and expense is a question.
10. Bronson.— It may be best to always have a printed catalogue for the circulating
department ; for the reference library, I think not. We print annual supple-
ments for the circulating library.
11. Brookline. — Pecuniarily, No! In every otherway, most emphatically, Yes! It meets
an urgent demand from the public, as well as a need within the library, and facil-
itates all the routine work of the circulating department beyond measure.
12. Chicopee.— Yes.
13. Concord.— iVo, if you take money as the basis of "worth while;" but if the library
can afford it, yes, taking convenience to borrowers and librarians as the basis;
although a card-catalogue will answer for librarian.
14, 15. Congress. — Yes, emphatically. The collectiou would bo incalculably crippled in
usefulness without a printed catalogue.
16. Detroit.— We must have a key to the library of some sort.
17. East Walpole ; 18, Hartford ; 19, Hatboro' ; 20, Hollis.- Yes.
21. Holton, Brighton. — Merged in the Boston Public Library.
22. Holyoke.— Yes.
23. Indianapolis.- 1 should certainly never attempt another in the same manner. The
finding lists of the Public Library of Boston (especially "History, Biographj-^,
and Travel") are to my miud the best standard of what catalogues in a large
circulating library ought to be.
24. Lancaster.— Yes.
25. Lawrence.- Yes ! With such a circulation as we have we could not do without one.
Nearly fifty copies are kept in the delivery-room for reference.
26. Leicester. — We could not carry on the library at all without it.
27. Linonian. — We regard a printed catalogue of this library as indispensable. The
catalogue of the college library we do not propose to print.
23. Lowell.— For the good of subscribers, yes.
29. Massachusetts State. — There is one in preparation.
30. Meadville. — No, with the small amount of funds at our disposal.
31. Medford. — Yes.
32. Milton. — We certainly do. We have also printed three bulletins, at a cost of $150
each.
33. Milwaukee. — We feel the need of a now catalogue.
34. New Bedford.- Yes.
Library Catalogues. 573
35. New York Apprentices'. — We do not see how we coUld carry on a circulating library
like ours, averaginoj 500 volumes a day, without one. A manuscript catalogue
would be almost as b.ad as none at all.
36, Newburyport ; 37, Newton ; 33, Peabody, Georgetown. — Yes.
39. Peabody Institute, Peabody. — We have ten copies in use in the reading-room.
40. Pennsylvania State. — Could not do without it.
41. Peoria. — We are in doubt.
42. Philadelphia Mercantile. — Probably we shall print a supplement in a year or two.
43. Quincy Public— Yes.
44. St. Louis Mercantile. — Yes.
45,46. St. Xiouis Public School. — Yes; although no printed catalogue can contain the
latest additions. Many consider it of great value to cousult the catalogue at
home. It further gives a good idea of the character of the library.
47. San Francisco.^ consider it invaluable in the library, and a handy book for any
student or reader.
48. Somervilie. — Yes.
49. Springfield. — It was necessary for us to have a printed copy for use in onr library.
50. Surgeon-General's; 51, Tennessee; 52, University of Vermont ; 53, W<iltham; 54,
Williams; 55, Wilton. — Yes.
56. Winchester. — It is necessary.
57. Worcester. — Quite worth while for the circulating department. Not, however, for
the reference library, all things considered. With us the catalogue of the latter
library is principally usefnl to the officers. A printed catalogue would be very
useful if it gave the information contained in Mr. Winsor's list of " Biography,
History, etc."
TABLE X.
Do you Still like that kind of catalogue?
What otber plan do you prefer ?
Could you suggest auy improvements in your present plan ?
1. Amherst, (A.) — Yes ; because we cannot afford to print any fuller catalogue, and
this for a single catalogue is the most useful. It answers for those whose wauts
are usually covered by an author-catalogue; for others we have a full manuscript
catalogue on cards.
2. Andover, (D.)— Yes.
3. Astor, (A., with subject-index.) — Yes ; would like a few more cross-references, so as
to enable the student to fiud the subjects more readily.
4. Baltimore, (Fiction.)— Yes, amplified; would add a section of biographical and
historical fiction.
6. Boston Athenteum, CD.) — Yes.
8. Boston Social Law, (A., with subject-index.)— Yes ; would have greater fullness of
detail.
9. Bowdoin College, (A., wi. diet, index.)— Yes; as a proper style of such work.
For college purposes a simpler form would answer.
10. Bronson, Waterbury. — No answer.
11. Brookline, (D.)— Most certainly, yes ; prefer no plan that I ever saw or heard of.
Would like fuller analyses of the contents of books with the consequent ref-
erences.
12. Chicopee, (D.)— Yes.
13. Concord, (D.) — Yes ; do not know any better plan ; might find many improvements
iu the details.
16. Detroit, (A.) — We consider it only half a catalogue ; we want also an index of sub-
jects.
18. Hartford, (D.)— Yes.
19. Hatboro'.— No; it wants simplifying for country use; no plan matured.
574 Public Libraries in the United Stales.
2'2. Holyoke.— Yes.
23. Indianapolis, (D.) — Yes ; but prefer the class lists of the Pablic Library of Boston*
Tbe repetition of the imprint under subject and title I now believe to be un-
necessary. In the event of publishing a supplement to our present catalogue,
I shall follow the plan of the last class list of History, Biography, and Travel of
the Boston Public Library.
24. Laneaster, (Alphabetico-classed.)— No.
25. Lawrence, (D.) — Yes ; but would prefer a fuller reference to subjects.
26. Leicester, (D.) — Yes; with all its imperfections.
28. Lowell. — Yes; with the addition of subjects in the same alphabet.
29. Massachusetts State, (A. with classed index.)— One is now in preparation on the
plan of tlie Boston Athenaeum.
30. Meadville, (A.) — Only for certain purposes. Prefer a card catalogue; if printed,
6ne after the plan of Professor Jewett, of the Boston Public Bibrary.
31. Medford.— Yes.
33. Milwaukee^ — Yes ; we know of no better plan. Improvements ? — Omit the index
to subjects.
34. New Bedfotd.— Yes.
35. New York Apprentices', (Systematic and D.)— Yes ; prefer no other plan. Improve-.
ments ? — The consolidation of Parts 2 and 3, and a revision of the classification.
Part 1 will then exhibit the subjective elements of books, and part 2 the objective
elements { Part 1 being logical and classified, and Part 2 mechanical and alpha-
betical. The special catalogue of Fiction I should now arrange in one alphabet,
in accordance with the new basis, as its purpose is merely to exhibit the mechan-
ical or objective elements of books, viz, the author and title.
36. Newburyport, (A. T.)— Very wtell. The catalogue lately printed by the Brookline
Public Library appears to be the most satisfactory.
37. Newton, N. J. — Yes ; would make it more full by giving, in small type, a brief note
of the chief subjects in each volume, when there are more than one subject.
38. Peabody, Georgetowti. — No ; prefer a classed catalogue.
39. Peabody Institute, Peabody, Mass., (D.)— Yes; would combine the catalogue by
-authors and that of titles or subjects in one.
41. Peoria, (A., witii classed index.)— Yes.
42. Philadelphia Mbreantile, (D.)— Yes.
46. St. Louis Publie School, (eld.)— Yes.
47. San Fraiicisco, (D.) — I think it the most practical plan in use. There is a wide field
for subordinate classification, etc. I could improve somewhat by making use of
a greater variety of distinctive type for references, etc.
48. Somerville, (A. and T.)— Yes.
49. Springfield, (D.)— Yes.
50. Surgeon-General's Offi(^e, (A.)— Yes; if accompanied, as it will be, by a subject-cata-
logue, I like it for this library, which is devoted to one subject, and used only by
educated men. It is not the best plan for a public library.
51. Tennessee, (A., with classed index.)— Yes.
52. University of Verpiont, (A., with subject-index.)— It serves our purpose, but is cap-
able of much improvement. I think the dictionary plan a good one.
53. Waltham.— Yes.
54. Williams College, (eld.)— Yes, but would combine the topical and alphabetical
arrangement in one catalogue.
55. Wilton, (D.)— Yes.
56. Winchester, (D.)— No, never liked it; prefer one by titles, topics, and authors. We
are slowly making a "jcard catalogue."
57. Worcester, (D.) — Not very well; prefer your plan.
Library Catalogues.
575
TABLE XI.
Bulletins or periodical supplements.
0
0
0
About 30 a year.
Never
Annual Report of
Trustees.
None, yet
Semi-annually
Annually
0
0
How many
Cost per number.
Annually
Quarterly
Biennially
....do
Annual report.
0
Annually
1,500
Quartsrly
Annual report
When there is matter
to fill 4 pages.
Annnal
Monthly*
Annual report
Monthly
0
0
0
Annually
0
0
0
Annually
....do
...do
Semi-annually.
$2,062 to $3.187...
$3.50 per page.
$50 to $80
$40 to $50
Selling price.
30 cents a year.
Given.
$2.75 to $4.25 .
Given ..
...do ...
...do ...
10 cents.
Given to each fami-
ly. Sold for 10 cts.
2cent8
Monthly, of additions ;
intermediate lists of
books in some class
(History, Philosophy,
etc.,) received during
the previous year.
$43.35 average.
* The bulletins are printed in the Peabody Press, gratia.
to use in cataloguing, for $1.
We then have ten copies printed on slips,
576 Public Libraries in the United States.
TABLE XII.
List of printed catalogues of piiblic libraries in the United States, arranged hg the date of
publication.
It mast be understood that the following descriptions are only
approxiaiate. Of two catalogues called dictionary, (A., T., S. W.,) the
first may enter almost every title, the second may have very few title-
entries; the one may never go beyond the title for its subject-word,
the other may often do so, and may occasionally slip into class-entry.
The varieties of catalogue shade off" into each other by such imper-
ceptible degrees, and vary so much in the union of their different
characteristics that an exact account which shall be at the same time
brief cannot be made.
Giving the number of pages would have been much more useful if
the average number of titles on a page and the number of ems on a
page had been also giv^en, but time was wanting for such a work.
The list is incomplete; it contains full descriptions of those cata-
logues only which are to be found in the libraries of the Boston
Athenaeum, the Boston Public Library, and Harvard College Library;
briefer notices of others of which 1 found mention in prefaces, in
Ludewig's Bibliotheken in den Ver.-Staaten, (published in Naumann's
Serapeum,) and in Jewett's Notices of public libraries, and also the
date and number of pages of a very large number now in the posses-
sion of the Bureau of Education. These latter were mostly published
during the last ten years.
ABBREVIATIOXS.
A. — Author, Anthor-catalofifne. (The author-catalogue usually includes title or sub-
ject-word eutry for anonymous books.)
T. — Title, Title-catalogue. (A subject- word entry is a variety of title-entry; when
T, and S. W. are used together, T. means entries under the first word of the
title, or some leading word which is not the subject-word.)
S. — Subject-entry, Subject-catalogue.
S. W. — Subject-word. (In general, the S. W. catalogues do not go behind the title
for a subject-word ; but some occasionally, and some often, supply a subject-
word for books that have none in the title, and beconie so far S. catalogues.)
Imp. — Imprints given.
No imp. — Imprints not given.
n. p. — Place of publication not given.
n. d. — Date of publication not given.
Size. — Typographical form given.
1 1. — Titles confined to one line.
2 col. — Having two columns on a page.
Cont. — Contents given.
Anal. — Analytical references made.
Alph. — Alphabetically.
Arr., sub-arr. — Arranged, sub-arranged.
CI., eld. — Classes, classed.
Div. — Divisions.
Cr. ref. — Cross-references.
L. — Librarian and apparently the compiler.
Ed.— Edited, feditors.
Suppl.— Supplement.
Trans. — Translated, translators.
Library Catalogm
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
CATALOGUES AND CATALOGUING!.
I.- BY MELVIL DEWEY,
Amherst College Library.
ir.-BY S. B. ISO YES.
Mercantile Library, Brooklyn, N. T.
in— BY JACOB SCHWARTZ,
Librarian Apprentices' Library, New York.
IV.- BY JOHX J. BAILEY,
Librarian Public School Library, St. Louis, Mo.
L— A DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION AND SUBJECT INDEX.
Devised for cataloguing and ixdkxixg — Found applicable to ai? hanging and
NUMBERING BOOKS ON THE SHELVES — DESCRIPTION — MaY BE USED IN ANY LI-
BRARY — Examples — Notes.
It was tliouglit tliat a description of the plan as in actual use in the
Amherst College Library would be its best explanation. It will be seen,
however, that its most valuable feature, the classification and subject
index, may be adopted, if desired, in connection with very different cat-
alogues and methods. Though the system was devised for cataloguing
and indexing purposes, it was found on trial to be very valuable for
numbering and arranging books and pamphlets on the shelves.
The plan of this classification and index was developed early in 1873.
It was the result of several months' study of library economy as set forth
iu some hundreds of books and pamphlets, and of over fifty personal
visits to various American libraries. In this study, the author became
convinced that the usefulness of these libraries might be greatly in-
creased without atlditional expenditure. Three years' practical use of
the system here explained leads him to believe that it will accomplish
this result ; for with its aid the catalogues, shelf lists, indexes, and cross-
references essential to this increased usefulness, can be made more eco-
nomically than by any other method which he has been able to find.
For the better understanding of the scheme there are appended pages
5 to 8 of the Library Hand-book, giving a brief description of the cata-
logues ; a specimen page of the classification, also of the subject index ;
623
624 PuUic Libraries in the United States.
the directions for using the subject catalogue; and the condensed rules
for the headings and titles of the cards.
The library is first dividetl into nine special libraries, which are called
classes. These classes are (1) Philosophy, (2) Theology, (3) Sociology,
(4) Pliilology, (5) Natural Science, (6) Useful Arts, (7) Fiae Arts, (8)
Literature, and (9) History, and are numbered with the nine digits ;
thus Class 9 is the Library of History, etc. These special libraries or
classes are then considered independently, and each one is separated
again into nine special divisions of the main subject. These dis^isions are
numbered from 1 to 9, as were the classes. Thus 59 is the ninth division
(Zoology) of the fifth class, (Natural Science.) A final division is then
made by separating each of these divisions into nine sections, which are
numbered in the same way with the nine digits. Thus 513 is the third
section (Geometry) of the first division (Mathematics) of the fifth class,
(Natural Science.) This number, giving class, division, and section, is
called the classification or class number, and is applied to every book or
pamphlet belonging to the library. All the geometries are thus num-
bered 513; all the mineralogies 549; and so throughout the library, all
the books on any given subject bear the number of that subject iu the
scheme. Where a 0 occurs in a class number it has its normal zero
power. Thus, a book numbered 510 is Class 5, Division 1, but no sec-
tion. This signifies that the book treats of the Division 51 (Mathemat-
ics) in general, and is not limited to any one section, as is the geometry,
marked 513. If marked 500, it would indicate a treatise on science in
general, limited to no division, A zero occurring iu the first place
would iu the same way show that the book is limited to no class. The
classification is mainly made by subjects or content ragardless of form;
but it is found practically useful to make an additional distinction in
these general treatises, according to the form of treatment adopted.
Thus, in Science we have a large number of books treating of science in
general, and so having a 0 for the division number. These books are
then divided into sections, as are those of the other classes, according
to the form they have taken on. We have (1) the philosophy and history
of science, (li) scientific compends, (3) dictionaries, (4) essays, (5) periodi-
cals, (6) societies, (7) education, and (8) travels — all having the common
subject. Natural Science, but treating it in these varied forms. These
form distinctions are introduced here because the number of general
works is large, and the numerals allow of this division without extra
labor, for the numbers from o'Jl to 509 woald otherwise be unused.
They apply only to the general treatises, which, without them, would
have a class number ending with two zeros. A dictionary of mathe-
matics is 510, not 503, for every book is assigned to the most specific
head that will contain it, so that 503 is limited to dictionaries or cyclo-
pedias of science in general. Iu the same way a general cyclopacJia or
periodical treats of no oue class, and so is assigned to the Class 0,
divided into cyclopiiedias, periodicals, etc. No difficulty is found iu fol-
and Cataloguing. 625
lowing the arithmetical law and omitting the initial zero, so these num-
bers are printed 31, 32, etc., instead of 031, 032, etc.
The selection and arrangement of the thousand headings of the classi-
fication cannot be explained in detail for want of space. In all the
work, philosophical theor^^ and accuracy have been made to yield to
practical usefulness. The impossibility of making a satisfactory classi-
fication of all knowledge as preserved in books, has been appreciated
from the first, and nothing of the kind attempted. Theoretical harmony
and exactness have been repeatedly sacrificed to the practical require-
ments of the library or to the convenience of the department in the
college. As in every scheme, many minor subjects have been put under
general heads to which they do not strictly belong. In some cases these
headings have been printed in a distinctive type, e. g., 429 Saxon, under
English PhUology. The rule has been to assign these subjects to the
most nearly allied heads, or where it was thought they would be most
sought. The only alternative was to omit them altogether. If any
such omission occurs it is unintentional, and will be supplied as soon as
discovered. Wherever practicable the heads have been so arranged
that each subject is preceded and followed by the most nearly allied
subjects, and thus the greatest convenience is secured both in the cata-
logues and on the shelves. Theoretically, the division of every subject
into just nine heads is absurd. Practically, it is desirable that the clas-
sification be as minute as possible without the use of additional figures ;
and the decimal principle on which our scheme hinges, allows nine divis-
ions as readily as a less number. This principle has proved wholly sat-
isfactory in practice, though it appears to destroy proper co-ordination
in some places. It has seemed best in our library to use uniformly three
figures in the class number. This enables us to classify certain subjects
very minutely, giving, for example, an entire section to Chess. But the
History of England has only one section, as oar scheme is developed,
and thus the two might be said to be coordinated. The apparent diffi-
culty in such cases is entirely obviated by the use of a fourth figure,
giving nine subsections to any subject of sufficient importance to war-
rant closer classification. In History, where the classification is made
wholly by countries, a fourth figure is added to give a division into
periods. As the addition of each figure gives a tenfold division, any
desired degree of minuteness may be secured in the classing of special
subjects. The apparent lack of co-ordination arises from the fact that
only the first three figures of these more important heads are as yet
printed, the fourth figure and the subsections being supplied on the
catalogues in manuscript. Should the growth of any of these subsec-
tions warrant it, a fifth figure will be added, for the scheme admits of
expansion without limit.
The number of figures used in the class number can be decided ac-
cording to circumstances in each library. With us three figures seemed
best. In smaller libraries two figures would do very well until the
40 E
626 Public Libraries in the United States.
growth required further divisions. But it would seem better economj',
to save handling the books a second time, to use at least three figures
at the first, and in larger libraries four or even more may be desirable.
The arrangement of headings has been sometimes modified to secure
a mnemonic aid in numbering and finding books without the index.
For instance, the scheme is so arranged that China has always the
number 1. In Ancient History, it has the first section, 931 : in Modern
History, under Asia, it has 951 : in Philology, the Chinese language
appears as 491. After the same manner the Indian number is 4 ; Egyp-
tian, 2; English, 2; German, 3; French, 4; Italian, 5; Spanish, 6;
European, 4; Asian, 5; African, 6; North American, 7; South Ameri-
can, 8 ; and so for all the divisions by languages or countries. The
Italian, 5, for instance, will be noticed in 35, 55, 450, 755, 850, and 945.
This mnemonic principle is specially prominent in Philology and Liter-
ature and their divisions, and in the form distinctions used in the first
9 sections of each class. Materials, Methods, or Theory occurring any-
where as a head, bears always the number 1. Dictionaries and Cyclo-
paedias, 3; Essays, 4; Periodicals, 5; Associations, Institutions, and
Societies, 6; Education, 7; Collections, 9. In the numerous cases
where several minor heads have been grouped together under the head
Other, it always bears the number 9. Wherever practicable, this prin-
ciple is carried out in subdividing the sections. For instance, the Geol-
ogy of North America, which bears the number 557, is subdivided by
adding the sections of 970, (History of North America.) The Geology of
Mexico then bears the number 5578 : mnemonically, the first 5 is the
Science number ; the second 5, Geology ; the 7, North America ; and
the 8, Mexico. Any library attendant or reader, after using the scheme
a short time, will recognize, at a glance, any catalogue or ledger entry,
book or pamphlet, marked 5578 as something on the geology of Mexico.
Users of the scheme will notice this mnemonic principle in several hun-
dred places in the classification, and will find it of great practical utility
in numbering and finding books without the aid of catalogue or index,
and in determining the character of any book simply from its call num-
ber as recorded on the book, on all its catalogue and cross-reference
cards, on the ledger, and in the check-box.
In naming the headings, brevity has been secured in many cases at
the sacrifice of exactness. It was thought more important to have
short, familiar titles for the headings than that the names given should
express with fulness and exactness the character of all books catalogued
under them. Many subjects, apparently omitted, will be found in the
index, assigned, with allied subjects, to a heading which bears the
name of the most important only. Eeference to this subject index will
decide at once any doubtful points.
In arranging books in the classification, as in filling out the scheme,
practical usefulness has been esteemed the most important thing. The
effort has been to put each book under the subject where it would be
Catalogues and Cataloguing. 627
most useful to special students. The content or the real subject of which
a book treats, and not the form or the accidental wording of the title,
determines its place. Following this rule, a philosophy of art is put
with Art, not with Philosophy ; a history of mathematics, with Mathe-
matics, not with History; for the philosophy and history are simply
the form which these books have taken. The true content or subject
is art, and mathematics, and to the student of these subjects they are
most useful. The predominant tendency or obvious purpose of the
book, usually decides its class number at once; still a book often treats
of two or more different subjects, and in such cases it is assigned to the
place where it will be most useful, and underneath the class number
are written the numbers of any other subjects on which it also treats.
These cross-references are given both on the book plate and the subject
card as w^ell as on the cross-reference card. As the cross-reference is
itself the call number, a reader having any one of the three (book, title,
or cross-reference) can instantly find either of the others without the
intervention of catalogue or index. The call number .is given also on the
accessions catalogue and on the back of the book. The Van Everen
printed numbers are used until the book is rebound, when the call
number is stamped permanently on the back, for in this system the call
number remains the same through all changes of buildings, arrange-
ment, or catalogues.
The necessity of changes in the ordinary system, together with the very
great difficulty of tracing all the cross-references, renders it quite im-
practicable to give the call-numbers in all places where they are needed.
Even where given they must be written temporarily in pencil, in readi-
ness for the changes that are sure to come ; for, if printed, a new cata-
logue, with its attendant expense and confusion, becomes necessary as
soon as the opening of new rooms, or removal to new quarters, or the
growth of the library disarranges the books.
There is a single alternative : to arrange the books regardless of sub-
jects, and even then the numbers must be altered in nearly all changes
of buildings or rooms. In our system the book is numbered once for all,
and can change that number only by changing its subject-matter. Of
course mistakes occur as in any system, but when found they are as
easily corrected as in any other plan. Certainly there is greater hope
that the work will be done well when it is felt that it is not to be done
over again in a few years at the longest.
If a book treats of a majority of the sections of any division, it is
given the division number instead of the most important section num-
ber, with cross-references. Thus, a volume on light, heat, or sound
would be classed under the head most fully discussed and referred to
from the others; but if the volume treated also of mechanics, hydro-
statics, and pneumatics, it would be classed as 530, or general physics,
although no mention be made of electricity, magnetism, or molecular
physics.
628 Public Libraries in the United States.
It is one of tbe marked advantages of the plan that these cross-ref-
erences, notes, etc., may be added from time to time, as found conven-
ient. It is necessary at first to find only the predominant tendency
of the book, in order to catalogue it. If extreme care were taken to
avoid mistakes, it might be well to keep books very difficult to class
arranged by themselves for a time till read or carefully examined by
some one competent to decide their true place. Cross-references are
added when they are found necessary. After reading, a volume of
sermons may be found to be aimed at the doctrine of evolution, though
this fact was not noticed in classing. When it is found, however, the
evolution number, 575, is written under the religion-and-science-sermou
number, 255, and ever after a reader knows at once by this number the
tendency of the volume. It is designed to add these numbers indi-
cating more closely the character of the book as rapidly as possible, and
specialists are invited to call the attention of the librarian to every de-
sirable cross-reference they notice in their reading. These numbers take
but little room, are easily added, and in most cases are valuable.
Collected works, libraries, etc., are either kept together and assigned
like individual books to the most specific head that will contain them,
or assigned to the most prominent of the various subjects on which they
treat, with cross-references from the others ; or are separated, and the
parts classed as independent works. Translations are classed with their
originals.
The alphabetical subject iudex is designed to guide, both in number-
ing and in finding the books. In numbering, the most specific head
that will contain the book having been determined, reference to that
head in the index will give the class number to which it should be as-
signed. Iq finding books op any given subject, reference to the index
will give the number under which they are to be sought on the shelves,
in the shelf catalogue, or in the subject catalogue. The index gives
after each subject the number of the class to which it is assigned. Most
names of countries, towns, animals, plants, minerals, diseases, etc., have
been omitted, the aim being to furnish an index of subjects on which
books are written, and not a gazetteer or a dictionary of all the nouns
in the language. Such subjects will be found as special chapters or
sections of books on the subjects given in the index. The names of
individuals will be found in the Class List of Biography. Omissions of
any of the more general subjects will be supplied when noticed.
In arranging the books on the shelves, the absolute location by shelf
and book number is wholly abandoned, the relative location by class
and book number being one of the most valuable features of the plan.
The class number serves also as the location number, and the shelf num-
ber in common use is entirely dispensed with. Accompanying the class
number is the booTc number, which prevents confusion of different books
on the same subject. Thus the first geometry catalogued is marked
5131, the second 513-2, and so on to any extent, the last number show-
Catalogues and Cataloguing. 629''
ing how many books the library has on that subject. The books of each
section are all together, and arranged by book numbers, and these sec-
tions are also arranged in simple numerical order throughout the library.
The call number, 513-11, signifies not the eleventh book on shelf 513, or
alcove 5, range 1, shelf 3, as in most libraries, but signifies the eleventh-
book in subject 513, or the eleventh geometry belonging to the library.
In finding the book, the printed numbers on the backs are followed, the
upper being the class and the lower the book number. The class i&
found in its numerical order among the classes as the shelf is found in
the ordinary system ; the book in its numerical order in the class. The
shelves are not numbered, as the increase of different departments, the
opening of new rooms, and any arrangement of classes to bring the
books most circulated nearest to the delivery desk, will bring different
class numbers on a given shelf. ]S"ew books as received are numbered
and put into place, in the same way that new titles are added to the
card catalogue. The single digit occasionally prefixed to the book num-
ber, e.g.^ the 3 in 421-3-7, is the nearest height in decimeters of books
too large to be put on the regular library shelves, which are only 2i
decimeters apart. The great mass of the library consists of 2-decimeter
books, the size numbers of which are omitted. Books from 2^ to 3i
decimeters in height have 3 prefixed to the book number, and are found
on the bottom shelf of each range. The larger sizes are prefixed with 4,
5, etc., and are found on the special shelves provided, in order to avoid
the great waste of space otherwise occasioned by the relative location.
By this use of the size numbers a close economy of space is secured.
Thus all the books on any given subject are found standing together,
and no additions or changes ever separate them. Not only are all the
books on the subject sought found together, but the most nearly allied
subjects precede and follow, they in turn being preceded and followed
by other allied subjects as far as practicable. Eeaders not having
access to the shelves find the short titles arranged in the same order on
the shelf catalogue, and the full titles, imprints, cross-references, notes,
etc., in the subject catalogue. The uncatalogued pamphlets treating of
any subject bear the same class number and are arranged on the shelves
immediately after the books of each section.
In a library arranged on this plan every specialist has his own spe-
cial library. If he be a student of science in general, he is sent to class
5 ; if his department be zoology, his library is 59 ; if his specialty is
shells, he finds all the works and references on that subject in library
591. Whether there be a specialist to watch it or not, every subject
thus being in a library by itself, shows at once its resources and its
wants as no catalogue can show them. A catalogue cannot be made
that will so quickly and thoroughly decide a student's wants as the
books themselves. Of course this advantage weighs most in a college
or society library, where many persons have access to the shelves, but
even in a collection where only the librarians are admitted, the close
630 Public Libraries in the United States.
classification on the slielves will be found of exceeding value. The de-
sirability of sucli classing is never questioned, only the practicability.
With our plan we believe it to be comparatively easy.
In both the authors' catalogue and the subject iudex, brevity has
"been studied because of the economy, but more because of the much
greater ease of reference to a short title catalogue. The custom of giv-
ing full titles, etc., under authors, and only references or very brief titles
under subjects, has been reversed. A reader seeking a book of a known
author, in the vast majority of cases, wants simply the number by which
to call for it, and can find it much quicker in a brief-title catalogue. In
the rare cases where more is needed the class number refers instantly
to all these facts on the cards. On the other hand, a reader seeking
books on a known subject, needs the full title, imprint, cross-references,
and notes to enable him to choose the book best suited to his wants.
The subject catalogue is a full-title shelf list on cards and is for the
use of the public. The shelf list is a short-title subject catalogue in
book form, made of separate sheets laced into an Emerson binder, and
is for official use. We thus have without extra labor both full and
short title subject catalogues and shelf lists. The public authors' cata-
logue is a printed volume ; the official authors' catalogue or index is on
cards. As a result, each of the public catalogues is checked by an offi-
cial catalogue; each of the card catalogues by a book catalogue; each
of the brief- title catalogues by a full-title catalogue — an advantage that
Avill be appreciated by all librarians desiring accuracy in administration
and in catalogues.
At the same time the most useful class lists of any subject may be
made by simply printing the titles under its class number in the subject
or shelf catalogue, according as full or brief titles are desired.
The Arabic numerals can be written and found quicker and with less
danger of confusion or mistake than any other symbols whatever.
The Eoman numerals, capitals and small letters, and similar symbol's
usually found in systems of classification, are entirely discarded, and by
the exclusive use of Arabic numerals in their regular order throughout
the shelves, classifications, iudexes, catalogues, and rccofds, there is
secured the greatest accuracy, economy, and convenience. This advan-
tage is specially prominent in comparison with systems where the
name of the author or the title must be written in calling for or
charging books and in making references.
Some prominent librarians, while admitting the great superiority of
the relative location for college and society libraries, have urged with
force that in the public library, where so many thousand volumes must
be called for, found, and charged, the additional labor and danger of
confusion involved in giving the author's name instead of a book number
make the system undesirable. But by substituting the book number for
the author's name in the relative location we use even fewer figures than
in the absolute location by shelves; for every numeral is used from 1
Catalogues and Cataloguing. G31
upward without liiuit, while in the absolute location, where the shelves
hold 0UI3' 25 to 40 volumes, all the numbers remaining, which might be
written with only two digits, are not used. As a result, more figures are
necessary in the shelf number. When it is considered that the library
records are simply a mass of call numbers, and that these numbers are
constantly written and printed in catalogues, shelf lists, indexes, etc.,
it will be seen that a saving of a single figure in the book number is a
matter of importance.
As the numbers from 1 to 9 are not used in the regular scheme, it
is practicable to effect a further saving by using only the last figure
instead of the full class number of the sections where most books are
circulated; e. g., in English Literature the number 3 may be used, in-
stead of writing 823 for each novel charged ; and as there is no other
class number 3 in the scheme, no confusion results.
Throughout the catalogues the number of a book shows not only where
it is, but what it is. In the library accounts the character of each per-
son's reading is clearly indicated by the numbers charged, and the
minutest statistics of circulation in any subject are made by simply
counting the call slips in the check-box, and recording the number
against the class number in the record.
Our books are called for on blank slips, five centimetres square. On
one of these each reader pencils the call number of the book wanted,
and his name. After the book is charged, this slip is stamped with the
date, and then placed in strict numerical order in the check-box. This
is a small tray, six decimetres long and four wide, divided into ten col-
umns, with ten compartments in each, numbered from 0 to 9, just large
enough to hold the call slips upright. Each of these columns represents
a class, and each of the compartments a division of that class. Thus,
the fifth column is Natural Science. The first, or 0, compartment is
General Works on Science; the next. Mathematics; the next, Astronomy;
and so on throughout the scheme. No book is removed from the shelves
for any purpose whatever, without putting in the check-box a slip giv-
ing its number and the purpose for which it was removed, with the date.
Books loaned have the borrower's signature, which holds him responsi-
ble for the book. Books lost, condemned, sold, at bindery, in the cata-
loguers room, in the reading room, etc., have their slips in their proper
box, so marked. As will be seen, it is possible for the attendant within
five seconds to tell whether any book belonging to the library is on the
shelves or not, and that without leaving his chair. If the book be off
the shelves, he can instantly tell where it is and when it will probably
be back. J3. g., A. B. asks for book 32917. The attendant consults
the shelves and finds the book out. When there is no check-box this
ends the matter, and A. B. perhaps tries a score of times to get this
book, always finding it out, and unable to know whether it was drawn
fifteen minutes before by some friend, or lost six months before he first
asked for it. With the check-box in use, A. B. may ask where it is, and
632 Public Libraries in the United States.
with a glance at the slip, the attendant is able to tell hioi. The slip
may be marked " C. D., June 5th,'' which shows that C. D. borrowed the
book at that time. Or it may be marked B(ind) ; or K(eading) R(oom) ;
or L(ost), or C(ataloguer's) R(oom), etc. In many cases a book is wanted
very much, to simply verify a reference or look up a single point, and
from the check-box the reader can learn where he can go to see it, if
he cares to do so ; or if he wants it for some time, he may ask to have
it reserved. In that case the attendant marks the slip, under C. D.'s sig-
nature, R(eserve), A. B. This means, Reserve this book when it comes
in for A. B., and send him postal notice of the fact. As the slips are re-
moved on the return of the books, such an R is seen at once, and the
book laid aside for the applicant. Great use of this R is made both by
readers and library officials and attendants, who often have occasion to
consult a book which at the time is out of the building. In such cases
they pencil their initials under the name signed, and when the book
comes into the building it is at once brought to them. Without ampli-
fying this matter, it must be seen that our check-box is simply invalua-
ble for a great many purposes which will suggest themselves to a
practical librarian. Its peculiar advantage in our system of classifica-
tion is that it always stands on the desk, a complete table of the books
off the shelves in each subject. The slips in box 53 show just how many
and what books are out in Phj^sics; the slips under 823 show all the
English novels that are in circulation, and of course show as well who
have them. Such a table of circulation always at hand and without an
item of expense or labor, (for the check-box is necessary for other pur-
poses,) will certainly be highly prized by all who interest themselves in
the character of books read, and there has never been a time when so
much wise attention was given to educating the taste of readers in our
public libraries as at the present. To convert this table into permanent
statistics is but little labor. An attendant counts the slips on each
subject as often as may be desired and records the number against the
class number in the record. We find the most convenient record a
sheet ruled to correspond with the divisions of the check-box into ten
columns of ten squares each. This sheet is useful for a variety of pur-
poses where the decimal system is in use. For statistics one column
serves to show the circulation of each of the ten classes ; an entire
sheet just holds the record of circulation for each of the one hundred
divisions, or for each of the one hundred sections of any class. On the
sheet, as in the check box, each compartoient represents a specific sub-
ject and the footing of the column a more general subject. If the
compartment be used for sections, the footing of the column will give
the circulation of the division ; if used for divisions, the footing will
give the circulation of the class ; and if used for the classes, the footing
will give the total circulation of the library.
By the use of size numbers the greatest possible economy of space
may be secured, for the size distinction m:\y be made for every inch or
Catalogues and Cataloguing. 633
even less if desired, and this without additional labor, as it will be seen
that the size figure, when introduced, requires one less figure in the book
number, and so does not increase the number of digits as would at first
appear. E. g., the last history of England may be 942-118, (118th book ot
regular size.) The next when received is found too large for the ordinary
shelves, and instead of being numbered 942-119, it takes the size number
3 and js 942-3-1 (1st book size 3). Thus the book number starts anew
with each size number, and in some cases even less figures are required be-
cause of the size distinction.
As the books can be put in only one place, the closer the classification
is made by sizes or colors of bindings in order to make a fine appearance
on the shelves, the less closely can it be made by subject matter. It has
seemed much more important that books be grouped by their intellect-
ual rather than by their physical distinctions ; therefore we have made
a size distinction only once in each decimeter of height. After three
years' trial we are unable to suggest any improvement in this respect,
as this avoids the great waste of space usually incurred in the relative
location and still separates books on the same subject very little indeed.
It is believed that the desire to make handsome shelves is giving way
to the desire to make useful shelves, as surely as the architect's library
with its fine vistas of books is giving way to the librarian's library, where
the books can be produced at the desk on an average of one-fifth the
time required in the more beautiful building.
In a popular library where there are very few books above the ordi-
nary sizes it may be found a good plan to disregard the size number
entirely. When a book is found too large for the shelves, a wooden dummy
costing two or three cents can be put in its place, with the location of
the volume itself penciled on the side. The few large books will be
found in a very few classes ; newspapers, cyclopaedias, and atlases will con-
tain most of them, and a single dummy in each class will be suflScient
to point out the location of all the books. The size number, however,
causes no confusion and serves an excellent purpose in a library like our
own, where there are a great many large books. The size number should
be written before the class number rather than after it in libraries where
the volume number is written on the same line with the book number.
In our library, the volume number is written as a subfigure to the book
number.
Parts of sets, and books on the same or allied subjects, are never sep-
arated, as they are sure to be, sooner or later, in every library arranged
on the common plan, unless it be frequently re-arranged and recata-
logued. The great expense of this recataloguing makes it impractica-
ble except for a few very wealthy libraries. In this system the cata-
logue and book numbers remain unchanged through all changes of
shelving, buildings, or arrangement.
Duplicates have the same class and book number as the original book,
but are marked copy 1, copy 2, etc. Of necessity, they must stand side
634 Public Libraries in the United States.
by side, aud so the reader gets the book called for, without a second
reference, if the book or any of its duplicates be in the library. If,
after the first demand for a book is over, it is desired to withdraw a part
of the duplicates, when taken from the shelves, there is no space left
vacant any more than when a title is withdrawn from the card catalogue.
It seems unnecessary in this place to point out the very great advan-
tages of the card system, in a growing library. Certainly every librarian
ujust be familiar with them. In addition to its own peculiar merits, this
plan has all the advantages of the card catalogue principle; and of the
relative location, which has been used and very strongly approved by
prominent libraries. As in the card catalogue system, there is room for
indefinite expansion without devices or provisions. Space is the only
requisite, and if the shelf room is exhausted, the floor space is equally
good, except for the inconvenience of stooping.
In our library as much space is left at the end of each subject as it is
expected to fill. At the annual cleaning, as the books are put back on
the shelves, these allowances are corrected, so that we seldom have to
move subjects along to accommodate new books, unless there be an un-
expected increase in some department. Some libraries will prefer to
fill the most convenient shelves full and move along as new books are
received. The labor of moving is purely mechanical and will be found
very trifling indeed, compared with the advantages gained. But even
this labor is almost entirely avoided by leaving space with each subject,
as is customary in most libraries, and correcting the allowances eacb
year as the books are replaced after cleaning. The second method has
a special value to a library lacking shelf room, for every inch of shelving
may be used regardless of the uneven growth of different subjects.
In the absolute location there may be fifty vacant shelves in theology
while there are a thousand volumes more than the history shelves will
contain. These shelves and books can be brought together only by a
hopeless mingling of subjects or a change of catalogue numbers through-
out. In our system the books are simply moved along till the new ac-
cession has room, as the cards are occasionally moved along in the card
catalogue drawers. It is as impossible to overflow the limits of any
subject on the shelves as it is in the card catalogue. In fact this fea-
ture of the system could be explained in no better way than to say that
the card catalogue principle, which has proved so valuable in arranging
titles on cards, is applied to the books on the shelves, and has all the
advantages over the old methods that the card system has over titles
pasted into volumes, where they must be frequently re-arranged in order
to make them of any value for reference. The librarian has never to
consult his shelves and shelf lists before he may know that there is a
place for the book he is locating, for every book printed has its place on
the shelves, relatively to its fellows, as much as every title has its place
in the card catalogue. The class number assigns it to this place and
all the rest of the labor is mechanical. Anv attendant takes the book
Catalogues and Cataloguing. 635
and puts it into its place in simple numerical order. To describe these
two widely difiterent systems of locating books, we usetbe terms relative
and absolute. We do not claim this relative location to be at all a new
idea, for it has been often used in other libraries. We do claim to have
found a method of securing its great advantages and at the same time
avoiding its great defects as heretofore used.
The failure of the dictionary plan to meet the requirements of the
scholar has been often pointed out. While it is most admirable for an
index, there still exists much of the same need of a good subject cata-
logue as at the first. No one questions the immense superiority of a
satisfactory classed catalogue. But the difficulties that stood in the
way both in making and using such a catalogue have been so great that
there has been a growing feeling among practical librarians that not-
withstanding the very great advantages of a good classed catalogue the
idea must be abandoned as impracticable. Still, many eminent authori-
ties have ably argued that the poorest classed catalogue is better than
none at all, and that any use of such a catalogue is in itself a lesson in
bibliography.
The greatest objection to a classed catalogue has ever been the im-
possibility of knowing just where to put a book in cataloguing, and just
where to look for it when it is again wanted. Different librarians, or
the same librarian at different times, classed the same or similar books
in widely different places. Where one man did all the work and held
his place for a long series of years there was a certain degree of uni-
formity ; but even then there was the danger of looking at the same
book from different standpoints, thus causing confusion. This danger
will be understood by any one who has ever attempted classification,
and is n-ot at all surprising when one considers how differently compe-
tent authorities often class the same subject. But, fortunately, practical
usefulness does not require that this one's or that one's ideas be followed,
but only requires that books of the same character be always put in the
same place, and that there be some means of readily knowing where
that place is. The index was designed, and is found in use, to meet
both these requirements. In making the index, each subject difficult
of classification is referred to a specialist, and the number of the class to
which it is decided to assign it is given after this subject in the index.
Whenever a book is catalogued, reference to this index decides at once
what number to give it. If the first number is wisely assigned, all suc-
ceeding ones are sure to be, for the class number was given once for all,
and it is only necessary to refer to the index to find what that class
number is, so it will be seen that a perfect uniformity in classing is se-
cured, for though any one familiar with the scheme will class most of
the books without the aid of the index, it will be consulted in all doubt-
ful cases. A new librarian is thus able to class in the same way that his
predecessors classed. A clerk, if he only knows the subject of his book,
by the use of the index, can class just as the chief of the catalogue de-
G36 Public Libraries in the United States.
partment would class, and usually the difficulty is not in deciding what
a book is about, but where to put it in the scheme. The index aims to
give similar words, and the same words in different connections, so that
any person of intelligence will hardly fail to get the right number. For
instance, " telegraph " in the index is followed by two numbers, 384 and
054. A booii on the telegraph may be a treatise on the desirability of
Government control, etc., and then is clearly a question of social sci-
ence, or it may be a practical hand-book for an operator, explaining the
alphabet and the care of the instruments, when it is as clearly one of the
useful arts. The cataloguer knows to which of these heads his book be-
longs, ami the reader knows in which of its phases he wishes to exam-
ine the subject. The 3*and 6 beginning the numbers indicate clearly
the character of each section. If the significance of these figures was
entirely disregarded no confusion would result, for on consulting either
of the numbers in the catalogue, the scheme, or on the shelves, the dif-
ference will be clearly pointed out.
The writer is aware that a subject index to accompany the classifica-
tion has been suggested, but he has seen none that at all answers the
purpose. In a book catalogue such an index could be made referring
to the page on which a subject is classed, but it w^ould be useless for a
card catalogue and unsatisfactory even for the printed volume. A sub-
ject index, referring all minor topics to their exact place in the scheme,
as does ours, would be found expensive in printing and inconvenient in
use, were it not for our numerical principle, which secures at once econ-
omy and ease of reference. Where we have only to print " Geometry,
513," such an index would have to print, " Geometry, natural science,
pure mathematics, geometry." This increases the bulk and expense of
the index and so is objectionable, but the great objection is on the score
of convenience; reference to a simple numerical arrangement being so
much quicker and easier of comprehension by the public who use a
library than involved alphabets and subalphabets with their ramifica-
tions. No individual is sufficiently learned to wisely classify books on
all subjects and sciences ; but the botanist can assign all botanical
subjects to the right number, the mathematician all the mathematical
toi)ics, and thus, by the aid of specialists, the index can in time be made
reasonably accurate. When thus made, the labor of classifving the
books of a library will be reduced to much narrower limits than ever
before. Corrections of any errors that may remain in the index will
be gratefully received by the author. It is plain that this index serves
equally well for the reader who wishes to know where to seek for books
on any subject.
Some prominent opponents of classed catalogues have admitted that
the subject index, in deciding where to class a book at first and where
to look for it ever afterward, has removed their strongest objections.
Certainly it would be impossible to make an index more cheaply or more
easy of reference, it being a single alphabet of single words, followed
Catalogues and Cataloguing. 637
by siugle numbers. The index is really a skeleton of a dictionary cata-
logue. Instead of giving the book titles under each head, the number
refers to all those titles in a way so simple and direct that it will hardly
be criticised. The index may be made on any of the various dictionary
plans, with all the advantages it may possess. To us the simplest
seemed the best. We have given only very short headings in this
index, but it is probable that one will be prepared, giving a brief indi-
cation in all doubtful cases of the standpoint taken in assigning the
class number. We therefore claim to unite the advantages of the
dictionary and classed catalogues, not by mingling them together, and
so losing much of the simplicity of oiie and as much of the excellence
of the other, but by really using both, each with its own merits. Only
one set of titles is needed, for the class numbers make them available
for both catalogues.
The advantages that the system possesses for making topical indeies
of collected works, periodicals, transactions, etc., will be evident to
every librarian. These consolidated indexes may be arranged together
with the card catalogue of the books, or by themselves, as may seem
best in each case.
These class numbers applied to pamphlets have proved specially satis-
factory. The number is written on the upper left corner, and the
pamphlets are then arranged, either in pamphlet cases with the books on
the same subject or on special shelves, divided every decimetre by per-
pendicular sections. As each pamphlet is examined when received by
the library, it is the work of a single moment to pencil on it its class num-
ber. There is no expense whatever incurred, and yet the entire pamphlet
resources of the library on any subject can be produced almost instantly.
The immense advantages of this plan over those in common use, both
in economy and usefulness, will be appreciated by every librarian caring
for a pamphlet collection. A catalogue of authors may be made on slips,
if desired. The pamphlets themselves are the best subject catalogue.
The same arrangement is admirable for sale duplicates. They are so
constantly changing that a catalogue can hardly be afforded, and a sub-
ject arrangement on any other plan than this is difficult to maintain.
Still it is very essential that there be some means of knowing what dupli-
cates there are on any given subject. By simply penciling the class
number on the books and arranging them numerically, it is possible to
give this information more quickly and more satisfactorily than by any
other method, and at the same time the least expense is incurred. It is
thought that the plan would be a great convenience to both dealers and
customers, if applied to the miscellaneous stock of a large bookstore.
Very often a much wanted book, especially if not recently published, is
reported "not in stock" when such an arrangement by subjects would
have revealed its place at once. Specialists often find on the shelves
books that they would never have ordered, but are glad to buy after
an examination. Experience proves it a profitable thing for a dealer to
638 Public Libraries in the United States.
have his books so arranged that each person may find those in which he
is interested without examining the entire stock.
Though designed wholly for library use, the plan has proved of great
service in preserving newspaper clippings in large envelopes arranged by
class numbers; and more especially in taking the place of the common
note book, and index rerum. Slips of uniform size are used with the class
number of the subject written oti the corner. Minute alphabetical head-
ings are used under each class number and the slips are arranged in
numerical order like the subject card catalogue. Clippings and notes
arranged in this w^ay are at all times their own complete index, and
have the same advantages over the common scrap and note books that
the subject catalogue has over the accessions book in looking up the
resources of the library on any given subject. Those who have tried
this method are so enthusiastic iu its praise that it seemed worthy of
mention in this place.
It would exceed the limits of this brief description to notice all the
varied applications of the system. It is hoped that enough have been
mentioned to show its wide adaptability to the wants of the librarian
and the student.
The system is so flexible that it adapts itself to almost any circum-
stances. It may be used in any one of its applications without the others,
and with a proportionate result. It may be applied to the pamphlets
alone, bringing order out of chaos, and solving this vexed and vexing
problem, or it may be used for the catalogues, leaving the arrangement on
the shelves as before; or it may be applied to the shelves, while the cata-
logue is on the dictionary or any other plan. This application to the
shelves may be either with or without the book numbers. If without, the
books are arranged on the shelves alphabetically by authors under each
class number. For a private collection, or a library where the books are
not loaned from the building, this last plan has some marked advantages.
The books on any subject, by the same author, always stand side by
side whatever the time of their reception ; and what is more important,
the author and subject being known, the exact place of the book can be
found without catalogue or index. On the other hand the invaluable
shelf list must either be wholly abandoned or kept on cards in order to
retain the titles in place, thus sacrificing much of its accuracy and con-
venience for examining and verifying ; and (a much more serious objec-
tion) in order to identify the book the authors name and frequently a
part of the title must accompany the class number on all the records?
catalogues, and references. These objections, with the almost certain
confusion of different authors of the same name, or very similar names,
make the alphabetical arrangement almost impracticable for a circu-
lating library. The same objections apply with almost the same force
to a numerical arrangement based on the alphabet, for the indetinite-
ness thus introduced becomes a source of confusion iu any library where
much of the routine work must be done by attendants of little expe-
rience.
Catalogues and Catalofjuing. 639
If the system be used only in the catalogues, the shelf number should
be penciled on the card to avoid a second reference to find where ihe
book is; the subject catalogue will be arranged by the class num-
bers, and the authors' catalogue should also give the class number
to indicate the character of the book. If tfie system be used only for
arranging on the shelves, the shelf list will, of necessity, be a brief sub-
ject catalogue ; the call numbers, whether in an author's or dictionary
catalogue, will indicate the exact nature of the book, and books on the
same subject will stand together on the shelves. The system is most
valuable, of course, when used in all its applications.
If our class numbers Avere omitted in the -scheme and on the cards,
there would be left the ordinary classed catalogue. Of course, if these
numbers are applied to the cards of a subject or authors' catalogue,
arranged on any other plan, the catalogue becomes identical with ours
by simply rearranging the cards numerically. A catalogue is a collec-
tion of titles as a library is a collection of books, and the question
at issue is merely one as to the best arrangement of these titles; the
scheme, therefore, can be applied to almost any kind of card catalogue,
without any waste of labor, for the titles wanted are the same, and it
is only necessary to have space enough somewhere on the card to write
the class and reference numbers.
We found on trial that cards 15 by 7J centimetres are the most de-
sirable for the subject catalogue, and 10 by U for the authors' index.
We use a green card, projecting 5 millimetres above the white, as a
guide-board, preferring it to the wooden guide-boards commonly used
because of economy in first cost and in space occupied. In the author's
catalogue, these green cards take the place of the head-lines in a dic-
tionary. In the subject catalogue, each subject is preceded by a green
card, giving the heading as in the scheme, and in many cases with
greater fulness. This heading is always prefixed with the class number.
The catalogue may thus be used as if there were no class numbers, for
its headings are as clearly pointed out as in any classed catalogue. In
practical use, however, even those least familiar with the scheme will
work by numbers rather than headings, as it is so much more convenient
and rapid.
The plan was adopted in the Amherst College Library in 1873, and
the work of transferring the entire library to the new catalogue at
once commenced. It was found entirely practicable to make the cliange
gradually, as means allowed, without interfering in any appreciable
degree with the circulation of the books. As no shelf in the library
contained more than fifty books, the only distinction necessary to pre-
vent confusion between the two systems in use at the same time was to
omit the first fifty book numbers of each class, numbering, e. g., the first
English Grammar 425-51, instead of 425-1. The attendants immediately
recognized any book number above 50 as belonging to the newsystem,
and no confusion resulted. The books are taken from the shelves for
recataloguing only as fast as needed; the new class number is immedi-
640 Fithlic Libraries in the United States.
ately substituted for the old shelf number, and the books are placed in
the classified portion of the library. When the old shelves are cleared
the book numbers from 1-50 will be assigned as fast as books are received.
As the shelf catalogue is on loose sheets, there is nothing to be altered
or rewritten. The new sheet for the books from 1-50 is laced in just
before the others, and the order is as perfect as if it had been done at the
first. No extra labor is required, and still the confusion and interrup-
tion of circulation incident to recataloguing on other plans are avoided.
Tlie three years' trial to which it has been thus subjected has more than
justified the claims of its friends, and it is now printed with the more
confidence on this account. It has been kept in manuscript up to this
time, in order that the many miuor details might be subjected to actual
trial and modified where improvement was possible.
The labor involved in preparing the classification and index has been
wholly beyond the appreciation of any who have never attempted a
similar task. Much valuable aid has been rendered by specialists in
many departments, and nearly every member of the faculty has given
advice from time to time. Among the many to whom thanks are due,
special mention should be made of Mr. C. A. Cutter, the librarian of
the Boston Athenaeum, and Mr. John Fiske, of the Harvard University
Library, for valuable suggestions and appreciative criticism. While
these friends are in no way responsible for any remaining imperfections
in the scheme, they should have credit for many improvements which
have been made during these three years of revision. The author is
perfectly well aware that the plan here sketched offers many incon-
sistencies. Tiie difficult}', however, has not been in criticising the
scheme as drawn up, but in finding better headings to take the place of
those which are not wholly satisfactory. Though a great deal of labor
has been spent in selecting these heads, the author's claims of excellence
are made for his plan, not at all for its execution in this first attempt.
The essential character of the plan has remained unchanged from the
first. Doubtless other improvements are still possible, and it is hoped
that users of the scheme will call attention to any proposed change in
the naming or arrangement of the headings, or to any omission which
should be supplied in the subject index. It is obvious that there would
be very great incidental advantages if libraries adopting the plan would,
as far as possible, use the same classification and index. In such' cases
the catalogues and indexes of any library would be of great value to
the others, and in many ways it would be mutually advantageous to the
libraries concerned.
Before printing, the plan was submitted to quite a number of libra-
rians for criticism. Among the hundreds of points raised as to its prac-
tical workings and usefulness, there was only one in which it was not
shown to beequal or superior to any other system known. This objec-
tion applied only to the arrangement on the shelves ; not at all to the
catalogues or indexes. It was, that in this relative location, a book
which this year stands, e. g.. at the end of a certain shelf, may not be
Catalogues and Cataloguing. C41
on that shelf at all another year, becanse of the uneven growth of the
l)arts of the library. This slight objection inheres in any system where
the books are arranged by subjects rather than by windows, doors,
shelves, and similar nou intellectnal distinctions.
The claims of the system as in use with us may be summed up as
follows : Compared with other systems it is less expensive 5 more easily
understood, remembered, and used : practical rather than theoretical ;
brief and familiar in its nomenclature; superior to all others in arrang-
ing pami)hlets, sale duplicates, and notes, and in indexing; susceptible
of partial and gradual adoption without confusion ; more convenient in
keeping statistics and checks for books off the shelves; the most satis-
factory ada])tation of the card catalogue principle to the shelves. It
requires less space to shelve tlie books; uses simpler symbols and fewer
of them ; can be expanded without limit and without confusion or waste
of labor on both catalogues and shelves or in the catalogues alone;
checks more thoroughly and conveniently against mistakes; admits
more readily numerous cross-references; is unchangeable in its call
numbers, and so gives them in all places where needed, as given in no
other system ; in its index affords an answer to the greatest objection to
classed catalogues, and is the first satisfactory union of the advantages
of the classed and dictionary system.
In this hurriedly prepared account of his plan, the author has doubt-
less failed to meet many objections which may be raised and which he
could easily answer. He would therefore ask the privilege of replying
personally to any such objections, where they arise.
In his varied reading, correspondence, and conversation on the sub-
ject, the author doubtless receiv^ed suggestions and gained ideas which
it is now impossible for him to acknowledge. Perhaps the most fruitful
source of ideas was the Nuovo sistema di catalogo bibiliogratico generale
of Natale Battezzati, of Milan. Certainly he is indebted to this system
adopted by the Italian publishers in 1871, though he has copied nothing
from it. The i)lan of the St. Louis Public School Library and that
of the Apprentices' Library of New York, which in some respects re-
semble his own, were not seen till all the essential features were decided
upon, though not given to the public. In filling the nine classes of the
scheme the inverted Baconian arrangement of the St. Louis Library
has been followed. The author has no desire to claim original invention
for any i>art of his system where another has been befoi^e him, and would
most gladly make specific acknowledgment of every aid and suggestion
were it in his power to do so. With these general explanations and
acknowledgments he submits the scheme, hoping it may prove as useful
to others as it has to himself.
[To illustrate and explain the description of the Amherst College
Catalogue given in the preceding text, the author has added the follow-
ing notes embracing specimen pages of the classification and subject-
index, and a description of the catalogues used, with an explanation of
their metliod and peculiarities. — Editoks.]
41 E
642
Public Libraries in the United States.
I. — SPECIMEN PAGES OF CLASSIFICATION.
PHILOLOGY.
400 Philology. |
450 Italian.
401
Philosophy.
451
Orthography.
402
Compeods.
452
Etymology.
403
Pictioiiaries.
453
Dictionaries.
404
Essays.
454
Synonyms.
405
Periodicals.
455
Grammar,
406
Societies.
456
Prosody.
4&7
Education.
457
Dialects.
408
Travels.
458
Texts.
40&
History.
459
Roniansch and Walhxchia-i
410 Comparative. |
460
Spanish.
411
Orthography.
481
Orthography.
412
Etymology.
462
Etymology.
4i;i
Dictionaries.
463
Dictionaries.
414
PhonoJogy.
464
Synonyms.
415
Grammar,
465
Grammar.
416
Prosody.
466
Prosody.
417
luscriptions.
467
Dialects.
418
Tests.
468
Texts.
419
Hieroglypbies,
469
Portuguese.
420
English.
470
Latin.
421
Orthography.
471
Orthography.
422
Etymology.
472
Etymology.
423
Dictionaries.
473
Dictionaries,
424
Synonyms.
474
Synonyms.
425
Grammar,
475
Grammar.
426
Prosody,
476
Prosody.
427
Dialects.
477
Dialects.
428
Texts.
478
Texts.
429
Saxon.
479
Medieval Latin.
430
German.
480
Greek.
431
Orthography.
481
Orthography.
432
Etymology.
4H2
Etym()log\'.
433
Dictionaries-,
483
Dictionaries.
434
Synonyms.
484
Synonyms.
435
Grammar.
485
Grammar,
436
Prosody.
486
Prosody.
4:^.7
Dialects.
487
Dialects.
4M
Texts.
488
Texts,
439
Dutch and Lott German.
489
Modern Greek.
440
French,
490
Other Languages.
441
Orthography.
491
Chinese.
442
Etymology,
492
Egyptian.
443
Dictionaries.
493
Semitic.
444
Synonyms.
494
Indian.
445
Grammar.
495
Iranian,
446
Prosody.
496
Keltic,
447
Dialects.
497
Slavic.
448
Texts.
498
Scandinavian.
449
Old French, Piorengal.
499
Other.
Catalogues and Cataloguing.
G43
■ SPECIMEN PAGES OF CLASSIFICATION.
NATURAL SCIEXCE.
500 Natural Science. I
550
G-eology.
501
PLiilosophy.
551
Physical geography, meteorolojy
502
Compends.
552
Lithology.
503
Dictionaries.
5.-.3
Dynamical geology.
504
Essays.
554
Europe.
505
Periodicals.
555
Asia.
506
Societies.
556
Alrica.
507
Education.
557
North America.
508
Travels.
558
South America.
509
History.
5r,9
Oceauica.
510
Mathematics.
560
Paleontology.
511
Aritlmietic.
561
Plants.
512
Algebra.
5(52
Invertebrates.
513
Geometry.
563
Protozoa and Radiates.
514
Trigonometry.
564
MoUusca.
515
Conic sections.
565
Articulates.
516
Analytical geometry.
566
Vertebrates,
517
Calculus.
567
Fishes.
518
Quaternions.
568
Reptiles and Birds.
519
Probabilities.
569
Mammals.
520,
Astronomy.
570
Biology.
521
Theoretical.
571
Prehistoric Archoeology.
522
Practical.
572
Ethnology.
523
Descriptive.
573
Natural History of Man.
524
525
526
Maps.
Observations,
Figure of the earth.
574
575
Morphologies.
Evolution,
527
Navigation
576
577
Embryology.
Spontaneous generation.
528
Almanacs.
529
Chronology.
578
579
Microscopy.
Collectors' manuals.
530
Physics.
580
Botany.
531
Mechanics.
581
Physiological.
532
Hydrostatics.
582
Systematic.
533
Pneumatics.
583
Geographical.
534
Heat.
584
Europe.
535
Acoustics.
585
Asia.
536
Optics.
586
Africa.
537
Electricity.
587
North America.
538
Magnetism.
o8S
South America.
539
Molecular physics.
589
Oceanica.
540
Chemistry.
590
Zoology.
541
Theoretical.
591
Comparative anatomy.
542
Experimental.
592
Invertebrates.
543
Analysis.
593
Protozoa and Radiates.
544
Qaalitative.
594
MoUusca.
545
Quantitative.
595
Articulates.
546
Inorganic.
596
Vertebrates.
547
Organic.
597
Fishes.
548
Crystallography.
593
Reptiles and Birds.
549
Mineralogy.
599
Mammals.
644
PuUic Libraries in the United States.
II. — SPECIMEN PAGE OF THE SUBJECT INDEX.
Find the subject in tliis alphabetical index. The number following it is its class
number. The entire resources of the library on this subject will be found under this
number in the subject catalogue, the shelf catalogue, and on the shelves.
Where a class number ends in a cipher, the subject will be fouud on reference to the
prefixed classification, to be subdivided.
Ritualism 244
Paver transportation 387
Kivers 551
Roads C25
Rocky Mouutains 557,917
Rorientia 599
Jioinan antiquities 937
architecture 722
Catholics 282
history, ancient 937
modern . . 945
law 349
literature 870
mythology 292
sculpture 733
Romance 813
English 823
French 843
German 833
Italian 853
Spanish 863
Romance languages 440-469
Romansch language 459
Rome, ancient 9.'J7
modern 945
Romish church 282
Rope making 077
Rubber manufactures 675
Ruminants 599
Rural architecture 728 i
Rural sports 796
Russia 947
Russian America 977
language 497
Sabbatarians 2s9
Sabbath 263
reform 203 1
schools 268
Sacrament of baptism 2C4
Lord's supper 265
3acred biography 922
rhetoric 251
Sacrifices 221
Saddlery 080
Sailors 387
St. Domingo 979
Sale catalogues of books . ..17, 18
fialt manufacture 0C4
Jlalvation 234
Sandwich Islands 937
Sanitary commissions 304
U.S. 36)
measures 014
Sanskrit language 494
Sardinia 945
Satan 235
Satire 8!7
English 827
French 847
German 837
Italian 857
Latin 877
Spanish 867
Savings banks 332
Saxon language 429
Saxons. 943
Scandinavia 918
Scandinavian language 498
literature ... 898
Scepticism 211
Schleswig-Holstein 943
Scholastic philosophy 198
School architecture 727
houses 727
Schools 378
Sunday 268
Schools of art 707
painting 753-7.")6
Science, 'Xatural 500
biogr.nphy of 925
Scientific societies 506
travels 503
Scotch language 496
philosophy 192
Scotland 941
Scriptures 220
Scrofulous diseases 616
Sculptors' lives 927
Sculpture 730
Seamanship 656,527
Secession 342
Second ad\eut 236
sight 133
Secret societies 366
Sects, Christian 260
Secular education 377
Self culture 374
education 374
Semitic languages 493
literature 893
Sensation 152
Sensational psychology 145
Sense 152
Sepulchres 718
Sepulture 614
Sermons w . 252-259
Serpents 598
Servants 647
Servia 949
Sewerage 614
Sewing 6=1
Sewing machine 681
Sex in education 376
Sexes 136
Sexual ethics 176
Sexual science 618
Shades and shadows 744
Shakers 289
Shaksperiaua 822
Sheep 036
Shells
fossil
Shemitic languages
Shipbuilding
canals 026,
Shipping laws.
Shoeniaking ..686,
Shooting ,.
Short liaud
Shrubbery
Siam
Siberia
Sicily
Sick room .
Sieges .
j Sight
1 1 hygiene
j Signals
Sign painting
Silk culture
manufactnre .
worm
Silver metal
mines
money
Sin
Singing
Sisters of ilercy. .
Skating
Skepticism
594
564
493
699
387
346
,675
799
653
716
959
957
945
649
623
536
613
654
677
,595
549
628
332
233
784
362
790
211
Catalogues and Cataloguing.
Specimen page of the subject index — Contiaued.
645
Skin diseases 61C [
Skye 941 ]
Slander 177,345
Slang 427,437,etc.
Slating C9o
Slavery 326
Slavic language 497
literature 897 j
Sleep 135
walking l;)5 [
Small-pox 616,614
Soapmaking 664
Social ethics 177
science 300
-worsbip 247
Socialisms 335
Societies, fine arts 706
general 60
history 906
literature 806
Societies, natural science. . . 506
philology 406
philosophy 106
sociology 306
theology 20fi
useful arts 606
Society 177
Sociology 300
biography ^ 923
Socratic philosophy 186
III. — CATALOGUES.
Accessions. — This gives, for each volume belonging to the library: date of reception,
accessions number, class, book, and volume number, author, short title, piaffe and date
of publication, size, binding, cost, fund, or, if presented, the donor; in the column of
remarks is noted any change, such as rebinding, adding supplements, or transferring
to another number ; or the disposition in case the vcduine be lost, sold, condemned, or
exchanged. The accessions number also appears on the shelf catalogue, and on the
reverse of the title page and in the center of the bookplate of each volume. This
catalogue contains facts not elsewhere recorded, and is used to identify books, and
check other catalogues, and to show by its last number the total volumes, and by its
last pages the latest additions to the library.
Index. — This is the official authors' catalogue, being the copy from vphich the public
authors' catalogue is printed. It differs from that in no respect, except that being on
cards its arrangement is in a single alphabet, while the public catalogue in book form
is continued in written supplements. This index is for the use of the librarians iu
checking the public catalogue.
Shelf. — This is the official subject catalogue, and gives the class, book, and volume
number of each volume, together with its accessions number, author, and short title.
It is on loose sheets, laced into an Emerson binder, and is arranged like the public
subject catalogue by class numbers. It differs from that iu being in.book form instead of
ou cards — arranged under each class in the order of the books on the shelves instead of
alphabetically by authors — and iu giving merely an abbreviated title in place of the full
title, imprint, notes, and cross references of the subject catalogue. It is used iu the
annual examination of the library, and also serves as the librarian's subject catalogue,
giving a compact list of all the books which the library has on any given subject.
The accessions, index, aud' shelf catalogues are kept at the desk for the use of the
librarians, and are not accessible to the public. Iu cases of need, consultation is al-
lowed ou special application.
Suhject catalogue. — This catalogue is on large cards arranged by subjects, and alpha-
betically by authors, under eacli class number. Each card gives at the top the class
and book number aud the name of the author ; the body of the card contains the full
title of the books, copied exactly from the title page, omitting only mottoes, repeti-
tions, or other matter not essential to a full and clear titular description of the book.
After the title, is given the place and dato of publication, with the j^ear of the copy-
right, if different; the edition, unless it be the first; the number of volumes or of
pages if the book bo iu only one volume; the illustrations, maps, plates, and por-
traits, if there be any ; aud the size taken from actual measurement and not from the
fold. After these imprint entries are given any necessary notes ; aud at the. left of the
card the cross-reference numbers if the book treats of more than one subject.
This catalogue can be used to advantage only with the aid of the classification or
index. In order to learn what the library has on any given subject, find from this
index the class number of that subject. Under this number in the subject catalogue
will be found the full titles of the books with imprints, cross references, and notes.
The class number by which the cards are arranged is given iu the upper left corner,
I
646 Public Libraries in the United States.
and immediatply under it the book number. Any other class number given in the
left-baud margin refers to another subject of which the book also treats. When the
class number at the top is followed by an additional figure in brackets, the subject as
given in the printed scheme has been subdivided in arranging the cards. This sub-
division will be found on the first card of the catalogue which bears this class number.
These figures in brackets determine the arrangement of the titles in the catalogue, but
ou the shelves, iu the shelf catalogue, and in calling for and charging books, they are
entirely disregarded. Thus a book numbered 942[7]-14 would be in the catalogue
among the 942 cards arranged by the figure iu brackets as though it were a decimal,
but it would be called for as 942-14, the brackets indicating that the final classing was
limited to the catalogue aud was not extended to the shelves. If a fourth figure is
added without brackets, the final classing is extended to the shelves as well as to the
catalogue, and all the figures must be used in calling for tlje book. In such cases the
added figure is treated as a decimal iu the arrangement, though the decimal point is
not written.
The last card which bears any class number gives under that niimber, followed by
the word See, the call numbers of other books which treat of the same subject, but are
classed elsewhere. General cross references are also made in many cases, without speci-
fying individual books, as from commerce as a question of social science (3S0) to com-
merce as a useful art, book-keeping, business manuals, etc., (650.) In such cases there
is a card under 380 See 650 and uuder 650 See 380. From whatever standpoint a
subject is approached the cross references guide at once to the same subject treated in
its other relations. These cross references, both general and specific, are often accom-
panied by brief notes, characterizing the books to which reference is made. There will
be found at the beginning of many class numbers, a card noting the most valuable
books ou that subject, and the best of the articles in periodicals, transactions, and, col-
lected works, with the volume and page where they may be found. It is hoped to give
special prominence to these notes for the guidance of readers, and they will be added
as rapidly as other duties allow.
Many subjects will have uo subsection cards at the beginning; some will have no
reference cards at the end ; and some may have no titles given under the number.
The scheme provides a place for books ouall subjects, whether the library has them or
not ; so where no titles are given uuder a class number it shows that the library has as
yet no books on that subject.
Articles iu periodicals and transactions, separate volumes of sets aud collections
which are located together, if catalogued, are put uuder their proper subject number,
but no book number is given with it. The call number of the book, where they maybe
fouTul, is always given in the margin preceded by the word In.
This is the fullest of the library catalogues, and should always be consulted in look-
ing Ujj the resources of the library ou any given subject. This catalogue is kept in
the case of drawers at th3 left of the desk. Under no pretence can the cards be taken
from beneath the wires.
Olaasification and suhject index. — This gives in detail the scheme of classification ac-
cording to which the books are arranged on the shelves, and in the subject catalogues.
Following this sclieine is the alphabetical index of subjects, which refers any subject
to its proper heading iu the classification. This subject index is the key to the shelves,
and to the subject catalogue, near which copies are kept for the use of the public.
Explanations aud directious for use accompany it.
^tiitltors' catalogne. — This gives, under the names of authors, societies, etc., alphabet-
ically arranged, brief titles of all their works which the library contains. Books
edited, translated, etc., are also included among an authors works, but are priuted in a
distinctive type.
This catalogue is of authors only, and should not be consulted for either subjects or
titles. The titles of books published without the authors' names are arranged in an
alphabet by themselves at the end of the catalogue, aud if the names can iu any way
be found they are also entered in their regular places.
Catalogues and Cataloguing. 647
Books adiletl to the library after the printing of this catalogue must of nacessity be
sought for in the written supplement. In using this supplement it must be remem-
bered that exact alphabetical arrangement of the names under each letter is not always
practicable, though books are entered as nearly as possible in their true order. When
the author of the book wanted is known, this catalogue should always be consulted to
liud the class and book number by which to call for it. Explanations are given in the
preface to the catalogue, and five copies with the written supplement are kept on the
counter for the use of the public.
JV.-EXPLANATIOXS.
The titles of the subject catalogue are exact transcriptions of the title page, neither
amended, translated, nor in any way altered, except that mottoes, titles of authors,
repetitions, or matter of any kind not essential to a clear titular description, are
omitted. Omissions of mottoes are indicated by three stars (* * *); of other mut-
ter by three dots (. . .). The phraseology, spelling, and punctuation of the title
are exactly copied; but capitals are given only to proper names and adjectives, and
initial words of sentences. Any additions needed to make the title clear are supplied
and inclosed by brackets.
After the titles, are given in order : the place of publication ; the year ; the year of
copyright, if different, in brackets ; the edition ; the number of volunies,or of pages
if in only one volume; the illustrations, maps, plates, or portraits; and the size
nearest in the arbitrary scale, regardless of the fold of the sheet. This scale gives the
nearest heights in decimeters, outside measurement: Square and oblong books have
the size prefixed by sq. or ob. Books 1 decimeter high are called 32" ; 1.5 decl., 16"; 2
deci., 12°; 2.5 deci., 8"; 3 deci., 4°; and all others are marked simply by the nearest
height, i. e., a book marked 4 is between 3.5 and 4.5 decimeters high. In books having
more than one pagination the number of pages is indicated by giving the last number
of each pagination connected by a -{- J an added + indicates additional matter unpaged.
These imprint entries give the facts regardless of the tiWe page, and are left blank
only when they can be ascertained neither from the book itself nor from other sources.
The contents of volumes are given when on title pages, or when necessary to prop-
erly identify the volume, but no analysis is attempted. Necessary notes are given at
the bottom of the subject card after the imprint entries.
Duplicates are simply marked copy 2, copy 3, etc., and bear the same class and book
number, hut editions of the same book distinct in character are catalogued separately.
In all the catalogues, books are entered under the surnames of authors when known ;
under the initials of authors' names, when these only appear, the last initial being put
first; under the pseudonyms of the writers, when the real names are not ascertained ;
under the names of editors of collections ; under the names of countries, cities, societies,
or other bodies which are responsible for their publication; under the first word not an
article of the titles of periodicals, and of anonymous books the names of whose
authors are not ascertained. Commentaries with the text, and translations are entered
under the heading of the original work, but commentaries without the text are entered
under the name of the commentator. The Bible or any part of it in any language is
entered under the word Bible. Books having more thau one author are entered under
the first named on the title.
In the headings of titles, the names of authors are given in their vernacular form.
In English and French surnames beginning with a prefix, (except the French de and.
d',) the name is recorded under the prefix. In other languages and in French names
beginning with de and d', the name is recorded under the word following the prefix.
Compound surnames are entered under the first part of the name. Noblemen and
ecclesiastical dignitaries are entered under their fa-nily names, but sovereigns, princes.
Oriental writers, friars, persons canonized, and all other i)ersons known only by their
first name, are entered under this -first name.
648 Public Libraries in the United States.
The catalogue is not a biographical dictionary ; it therefore only gives the names of
authors with sufficient fullness to distinguish them from each other in practical use.
Names in full face lype are the ruling headings under which the books are en-
tered in t\ie various catalogues. Entries not beginning with this type are in addition
to the first or main entry, and are made under the names of translators, editors, com^
nientators, continuator.s, etc., as participators in the authorship; also, in the case of
books having more thaii one author, or Iiaving both generic and specific titles, or pub-
lished by societies or other bodies, aud having also the name of the individual author.
These additional entries are made in order to carry out the plan of the authors' cata-
logue, which aims to give under each author's name all his works which the library
contains.
The works of an author known by more than one name are given all together under
the form of name chosen. Any other name or title by whicli he may be known, if it
differs in the first three letters, is entered in its alphabetical place, followed by the
word See and the name under which the books are entered. Sach cross references have
no titles given under them, but are simply guides to the name choseu.
A single dash indicates the omission of the i^receding heading; a subsequent dash
indicates the omission of a subordinate heading or of a title. A dash connecting num-
bers' siguiiies io and inclad'uir/ ; following a number, it signifies continuation. A ? fol-
lowing a word or entry,- signifies prohcihhj. Brackets inclose words added to titles or
changed in form.
The German diphthongs il, o, ii are written ae, oe, ue.
Dates are all given in years of the common calendar, and Arabic numerals are uni-
formly used for all numbers.
IL— PLAN OF ^'EW CATALO(^UE OF THE BROOKLYN MER-
CANTILE LIBRARY.
A DICTIONARY CATALOGUE DIFFERENT TfROM SOME OTHERS — EXAMPLES OF DIFFER.
EXCKS — Subject class lists — Cross kefehexces — Analysis of polygraphic
WORKS — Indexes of periodicals — Fac stmile examples.
TLe work belongs to what is called the dictionary type, with, bow-
ever, some material variations from the arrangement of subject matters
adopted by the Boston Public Library and by the Boston Athenaeum.
As in the Boston plan, there is one general index, including, 1, Authors ;
2, Titles-^ 3, Subjects; but 4, using certain general class headings, such
as Eicgrapliy, (individual subjects,) Countries, (alphabetical arrange-
ment,) Fiction, (alphabetical arrangement of authors and titles,) and
Plays, (alphabetical arrangement of authors and titles found in col-
lections,) which are composed of material which in the Boston catalogues
is scattered throughout the general alpliabet, but which in this cata-
logue is abstracted from the general alphabet, forming separate class
lists. Besides this departure from the Boston methods, there are other
points of ditference.
1. The Boston catalogues place, under the name of the country, all
subject matters having any association, immediate or remote, with
Countries; such i'.s, 1, Dcscrqitwn and Travel, History, and Political In-
Stitnti:,)t,s-; as also Arts and Sciences, Costume, Fine Arts, Heraldry, Lan-
guage, Law, Literature, Music, Poetry, etc. ; leaving for the range of sub-
jects last meutioued only such works as are general in their scope.
Catalogues and Cataloguing. 619
I have aimed to draw some line between what relates to the pliysical,
material, political, and social condition of a country, e. g., what we might
expect to find in a geographical and historical gazetteer, and to make
the national feature of such subjects as Aits and Sciences, Costume,
Fine Arts, etc., subordinate to the generic subject.
2. The Boston catalogues enter a book at once under its most
specific heading, while as a rule my method entt^rs it under the most
gi3neral subject class heading plus its most specific subheading. Thus
I make Lochs and Keys a subhead of Arts (Useful), making a cross
reference from Locks and Keys in the general alphabet to Arts (Useful:
Locks and keys). My scheme is designed —
1. To aftbrd readers comprehensive class lists, or subject class lists,
containing all the works the library offers in certain great departments,
such as Biblical, religious, and ecclesiastical literature; Biography; Eistory,
Geography and Travels, and National institutions (represented by Coun-
tries;) Fiction; Government and politics; Language; Literature; Political
economy ; Social science ; Man (including anthropology, ethnology, and
Prehistoric man) ; Philosophy; Physics, etc.
2. To arrange the specific subheads of larger subject headings in the
most perspicuous and economical way, consolidating cognate subheads
when possible, and making cross references when needed.
3. To place in the general alphabet any such topic as, in my judg-
ment, is on the one hand too fragmentary or insulated, or on the other
hand too complex and many sided to be made a subheading under any
one comprehensive heading; as, 1, ArgDua^itic expedition; 2, Botany.
4. Under any large class, such as BibUcal, religious, and theological
literature, to make cross references from one subhead to other cognate
subheads, and in the general alphabet to make cross references from
subheads to the general class plus the subhead.
5. The arrangement under class headings ought at least to be as obvious
as the general arrangement of the catalogue, or as the arrangement of
titles under an author. Tiie question as to whether a work is most con-
cerned with subject or with form need not trouble any one, if, as an
object of inquiry, it is placed under the proper heading, along with like
■works, and if it is made easy for the inquirer to find it. The catalogue
is designed to secure, as far as possible, in one alphabet, an index to
authors, titles, class headings, subject class headings, specific subjects
and subheads, so that the inquirer may at once be directed to what ho
is in search of.
Considerable attention has been given to the analysis of polygraphic
works, this extending to the class of miscellaneous essays, and to some
portion of the periodical literature issued since 1852, the date of Mr.
Poole's Index. The class of Biography already printed includes much
of such material. Out of about 11,000 entries, 2,900 are to independent
works, 5,400 to volumes of essays, and 2,000 to articles in periodicals.
Some specimens of the catalogue as printed are given below, to show
650 Public Libraries in the United States.
the typographical arrangement, and as a context to accompany the
foregoing remarks. Pages 3D, 40, 77, and 109 scarcely require any ex-
planation. On pp. 252-253' tbere are examples of cross references from
title to author, several from subheads to their respective classes, and
specimens of author entries. Contents are sometimes arranged in the
natural order, and sometimes indexed in alphabetical order. The prece-
dent set by Mr, Cutter, in his Catalogue of the Boston Athenaium, in
using a larger or brevier type for whole books, and a smaller or nonpareil
type for parts of books and pamphlets, has been for the most part followed.
As a rule, author entries take not more than two lines, frequently not
more than one. In classes, the place of publication and size are omitted,
and titles frequently come witliin one line when printed in brevier, and
do so in the great majority of cases when printed in nonpareil. Cross
references and title entries are always i)rinted in nonpareil and rarely
occupy more than one line.
It should be observed that the specimens of the catalogue appended
are not strictly speaking fac-simile reproductions. The columns of
the Brooklyn catalogue being wider, many titles come within one line
which in the S[)ecimens take two lines. As actually printed there are
two columns to a page, the brevier type allowing 81 and the nonpareil
type 102 lines for titles. The number of types to each line, including
spaces, would be about 57 brevier and 65 nonpareil ; not in<;luding
spaces, would be about 41 brevier and oi nonpareil. The dimensions of
the whole page are 9J x 5-^-q inches.
I. EXAMPLES.
[Commencement of subject cl.ass list of Arts (Useful) aud manufactures.]
[Top of page 39.]
ARTS (USEFUL) AND MANUFACTURES. 39
With TVorls Introductorij to the Study and Philosophy of Science.
XOTR.—Tlio following subjects are assigned independent places in the general alphabet, iv'z; Agri-
culture ;— Animal magnetism ;— Anthropology ;— Archaeology ;— Architecture ;— Astronomy ;—
Biblical, Ecclesiastical, and Relig. literature; Birds and ornitli(dogy;— Botany ;— Chemistry ;—
Domestic economy;— Ethnology ;— Fine arts;— Geography;— Seology ;— Government and poli-
tics;—Hist3ry;--Ia303t3 and oiitomol(u;y;—Lingaage;— Law;— Logic;— Mathematics;— Medi-
cine ; — Microscope ; — Military science ; — Meteorology ; — Mineralogy ; — Moral science ;
Music;— Natural Uistory; -Naval science ;-Occalt sciences ;— Philosophy ;— Physics ;— Phre-
nology;—Policical economy ;— Shells and shell-ti.sh ;— Social sciences.
1. Introductory Worhs.
Method, Kutunl Rdnt'wns, and Hixlonj of the
Xatiiral and Flii/nical :ii:iences.
Bacon (F.) A dvaucement of learning, and Xovuni
or'ranum.
Spencer (IT.) Classification, etc. [In his Essays, v.
3, 1874) 2.S47.25
— Genesis of .science. [In his Essays.] . 254:5.19 ;
2547.23
Si/mond.1 {.T. A.) \In his Miscellanies, 18T1.] 2547.19
XVhewcU [M'tn.) [In his Thilosopliy of inductive
sciences. 2d part.] ....'... 402:5.00
Of the catalogue ; see pages G54-G55 of this volume.
Catalogues and Cataloguing.
651
I. EXAMPLES — Continued.
[Foot of page 39.]
Whewell (W.) History of the inductive sciences.
3v. 18.-.7 4023.01
■— Philosophv of inductive sciences. First part.
History i.f scientific ideas. 2 v. 1858. 4023.04
Same' Second part. Xovum organnin renova-
tnin. [Apliorisras concerning ideas; Of knowl-
edge: induction and cla.ssiflcatiou; Of method :
Of the language of science.] .... 402!.0G
112^ See aUo in the general alphabet, Cos-
mology;—Biblical and religious lit., (Religion
and science) ;— Evolution ;— Logic-
For essays see Calderwood (H.) Relation
of science and philos. [Coutenip. rev., v. Hi,
1871] ;.Kingsley (O ) Science, aL cture, [Fra-
ser's, V. 74, l^Cfi] ; Montagu (B.) Essays, 1839
[2537.04] ; Spencer (H.) What knowlediie is
most worth [ Westm.rev., v.72. IP5!l]; Sterling
(.J.) On the worth of knowledge. [In his
Essays, v.l. 2547.09.]
Ancient science.
Childhood of experimental philosophy. [ In Cham-
bers'Papers, v. 10.] ....... 251G.05
Goguet (A. Y.) Origin of art and sciences. 3 v.
1701 435.20
Napier (./.) Manufacturing arts in ancient times,
with special reference to Bible history.
1874 3041.11
C^y See also Aristotle, p- 35 ;— and Inven-
tions, below. Also Nat. qu. rev., v. 3, 1861.
(Ancient and modern .science) ; Oxford prize
essay.s, v. 1, 18.36 (In what arts Iiave Moderns
excelled Ancients) ;— Philosophy (Ancient).
Bihliography.
Royal societv of London. Catalogue of scientific
papers. 1800-1863. 5v 2736.01
Classification of Knowledge.
Ediuards (E.) [In his Memoirs on libraries, v.
2] 2744.02
Harris (IF. T) [In St. Louis- Pub. school Uhr.
Catitl. 1870 ]
Leslie (J. P.) [/n /iis Man's origin, 6<c. 1868.] 5RI3.16
MilliJ.S.) [ 7/1 /lis AugusteComte.ctc. 1866.] 5412 08
Pari; (ie.) [/;i /iw Pantology. 1843.] 2715.10
2. S^jecial Subjects.
Aerouautics.
[Air-travelling, Balloons, etc.]
Arago (D. F.) Aeronautic voyages. [Sm. rep
1863.] '. . . . . 3936.18
Glaisher (J.) Balloon ascensions. [Sm. rep.,
1363] 39.36.18
—Travels in the air. 1871 3927.20
Holland (R.), Mason (J/.), aiid Green (O.) Aero-
nautical exped. from London to Weilburg.
1837 In 5721.06
Marcy (M.) Phenomena of flight in the anima
kingdom. [Sm. rep., 1869.] .... 3936.24
Marion (F.) Wonderful balloon ascents
1870 3022.04
Pettigrew (J. B.) :\rodi-s of flight in relation to
aeronautics. |Sm- rep., 1867.] . . . 3936.22
Touriiachon (F.) A terre et en I'air. Menioires
du Geant [Ballon]. 1869. Par Xadar.
[pseud.] 3922.05
Tumor (H.) Astra castra; experiments and ad-
ventures in the atmosphere. 186.') . . 3927.21
Terne (J.) Five weeks in a balloon. [Fic-
tion.] 19129
Wise (J) System of aeronautics. 1850 . 3927.00
— Through ' the air : forty years' experience.
1873 '. 3927,33
Note.— See Boyal engineers. Papers, n. s.,
v. 12 [3917.12], for papers on Balloon reconnois-
sances.
Annual Records.
American Institute. Transactions, v. 6-32, 1847-8
_71.2 6117.06
i^o^e — Each yearly volume contains a leport
in relation to the annual exhibition, with ad-
dressei, scientific lectures, discussions of the
Farmers' club, transactions of the P(dytechnic
association, and proceedings of the Photo-
graphic section.
Annee scientifique et industrielle. Par L. Fi-
guier 3922.09
Same. Tables d6cenuales. i8.")0-lSfi5. 3922.10
Annuol of scientific discovery. Ed. l)y D. A. Wells
[and others]. 1849-71 . . . 3912.01 ; 3912.18
40
[Top of page 40.]
ARTS, USEFUL: Aqueducts to Cotton.
Annual record of science. Ed. by S. F. Baird.
1871-74 "... 3906.01
Arcana ot science and art. Ed. by J. Timbs. 11 v.
1828-38. 16^.
Note. — For continuation see Year-book of
facts,
rear-book of facts. Ed. by J. Timbs. 18.39-74. 3911.01
yearbook of nature and popular science. Ed. by
J. C. Draper. 187-2 3906.12
See also Periodicals, in this class.
Aqueducts.
Turnhull (W.) -Reports on the construction of the
piers of the aqueduct of Alexandria canal
across the Potomac river at Georgetown, V>. C.
183.1-40 3927.32
See also Waterworks.
Arches.
Baker (B.) On the strength of A. 1870 . 3926.26
See also Engineering, helow ,- and Archi-
tecture, P- 33.
Carriage-Painting.
871 . .
painter's
Arlot (—). Complete guide.
Gardner (F. B.) Carriage
1871 . .
3932.36
manual.
3932.41
Hub (The) and New York coachmaker's mag. v.
13-14, March, 1871— April, 1873.
Carriages.
Adams (W.B.) English pleasure carriages, etc.
1637 3932.42
Casting.
4matewr(r/ie) mechanics' -wiu'kshop. 1870. 3923.06
Cements, Limes, Mortars, and Concrete.
[Sec alio Masonry, page 44.]
Aiiderson (J.) Essay on quicklime, as a cement.
1799 6121.04
Beckivith (L. F.) Report on Beton-Coignet. [In
United States Commissioners to Paris Exhib.
Reports, V. 4. J 3915.12
652
Public Libraries in the United States.
I. EXAMPLES — Continued,
[Foot of page 40.]
Canals.
Armrnyd (G.) Internal navigation of tlie TJ. S-
18;j0 39-27.26
Frisi{F.) Essays on canals. 1861 . . . 40-25.2-i
Fultnn (R.) Iniijiovenient of canals. 1796. 3927.'2-2
Gt. Britain. Re])ort of commissioners [on the Cal-
edonian canal]. 1804 3927.24
Stevenson (D.) Canal and river engineering.
IH'a 3926.39
Tanner (M. S.) Canals of the United States.
liB40 3927.25
Carpentry and Joinery.
[See Architecture, p. 33.]
Cotton, and Cotton manufactures.
Arnold (R. A.) History of the cotton famine.
Iei64 5926.06
Baines (E.) History of the cotton manufacture in
Great Britain. 1835 3932.03
Baird (R. H.) American cotton spinner.
1851 3931.01
Dudley (J. G.) Growth, trade, and manufacture of
cotton. 1853 5926.08
Foley (E. D.) Cotton manufacturers' assistant.
1870 3931.07
Geldard (J.) Hand-hook' on cotton manufactures.
1867 3932.06
History of cotton ; including spinning, dyeing, and
weaving. 1853 3931.06
II. EXAMPLES.
[Beginning of suhjpct class list of religious and theological works, placed under Biblicalj as the in-
itial word, to secure direct reference to page from the suhheads.]
[Top of page 77.]
BIBLICAL, RELIGIOUS, AND ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE. 77
Alphabetical Arrangement of Suhjects.
Note.— Eeaders are reminded that a.s a rule Biblical and Theological Encyclopaedias
will afford the readiest means of arriving at information upon special topics, archaeo
logical, doctrinal, historical, personal, or otherwise.
.£i.bsolution.
Lloyd (R.) The power of the keys. 1873.. 3567. 21
Acts of the Apostles.
Alexander (J. A.) The Acts; expounded.
2v. 1861,
Arnot (W) Church in the house; lessons,
etc., 1874 3512. 12
Trial and condemnation of Pilate. Death of
Pilate. Stnry of Joseph of Ariniatliea. He-
vengiug of the Saviour. Syriac gospel of the
boyhood of Jesus.
Hone ( W.) Apocryphal J^ew Testament. 1846.
3757. 01
Contents : Gospel of the birth of Mary. Pro-
tevangelion by James the lesser. Gospel of
the infancy of Jesus Christ.
Apocryphal Gospels, Acts, etc.
Coivper {B. H.) Apocryphal gospels, etc., tr. with
notes, 1867.
Contents: Gospel of James. Psendo-Matthew,
or of the infancy of Mary and of Jesus. Gospel
of file nativity of Mary. History of Joseph
the carpenter. Gospel of Thomas. Arabic
gospel of tlie infancy. Letter of Ab^ar to
Jesus. Let.ter of Je.sua to Abgar. Letter of
Leiitulus. Prayer of Jesua, Son of Mary. Story
of Veronica. Gospel of Nicodemus, or Acts of
Pilate; 2d part, or Descent of Christ to the
underworld. Letter of Pilate to Tiberius. Let-
ters of Herod and Pilate. Kpistlo of Pilate to
Ciesar. Keport of Pilate, the governor.
[Foot of
Church histories, from the 16th century; and
the article ' Arrainianism ' in M'ClintOCk
and Strong's Cyclopedia, v. 1.
Arianisni. '
Newman (J. H.) Arians of the 5th century. 1871.
3413.22
See also Church history, from the 4th to
the 7th century ; also Creeds ;— Doctrines ;—
Trinitarianisin.
Astronomy and Religion.
Burr (J5. 2^.) Eoce cffilum. 1869 4016.05
Chalmers (T.) Discourses ou the christian revela-
tions, viewed in connection with the modern
astronomy. 1817 3532. 11
page 77.1
78
[Top of page 78.]
BIBLICAL AND RELIGIOUS WORKS : Astronomy to Bible.
2>(cA; (T.) Works, v. 2, 1853 5033.02
Contents : Celestial scenery. Siderial heav-
ens. Practical astronomer. Solar system.
Foster (J.) A. and revelation. [In his Critical es-
says, v. 2.] 2.52.1.01
Hervey (-T.) Contemplations on the starry heavens,
[irt /lis Meditations] 3,557.19
Mitchell (O. M.) Astronomy of the Bible. 1867.
4016.10
Ormafhwaite (Lord.) A. and geology comiiarcd.
1872 '. . 4013.07
5tor« and the earth. [a7i07i.] 1808. . . .4016.32
Bible.
Note. — For other hcndlnris relating to the
Bible see Apocrypha ;— Apocryphal ; -Del-
uge ;--Evidencas;— Old Testament;— New
Testament;— names of ditfcront Books of 0.
and N. T. ;- Parables ;— Religion and sci-
etice, etc., etc. AUo Jews ;— Palestine, and
names of sacred places (in class Countries)-
Botfield (/>.) *Prot'nces to tlio first editions of the
sacred Scriptures. 1801 2766.01
Catalogues and Cataloguing.
653
in. EXAMPLES.
[Beginning of Biography.!
[Top of page 109.]
BIOGRAPHY.— PART 1: COLLECTIVE WORKS.
Note. — Part 2, Individual Biography, begins on page IIC.
Uses of Biographti,
Adolphas {J. L.) Oxford prize essays, v.
3 2541.13
Broivn {J.B. ) On the uses of B. 1871 3024.12
CarlyU{T.) Essays 2517.12
Foster {J.) Critical essays, v. 2. 1856 252.=i.04
Helps \A.) Friends in council. 2d ser., v.
1 2531.2fi
Hood {E. P.) Uses of B. 1852 . 3082.16
Self Biography.
Disraeli (J.) Miscellanies. 1793. pp. 59-
77 2522.28
Foster (J.) On a man's writinjf memoirs of
himself. [/rt/ii.s Essays. 1835.] 5412.06
Hope {A. J.B.) Essays. 1844. pp. 209-
229 2532.18
Bihliofjraplnj.
*Oettinger (E. M.) BiUliographie biosra-
phique universelle. 2 v. 1854 . 2736.09
General Biographical Dictionaries.
[See also Encyclopaedias, in the general alphabet.]
Aiken (./., and others). General biography.
10 V. 1799-1815 3228.01
Appleton's cyclopiedia of biography. Edited
by F. L. Hawks. 1856 . . . 3236.01
Special collections.
Note.— The contents of most of these cnllec-
tioii:^, when not driven under the following head-
ings, will bo found under the authors' names, in
the general alphabet.
Adventurers.
Davenport {R. A.) Narratives of peril and
sufferinjr 3261.01
Contents .•— Cliarles Edward ; J. J. Casanova ;
"W. Maxwell ; eatl of Nithsdale ; Stanislaus
Leczinski, king of Poland ; H. (Jortez.
Wraxall {L.) Keuiarkable adventurers. 2
V 3264.23
American Biography : 1. Dictionaries.
Allen {TV.) American biographical diction-
ary. 3<1 ed. 1857 3247.01
Drake {F. S.) 'Dictionary of American
biography, including men of the time.
1872 3217.18
Rogers ( T. .1.) A new American biographi-
cal dictionary. 4th ed. 1829. . 3242.08
American Biography : 2. Miscellaneous
Collections.
American adventures by land and sea.
lanon.'i 1071.03
American Nepos. 2d ed. 1811. . . 3242.07
[Top of last page of Biography.]
BIOGRAPHY (INDIVIDUAL): V/ycliife to Zwingli. 215
Wycliffe (John), cnntinued.
See also North Brit, rev., v. 20, 1853-4 ; Qnar.
rev., Y. 104, 1858, or Littell, 1854, v. 4 ; Westm.
rev., V. 62, 1854.
See also article in Allibone, v. 3, with author-
ities; references in Poole's Index; works ou the
church history of England, p. 84 ; histories of
the Reformation, p 99 ; and general histories
of England (under Countries).
Wyman (.Jeffries, Anier. comp. anatomist, &.
1814, d, 1874).
See Atlantic nionthlv, Nov., 1874 (by O. "W.
Holmes) ; Ohl and New, v. 101, 1874 ; Popular
science monthlv, Jan., 1875 (by B. G. Wilder).
1874 3251.14
See also Bentley's mi.icel., v. 40, 1856 (by T. P.
Grinsted) ; Temple bar, Juue, 1871.
Young (Edward, Engl, divine and poet, b.
1681, d. 1765).
— Bell (K.) Lives of English poet.s,v. 2. . 3>U.17
— Johnson (S.) Lives of the English poets, v.
2 3J63.02
— Mitford (j;) Life of [In Y's Poet, works, v. 1.
1854] ie96.12
.Sec also N. A. rev., v. 70, 1854 ; West, rev., v. 67
1857.
Young (Thomas, Ji. D., Engl, physicist, b.
1773, d. 1829).
— Peacock (G.) Life of. 1855. . . 3187.25
654
Public Libraries in the United States.
III. EXAMPLES — Continued.
[Foot of last page of Biography.]
Yates (Joseph, C, qov. of StateofNew York,
b. 1708, d. 18:^7).
— Jenkins (J. S.) Governors of Kew York, p 319-
345. 1H51 - ■.6-2iT.O:i
Yeahslky {Ann, English poetess, b. 1756'? d.
1806).
— Sontbe.v (R.) Uneducated poets. 1836. . 32G4.02
York (Cardinal of). /See Stuart {Eoyal
house of), p. 202.
YoRKK (Charles, Engl, lord chancellor, b.
1722, d. 1770).
— Campbell (J., lord). Lord cliancellors of England,
V. 5 3254.07
YoRKK (Philip, mr? of Hardwicke, lord chan-
cellor, b. 1690, d. "1764).
— Harris (G.) Life of. 3 v. 1847 . 3075.16
— Campbell (J., lord). Lord cbaucbllors of England,
V. 5 3254.07
YouNCr (Brigham, Mormon high-priest, b.
IrtOl).
— Waite (Mrs. C. Y.) Mormon prophet and
his harem. 186() 3187.16
— McCarthy (J.) Modern le.aders. 1872. . 3257.1U
See aUo works on Mormonism, p. 94 ; and
(iu Countries) Utah and tlio Mormons.
Young (Chas. Mayue, Enf/l. tragvdian, b.
1771, d. 1856).
— Yomij;(C.J.) Memoir of. 1871.. 3187.26
Same. [Abridged.] Personal remin-
iscences. Ed. by R. H. Stoddard.
Note.— Readers are reminded that the titles of -^i
the uanu'S of their subjects, may be found more fully
geuerul ali)babet.
ZoRO.iSTER, {ancient Persian religious
teacher).
See his name, in general alphabet.
ZsciiOKKE (Johann Heinrich Daniel, Ger-
man author, b. 1771, d. 1848).
— Autobiography. London, 1845. S". 3187.17
— Hedge (F. H.) ' Prose writers of Germany
[2735.01]; Dora d'lstria's Switzerland, v. 1, p.
200-215.
ZwiNGLi (Ulrich, Swiss prot. reformer, b.
1484, d. 1531).
— Blackburn (W. M.) Ulrich Zwingli, the
patriotic reformer. 1868. . . 3434.04
— Christoffel (R.) Zwiugli; or, the rise of
the reformation in Switzerland.
1858. 3434.10
— Hess (J. G.) Life of. 1812. . . 3187.18
— Crolv (G.) Historical sketches, p. 153-204.
1842 2521.22
— Dora d'Istria (Gomtesse). Switzerland, etc., v. 1,
p. 240-308 3434.02
— Taggart (E.) Leading reformers. 1843 . 3432.18
(bee also BiUl. Sacra, July, Oct., 1651 ; April,
July, 1852 (Lifeof Zuingh, by R. D. C. Robbins);
Fra.ser's mag., v. 53, 1856, or Littell, v. 13, 1856 ;
North Brit, rev, V. 29, 1858; v. 49, 1868.
See also general works on the Reformation,
(p. 99), by Merle d'Aubigue (Books viii., xi. ,
xvi.), and other writers ; and bistDries of
Switzerland.
orks which are abbreviated in this class, under
entered under the names of their authors, in the
252
IV. EXAMPLES.
[Top of page 252.]
CAMPS — CARACCIOLI.
Camps and prisons. See Duganne (A. J. H.)
11-65 643.06
Camus (C E.) Treatise on the teeth of
wheels. From the French, by J. I.
Hawkins. 3d ed. London, 1»68.
b" 3923.33
Canada, f'fe Countries. (Canada.)
Canals. See Arts (Useful : canals, p. 40).
Canary bird. Sec Birds, p- 217.
Canary Islands. Scc Countries. (Canary Isl-
ands.)
Cancer. <SVe Medicine. (Cancer.)
Candide: or tlie optimist, [//i Voltaire. Work.s,
V.23,] 5081.23
— — Same. [In Voltaire- CEuvres, v, 33,
If 34.1 .5083.33
Candle (Chemical history of a). See Faraday
(M) 4214.40
Candlish (Robert S.) Lectures on the
book of Genesis. 3 v, London, 1863.
IG" 3731.02
— Life in a risen Savior. Phila., 1858.
12" 3527.15
by F. C. Hingeston. Loudon, 1858.
8«. [Rolls chron.] . . . . 5140.—
— Chronicle of p:uglaud. [To 1417.] Ed.
by F. C. Hingeston, L., 1858. 8°.
[Rolls chron.] 5140.—
Capital punishment.
— Akennan (,/. Y.) "Furca et fossa:" a review
of certain modes of capital punishment iu
tlie middle ages. [Arohseologia, v. 38,
I860.] . 5128.—
— Armstrong (L.) Signsof the times; tend-
ency of eliorts for the abolition of.
1849 5817.06
— Bovee {M. H.) Christ and the gallows ;
reasons for the abolition of capital
punishment. 1869 5817.04
— Burleiqh (C. C.) Thoughts on the death
penalty. 1845 58L7. 10
Catalogues and Cataloguing.
655
IV. EXAMPLES — Continued.
[Foot of
— Past, present, and the future. Ph., 1843.
8" 5yi3. 04
— Principles of social science. 3 v. Ph.,
1858. 8-^ 5913.01
— Unity of law; in physical, social, men-
tal, and moral science. Philadelphia,
1872. 8" 5814,22
Carey (H. M.) Echoes from the harp of
France-. Caen, 1858. 24°. . 1(531.05
Carey (.James P.) Record of the great
rebellion ; chronological. N. Y., 18(35.
8" 634.05
Carey (Matihew). Essays on political
economy. Phil., 1822.' 8". . 5932.13
Contents: 1. Aildiesses of the I'hiladelpliia
society fi>r the proniolibn of national industry.
2. Xew olive biancb : iilentity of interest be-
tween asricultnre, nianufactures, and com-
merce. 3. Addiess to.Congre.s« : ruinous con-
sequences of a dciiendencc on foreijjn markets.
4. Address to the farmers of the United States
on tlie ruinous consequences of tbo existing
[tarilF], Farmer's and planter's friend. Stiic-
ture on Cambreleug's Examination of the nevr
tariff.
— Letters to Adam Seybert, on the re-
newal of tlie charter of the bank of
the U.S. 2d ed. Philadelphia, 1811.
S". . 5915.08
— Olive branch, or faults on both sides,
federal and democratic. 3d ed. Bos-
ton, 1815. l(j" 5714.07
pan;e 253.]
Carlist revolts. See Spain (TT'are of succession,
18-JlMO) ; Carlisni iu Si.aiu, by J. W. Preston,
Scnbuer, Dec, 1873 ;— Carlos (Don), in' Biog-
raphy, p. 1-2S.
Carlovingians. See Sismondi (J. C. L. S. de).
FreiK-ii under tUe C. IJlo.Ud] ; and general liis-
toiies of France, I'v-l-Ml.
Carlyle (Joseph D.) Specimens of Ara-
bian poetry. [With Arabic text ]
Cam., 1798. sm. 4". . . . 1G31. 04
; Carlyle (Thomas). Collected works. 30 v.
I Loudon, 1870-71. 8^ . . . 5027.01
Contents :
1. Sartor Reaartus. 1-l-lS. Cromwell's Let-
2-4. French iev(dution. tors and .speeches.
5. Life of .Schiller. , 19. Latter-day pamph-
fill. Essays. i pblets.
1:2. Heroes and hero | 20. Lite of John Stor-
worship. j lin^'.
13. Past and Present. 21-30. Frederick the
I Great.
Same. Index. London, 1871.
K" 502().21
— Critical and miscellaneous essays.
Phila., 1852. 8" 25l7."'l2
Contents : Jean Paul Fiiedrich Kichter.
German literature. Life and writings of
AVerner. Goethe's Helena. Goethe. Burns.
Life of Heyne. German play wiij^bt. V^oltaire.
Xovalis. Sifcns of the times. Jean Paul Fried-
rich Jvichter. History. Luther's psalm.
Schiller. Nil)elniigeu lied. Geriuau literature
of tlie xiv. and xv. centuries. German ])()etry.
Characteristics. Goethe's portrait. 13io<:r'a-
phy. Boswell's Johnson. Death of Goethe.
Y. EXAMPLES.
[Top of page 306.]
COUNTRIES: Egypt.
Egypt.
1. Ancient History lieliipon. Science, Antiquities,
etc.
Antiqut{ic>io{i:. lanou.] L., 1841. 8".
1075.11
Bcke (C. T.) Complexion of the ancient Eiiyp-
tiiins. [In Roval soc. of lit. Trans., v. 3,
leSlt.J . . . : 50Cd03
Birch (*'.) Ancient hist, from the monn-
metits. Egypt to u. c. 3(0. . 1091.27
Brijant {J.) Observ. relative to ancient
history 428.01
.Boot of the dead, [/n Bunsen. E^'ypt's place,
etc.x.^o] 1075.07
Bunocn (C. C. J.) Egypt's place in univer-
sal history. 5 v.' 1848-07. . 1075.03
CliampoUion-Figcaf {J. J.) Egypte ancienne
[histoireet description]. 1839. [IJni-
vers.] 901.23
Clark {K. L.) Daleth; or E. illustrated.
1864 1075.09
— Israel in Egypt. E.'s place among the
ancient mouarchies. 1874. . 1077.04
Cory {I. P.) Chronological inquiry into the
ancient history of E. 1837. . 5421.18
— Egyptian fragmeuts from :\Ianetho, Amnii-
anus Marcellinus, etc. [In the Fhenix.
1835.1 50fi-X14
Same. [In his Ancient frafriiients.
1832.] 3530 27
Woodv'ard (Dr.) Of the wisdom of the an-
cient E;;yptians. [Archaeologia, v. 4.
17fO.J 5126.—
2. Modern Histonj of Eqiipt.
£gijpte sous la domination de Meli6met Ali,
par MM. P. et H. 1848. [Univers.]
901.24
Marcel (J. J.) E., depuis la conquete des
Arabcsjns(iu'a la domination Irauvaise.
1848. LUnivers.] .... 901.24
Moricr {J. P.) ^Memoir of a campaign with the
Ottoman army in Egypt. 1800. f/?j Pam-
phleteer, V. 13.] 5U'J3.13
Paivit (J. J.) History of the Egyiitiau
revolution from the period of the Mam-
elukes [12th century] to the death of
Mohamiued Ali, [1849]. 2 v. . 1077.01
PiissrU (AI.) View of anc. and modern E.
1843. 1081.07
Byrne {A.) E. sons la domination fran-
yaise 901.24
Yaien ( IJ'. If.) Modern history and condi-
tion of Egypt; with account of Moham-
med Ali Pascha, from 1801-1843. 2 v.
1076.12
See also, in Biography, p. 178, lives of Mo-
UA.M.MEI) ALI.
3. Description and travels.
AbdalLatif. Kelation respecting E., 1203. [In
* pinkerton v 15.]
Adams {A. L.) Notes of a naturalist in the
Nile valley. 1870 1091.12
65G
Fi'Mic Libraries in the United States.
V. EXAMPLES — Continued.
[Top of page 307.]
COUNTRIES: Egypt io England.
307
— Village life in Egypt. 2 v. 1853. 108-2.06
St. John (J. A.) Egypt aud Nubia.
184.^) "... 1075.10
— Isis : an Egyptiau pilgrimage. '2 v.
1853 1091.07
Savarif (xV.) Letters on Egypt, ancient
and modern. '2 y. 1786. ".•. 1076.10
Simjysou ( ll\) Meeting the sun : a journey.
1874 1045.08
Smiih {A. C.) The Nile aud its banks.
Egypt an<l Nubia. 2 v. 1868. 1081.22
Smyihe (E. A. B.) Egyptian sepulchres, etc.
1074 ' . . . . . 1091.25
Spencer (J. A.) Travels in Egypt, etc.
1850 1052.10
Ste2)hens (J. L.) Incidents of travel in
Egypt in 1836. 2 v 1032.20
Taylor '{B.) Egypt, c^c. in 1874. . 1081.26
Thompson (J. I\) Photographic views of E.
18.")4 1082.01
Vohiey(C.F.) Travels through Egypt. 2 v.
1798 1082.23
— Toya<:o en l^cypte. [f?i Ws Oinvres.] 5078.27
Wanderings in" the laud of Ham. \ anon.']
1858 1093.09
Warhnrton (IC.) Crescent and the cross.
1850 1082.17
JVard (A.) Around the Pyramids, 1859-
60 1082.15
Whatehj (IT. L.) More about ragged life in
Egypt 1081.21
— Ragged life in Egypt. 1863 . 1081.24
Wiikbibon {Sir ./. ir.) Handbook for E. con-
den.sed from Modern E. and Thebes.
18.58. [Murray's Handbook.] . 1082.09
— Modern Egyi>t aud Thebes. 2 v.
1843 1076.14
— Xntes on a part of the eastern desert ot upper
E., with a imp- [^'^ Roval geogr. soc. .Tonr-
iial. V. % Itf.l-J.j 90:).0.i
Sjealso, in this class, Africai-East (The);—
Nile ;— Pyramids ;— Suez canal— Thebes.
Also, in the ueneral alplinbet, History ( Vni.
versal ; — Ancient) ; — Hieroglyphics ; — Mum-
mies.
Note. — The best raonngtaphs on the ancient
Egyptians for the general reailer aie the works
of Wilkinson, and Kendrick. Keari/s aud Rus-
sell's are biiet'er compeuds. Biinsen's work
gives original materials for histary, but.S^Aarpe's
is the most popular general historical narrative.
Among the many enteitaining books descrip-
tive of mode rn Esypt Wilkinson's 'Ave the beat
aud most comprehensive.
For the religion of Egypt, see Mythology
(Ancient); — Various religions, and Pa-
ganism (p. 100), besides the works enumerated
above, of Jiunsen. Drummond, Herodotus, Plu-
tarch. Prichard, Wilkinson.
For articles from periodicals, see Blackwood,
V. 106, 136y (E. and Suez canal); v. 108, 1870
(what the oUl Egyptians knew ; — How they
lived and died; 2 art.) ; Fiasers ma::., v. 60,
18.19 (Egyptian and sacred chronology) ; v. 71,
186.i (lOgyptian tale of 4003 years ago, l)y C. W.
Goodwin) ; Cambridge essays, 1856 (Hieratic
pajiyri, by C. W. Goodwin) ; v. 7-J, 1865 (Let-
ters from'E., 18C5) ; n. s., v. 1, 1870 (Aruudines
Nili aud Suez canal, by W. H. Uussell) ; Lon-
don qu. rev , Oct., 1874,' aud Littell, 1874, v. 4
(Egyptian Book of the Dead) ; Nat. qn. rev.,
V. 6, 1863 (Arts and sciences among the E.); N.
A. rev., V. 03, 1861 (Burial, etc.) ; v. 96. 1863
(Egyptology) ; v. 109, 1869 (Coast of E., and the
Suez canal); North Brit, rev., v. 20, 1858 (E. and
Syria); v. 39, 1863 (Alexandria and a glimpse of
E.); Qiiar. rev., v. 105, 18.59 (Buuseu's E. and
the chronology of Bible).
In fiction see Komance of ancient hi-story.
Egypt. 2 v. [244.141; Uautier's llomanceof a
mummy [194.17] ; Ebers' daughter of an Egyp-
tiau king (181.421 ; Torrasson's Sethos (Court;
of Memphis) [.5713.15]; Kingsley's Hyi>atia
[221.17]; and for modern chaiacti'is, About's
Fellah [112.05] ; De Leon's A.skaios Kassis,
theCopt[172.3!)|; Muehlbach's Mnli.imuHMl All
[232.7CJ; Palgrave's Hermauu Aglia [234. 68J
Elizabeth, {N. J.)
Hatfield (E. F.) History of E. 1863 . 622.13
ENGLAND, AND THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.
Note.— The arrangement of subdivisions of this subject is as follows:— L Census. IL Constitu-
tion and Government, in. Court and'Official Kegisters (p. 308). IV. Foreign Policy (p. 308).
V. History, i, General Works (p. 308). VL History. 2, By Periods (p. 309). Vir. Historical
Collections, mrlr.aing the ' Alasterof the Rolls' scries of Calendars and Chronicles, VIII. Material
Eesources and Progress (p. 3i3). IX. National Qualities (p. 3i3). X. Naval History (p. 3i4).
XI. Parliamentary Debates and Sessional Papers (!>. 314). Xir. Parliamentary Law and
Boroughs (!'• 314). XIII. Parliamentary Eeforin (p- 3i4). XIV. Parliamentary Registers,
and Personal History (p. 3i4). XV. Parties 'p-3i4). XVI. Social Manners, and Condition of
the People (p- 3i4). XVIL Travels and Description (p. 3i4). XvaiL Treaties and Diplomatic
Documents (p- 316).
I. Census.
Lewix (./.) Digest of the E. census of 1871.
8» 5928.17
II. Constitution and Government.
AJlen (J.) Inquiry into the rise aud growth
of the royal prerogative in England.
New ed. Added, Character of kiiiy;
Eadwig. 1849 5718.02
Bagehof (TV.) The English constitution.
18t)7 ,5717.13
Freeman (E. A.) The growth of the English
constitution 1872. . . . 5712.18
Genuine aud complete collection of the pro-
tests made in the House of lords. [1641
to 1747.] 2 V. iMin., 1748. 12". 472.02
Rallaw, (H.) Constitutional history of E.,
[1485-1760.] 1851. . . . .5044.25
Leckie (G. t'.) E.ssay on the practice of the Brit-
isli govei-nment; distinguished fiom [itsj
abstract theory. 1817.' [PampleteOT, v.
10 J .... ■ 5053. 11
Catalogues and Cataloguing. 657
in.— NEW YORK APPRESTTICES' LIBRARY CATALOGUE.
It is now generally admitted by librarians that a complete catalogue
should give information as to the author, title, and subject of every
bDok. It is also agreed that authors and titles can be exhibited in the
most intelligible and satisfactory manner onl\' by means of an alpha-
betical catalogue; but on the third point, that of the subject of the book,
there is considerable diversity of opinion and practice. There are, how-
ever, two prominent schemes or methods to which all the plans proposed
raay be reduced, and these are, first, the systematic catalogue ; and, sec-
ondly, the dictionary or alphabetical catalogue.
It is generally assumed by the partisans of each of these plans that
each catalogue is complete in itself and adequate to supply all the
information of the other. It is worth while, therefore, before examining
the method of each catalogue, to ascertain whether there are not fund.i-
mentally different kinds of subjects, because, if this is so, it may turn
out that each kind may need a different mode of treatment. This, as
we shall see, is actually the case.
The objects upon which human knowledge is based, whether apper-
taining to the external world of the senses, or to the internal world of
thoughts, can be viewed from two standpoints.
In the first place, each object may be viewed as complete in itself, as
standing alone, or as a totality — as a concrete unit;
Secondly, objects may be viewed in their relation to other objects, or
as i)arts of an abstract unit.
Now, it is evident that classification is nothing but the formation of
abstract units, by abstracting from concrete objects characteristics they
have in common and uniting them in groups or classes. Classification
is, therefore, necessarily abstract, and demands for its exhibition an
abstract method. If we then unite the different abstractions or classes
in higher abstractions, and arrange the whole in the order of its various
genera and species, we get a systematic scheme of all our abstractions
or classes, and also a skeleton of the systematic catalogue, the plan of
which we will now examine.
The systematic catalogue, as its name implies, divides the whole field
of knowledge into a system of classes or departments, with subdivisions
in each, the place of each division being fixed according to its greater
or less degree of dependence or relation to other classes. All the books
relating to a class are here brought together, and if the special student
of any science or art wishes to know what there is in the library on his
study, he has only to ascertain the whereabouts of his specialty in the
general scheme to find all he i;ieeds brought together within the compftss
of a few pages, the whole arranged in the natural order of its various
parts, and in close proximity to other related classes which often throw
great light on the subject iu hand. As most classed catalogues have
prefixed a synopsis or index of the scheme of classification, it is not so
42 E
658 Public Libraries in the United States.
difficult a matter as has been represented to ascertain where to find a
given class; and, assuredly, the great convenience of finding, at one
glance, all one needs, counterbalauces the small labor necessary in read-
ing a brief synopsis, especially as any person of ordinary intelligence,
after once mastering the scheme, can readily turn to any class he wants.
It is then quite clear that the sole function of the systematic cata-
logue is to indicate what books there are on certain classes, and to
arrange these classes in systematic order. In a word, the information
it gives is wholly general. Its method and principles being abstract, it
cannot transcend its limits and exhibit individual topics which are con-
crete. These demand an altogether different and diametrically opposed
mode of treatment.
If we wish to know, for instance, all there is in the library about
such concrete objects as horses, plants, tobacco, iron, England, etc., we
should be obliged, in a systematic catalogue, to look in numerous
classes. And eveu if we knew exactly in which particular classes
books on these topics were to be found, we should often need to read
through all the titles of a class, because the classification being based
on abstract principles, the subdivisions are necessarily abstract also,
and seldom coincide, in name even, with individual objects. There is,
then, but one course to pursue. There being no bond of union between
individual topics when they are viewed as wholes standing alone, or as
concrete units, it is necessary to arrange them in some arbitrary way
in order to find them readily, and this can be best done by selecting the
names of the individuals and placing them in alphabetical order, and
when we have done this we have produced the second form of catalogue,
namely, the dictionary or alphabetical catalogue of subjects.
In the dictionary catalogue the idea of classification is abandoned
altogether, every subject being arranged under its most specific head
according to the alphabetic order of its name. Class headings also ap-
pear, bufe they contain not a complete list of books thereon, but merely
treatises on the class as a whole, or general works. In short, every head-
ing is treated exhaustively, so far as it may be regarded as a whole,
although classification itself is admitted to be foreign to the genius of
this form of catalogue. Il^umerous cross references are introduced from
one topic to a related one, or to subordinate topics, and this is supposed
to be a sufficient substitute for classification. This, however, is a mis-
take. Classification, as has been shown, concerns itself only with ab-
stract parts of objects, and for this reason, an object necessarily falls in
numerous classes; the dictionary catalogue, on the contrary, views
every subject as a concrete whole. It is not enough, therefore, to refer
from the name of a class to the concrete objects comprised within it,
because these belong in the class only under a certain aspect, and there-
fore a list of references under a class, say Botany, if followed out and the
various headings were all arranged under one head, would not constitute
a class list of botany, but would be a heterogeneous mixture of books
from> totally different classes. Again, supposing an inquirer could,
Catalogues and Cataloguing. 659
under each refereoce, select exactly what related to his particular class,
what an ini:erminable labor that would be, compared to the one reference
in the systematic catalogue !
It is, therefore, evident that each form of catalogue is incomplete,
or, rather, that each is complete as far as its limits allow it to go. J^^ach
is admirable in its way — the one for general information concerning
classes, and the other for specific information concerning individuals.
The method of the one is abstract and that of the other is concrete, and
as both methoils cannot be united without doing violence to the prin-
ciples upon which each is based, and yet the information given by each is
equally necessary, we must accept both as co ordinate parts of one whole.
A perfect catalogue should, then, have two parts, the one systematic
or classed, and tlie other alphabetical. The first part should contain a
complete list of all the books, arranged in the order of classification,
with subdivisions, which need not, however, be unnecessarily minute, as
the purpose of this part is simply to give general information, and for
the attainment of this end a few subdivisions are sufficient. There
should be prefixed a synopsis of the scheme of classification, so that the
place of each class can be readily found.
The second part, or alphabetical catalogue, should contain, first, a
complete list of all the individual authors with their works in subalpha-
betical order; secondly, the titles of all such books as do not clearly
indicate the subject treated of; thirdly, it should contain (1) individual
subjects or topics, with lists of all the books thereon, whether stated in
the title or only implied ; (2) class headings maybe introduced, but
simply as references to Part 1, so that any one wishing to find a class iu
Part 1 could do so in two ways, first by means of the synopsis prefixed
to Part 1, or, secondly, by referring to its name in Part 2; (3) cross
references, as in the ordinary dictionary catalogue.
Some concrete toi)ics, as England, America, and the names of countries
generally would not need to have all the books relating to them brought
under one view, because, in the first place, this would require consider-
able space, and, secondly, it would answer every purpose if in all cases,
when a part of a concrete topic is also a subdivision of a class in the
systematic division, a reference were made to Part 1. Thus if there
were, in the first part, such subclasses as English History, English Lan-
guage, etc.; there might appear in the alphabetical catalogue, under the
heading England, such references as this:
ENGLA^^D: For Ristorxj— ISee G\?^^%^.\.
Language — See Class W. 2.
Ecclesiastical History — See Class Yc. 3.
If, however, there were no subclasses such as the foregoing in Part
1, a mere reference to the classes in which these subjects were included
would not be sufficient; it would then be necessary to give a complete
list of all the books on England.
The system thus briefly explained is carried out in detail, although in
a somewhat crude form, in the Catalogue of the Apprentices' Library,
660
Public Libraries in the United States.
(September, 1874.) It is claimed for it that it answers all the possible
and legitimate inquiries that can be directed to a catalogue, whether
general or specific, in the shortest and most direct manner. If Professor
Abbot's criterion for a good catalogue be admitted, namely, that " That
is unquestionably the best catalogue which enables a person most readily
and completely to ascertain what the library contains relating to the
subject of his inquiry," the catalogue system here proposed may be safely
tried by such a standard. For it certainly enables the inquirer to find
what he wants "readily" — a single reference being sufficient, whether
the information sought is general or specific — and "completely," since
in all cases the subjects, whether concrete or abstract, contain all the
books thereon in the library.
IV.— CATALOGUE OF ST. LOUIS PUBLIC SCHOOL LIBRAE r.
The system of classification adopted in the Catalogue of the Public
School Library of St. Louis is a modification of the Baconian plan
for which the library is indebted to William T. Harris, LL. D., superin-
tendent of public schools, and, ex officio, one of the managers of the
library. ^ The main divisions and the method in which the minor classes
are subordinated to the general heads, are shown in the following
schedule :
SYSTEM OF CLASSIFICATION.
^
Science.. <!
Main Divisions.
Philosophy.
Theology.
C Jurisprudence.
I Politics.
^ Social science.
( Philology.
{ Mathematics.
I Physics.
Natural sciences and useful arts . ■{ Natural history.
Social and political sciences
Medicine.
Art
[^ Useful arts.
{ Fine arts.
J Poetry.
1 Prose fi
'rose fiction.
[ Literary miscellany.
\ Geography and travels.
History {_ Civil history.
I Biography.
{ Polygraphs.
Appendix { CyclOptedias.
[^ Periodicals.
1 An extended explanation and defense of Dr. Harris's system of classiticatioa will be
found in the Journal of Speculative Philosophy for 1870, vol. iv, p. 114 etseq.
Catalogues and Cataloguing.
661
The foregoing classes are again divided into subclasses, number^ one
to one hundred, which, in some instances, and, indeed, wherever desira-
able, are still more minutely subdivided. Thus, under Natural history,
Class 50 is Zoology; 50 a, Vertebrates; 50 al, Mammals; etc.
Following is an example of subdivision in the above scheme, under
History :
HISTORY.
Geography and Travels.
Geography.
a. Ancient.
h. Modern.
Voyages.
a. Circumnavigations.
h. Collections of Voyages.
Travels in America.
a. North America.
6. United States.
c. British America.
d. Mexico and Central America.
e. West Indies.
/. South America.
Europe.
a. British Islands.
h. France and Netherlands.
c. Switzerland (and Alps) and
Italy.
d. Germany.
e. Denmark, Sweden, Norway,
and Iceland.
/. Russia and Poland.
g. Turkey and Greece.
h. Spain and Portugal.
Asia.
ft. Turkey and Armenia.
h. S,>ria and Arabia.
c. Central and Northern Asia.
d. Chinese Empire and Japan.
e. India.
Africa.
Egypt, Nubia,
sinia.
Barbary States
Desert.
Central Africa.
and Abys- I
and Great
d. Southern Africa.
Travels in Several Quarters of the
Globe.
a. Eastern Hemisphere.
b. Both Hemispheres.
c. Oceanica.
Civil History.
Compends and General History,
a. Chronology.
b. Philosophy of History.
Ancient History.
History of the United States.
a. General.
b. Settlements and Colonial
History.
c. Revolutionary Period.
d. Civil War.
e. Particular States, Territo-
ries, and Cities.
America at Layge.
a. Aborigines.
b. Caiiadas.
c. Spanish North America.
d. South America.
British History.
a. England.
b. Scotland.
c. Ireland.
Europe.
a. France and Switzerland.
b. Germany, Netherlands, and
Scandinavia.
c. Sclavonic Nations.
d. Southern Europe, (Italy,
Spain, etc.)
e. Turkey and Greece.
662
Public Libraries in the United States.
HISTORY— Continued.
Asia at Large.
a. British India.
1). China and Japan.
Historical Miscellany.
a. Costumes and Iconology.
b. Crusades.
c. Wars and Campaigns.
d. Secret Societies.
Biography.
a. Collections and Dictiona-
ries of.
b. Individual Biography.
c. Correspondence.
d. Genealogy and Heraldry.
Great diversity of opinion has long existed among librarians as to the
practicability of a philosophical scheme of classification for the arrange-
ment of books. After five years of trial, the system adopted in the
Public School Library continues to commend itself for the readiness with
which it imparts to the users of the library the information they may
desire by bringing together, under one or two heads, all the books
likely to throw light upon the subject of their investigation. In this
particular is claimed its superiority over the so-called subalphabetical
or dictionary system, as a glance at the synopsis of classification will at
once indicate to the reader where to look for the class in which he may
be sure to find all the works or references to works relating to the mat-
ter of which he is in quest.
CHAPTER XXIX.
ON INDEXING PERIODICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE.
BY PROF. OTIS H. ROBINSON,
Librarian of the Univensity of Rocheater.
Necessity and value of indexes — No complete printed index to periodicals —
Card index — Description of the plan in use by the author — Cake required
IN preparing indexes — " Fancy" titles — Suggestions for co-operation among
LIBRAHIES.
It is clearly tbe duty of a librarian so to conduct his library that
everything it contains shall be accessible to every reader, and that with
as little inconvenience as possible. It is often asked, How many books
have you % or, Have you a fund for the purchase of books ? Would it
not be equally pertinent to ask. What means have you adopted to make
your books most useful ? Until this question is answered the working
power of no library can be correctly estimated.
In a college library especially it is important tliat as little effort as
possible be required of the reader. This is true chiefly because here a
majority of the readers are likely to be persons of so little experience,
and such slight knowledge of the value of books, that they are willing to
make but very little effort to find what their highest interest requires
them to read. And besides, in a college library the readers are not only
learning what and how to read, but they are also learning, some of them
at least, how to consult a library — how to find in it all it contains of
value on a given subject. This is by no means an insignificant part of
a student's education, and every facility should be afforded to make it
attractive and easy.
With special reference to this work we may divide the books of a
library into two general classes, as follows :
I. Books which are continuous throughout on tbe same subject, or on
kindred subjects ; as biographies, histories, etc.
II. Books which are made up of parts not closely relatecj to each
other ; as cyclopjedias, dictionaries, periodicals, essays, etc.
Of the first class, the titles form, or ought to form, a sufficient general
index to the contents, so that a well prepared catalogue is all that is
required. The second class may be subdivided into :
a. Books whose parts are arranged on a well understood plan ; as
cyclopaedias, chronological tables, etc.
663
664 Public Libraries in the United States.
h. Books which are composed of parts on widely different subjects,
and arranged on no definite plan; such as magazines, collections of es-
says or lectures, etc.
The former of these subclasses consists strictly of works of reference,
and must be withiif the reach of readers for consultation at all times.
No special device is necessary to make their contents accessible.
Of the second class we may say that their titles give no clew to what
they contain, so that a catalogue avails little or nothing; nor can one
easily hunt up a given subject in them, for lack of order among their
parts.
The value of the last class of books mentioned, especially to a stu-
dent, can hardly be overstated. In these days men of learning are push-
ing their investigations in every direction. The results of these inves-*
tigations knock imperatively at every college door. College faculties are
often at their wits' end to decide how far the old, time honored curricu-
lum shall give place to modern researches. The tendency, I think, is to
make the regular course cover all that is new by lectures supi)lementary
to the old. This makes an extraordinary demand upon the time and
strength of student as well as teacher. It is desiraljle that a student
be as good a linguist and mathenjatician to-day as was the college stu-
dent one hundred years ago, and at the same time that he acquire a fair
knowledge of chemistry, and geology, and zoology, etc., of which such
student never dreamed. And, besides, he must be up to date in the
ev^er increasing practical applications of what is learned in theory. In
short, the field of study is rapidly widening, while the period allotted
to student life remains nearly the same. What is demanded, therefore,
is knowledge in nut shells. There is no time to waste. The classical
student needs the mature essays of Arnold and Hadley to settle forever
the questions which arise in his reading and help him in forming a cor-
rect classical taste ; the student of science cannot do without the lec-
tures and fragments of Helmholtz, and Herschel, and Tyndall; and both
must have the reviews, and magazines, and reports of learned societies
without stint. I would say nothing to disparage extended courses of
general reading, but this work of supplementing a college course during
the period of student life must be largely done by the use of mono-
graphs.
Besides the circumstances of the student, the character of this class
of books also commends them. Everybody knows that the best pro-
ductions of many of the ablest scholars of to day appear in the form of
essays and magazine articles. The tendency toward this style of writing-
is increasing. It is known that a two or three hour article will be read
while a volume would not be touched. The monthly and quarterly are
also coming to be almost the sole place for the first scientific statement
of discovery. They are therefore the most convenient means of study-
ing the history of discovery and opinion — and, I might also add, general
Indexing Periodical and Miscellaneous Literature. 665
history — during that most difSicult period which lies between the epheme.
ral newspaper and the well written volume.'
But the practical value of books depends largely upon the facility
with which they may be used. I have said that when the titles of books
do not clearly suggest their contents, a general catalogue is of little use
in finding what they contain on a given subject. Suppose that in a
library of 20,000 volumes there are 2,000 of this class, and that they
contain, on an average, five valuable essays to a volume, you have then
10,000 essays, or half as many as there are volumes in the library, whose
value is far above the average of the library. Every reader knows that
these 2,000 volumes, or 10,000 essays, contain something on nearly every
sulyect he wishes to investigate, but how shall he make them give down
what they contain on any particular subject 'l I remember, when a col-
lege student, spending many a leisure hour looking through the tables
of contents of these books, volume by volume, and noting the volume
and page of such as came within the range of my study. Tedious though
it was to spend my reading hours in this way, I was recompensed. It is
especially unpleasant to one making such a search to feel that, however
far he has gone, the very next volume may contain what is to him more
valuable than all he has found ; or to look through whole sets of books
for some half-forgotten essay and fail to find it at all. Until, therefore,
these books are properly indexed, readers are subjected to a vast waste
of time or to the loss of their use altogether. The great majority will
choose to suffer the loss.
Where there is such a demand, one naturally looks for a supply of
printed indexes, with supplements kept carefully up to date. Bat he
looks in vain. The only comprehensive general index to periodical
literature is that prepared by Mr. Poole, at the Boston Athenaeum
Library. That was published more than twenty years ago, and is now
out of print. I know of no general index to the vast number of liter'
ary and scientific papers which have been bound into volumes with such
titles as Miscellaneous Essays, Reports of Learned Societies, etc. Mr.
Poole has been urged to complete the supplement to his index, which
he began some years ago, and which he is so well qualified to make, but
other duties so press upon his time that he gives no encouragement that
he will be able to do anything further in this direction. And, besides,
1 Siuce writing the above I have accidentally met with the following, from the report
for 1871 of the librarian of the Mercantile Library Association of San Francisco. It
is so clear and pointed that I cannot resist making a note of it.
"A thorough collection of the periodical literature of the day constitutes a part of
every library of note, acknowledged to be the most important and useful. Its value
in a public library cannot be overestimated. It offers the student an epitome of all
history, science, and art in the past and a continuation of the same in every depart-
ment, even to the present day. It contains the latest improvement or advance in sci-
ence, the freshest tarn of thought. With a completion of Poole's Index to Periodical
Literature to date, the searcher after knowledge would have, in a complete magazine
collection, a store of information inexhaustible aud in worth beyond all computation."
SS6 Public Libraries in the United States.
the great barrier to a complete printed index, continued from year to
year, is that it would not pay. Every library needs, and needs very
much, an index to its own books of the class described, but the libraries
are too few, and the wants of nearly all too far below the maximum to
warrant publishers in keeping a general index up to date. Moreover,
should this be done, the annuals would soon become so numerous as to
make their consultation inconvenient, to say the least.
Next to a continuous catalogue, every library needs a continuous
index. Where printing immediately is not contemplated, the card
system is rapidly coming into use for the catalogue. After quite an
extensive correspondence on the subject, I think no single plan has been
generally adopted for the index. The general expectation among libra-
rians seems to be that somebody will publish a general index. Various
plans have been tried by private individuals and by librarians, but none,
so far as I know, is free from serious faults. Two requirements must
be met — ease of continuation, not by supplements, but the new always
in alphabetical order with the old, and convenience of reference. For
the simple purpose of alphabetical continuation, the card system is
doubtless the best for either catalogue or index ; but for convenience of
reference it is far behind the best. Every one who has used a card
catalogue knows that the inconvenience of turning the cards one by one
with his finger-ends upon their edges, especially when pressed for time,
is a serious obstacle to their use. What is wanted is the form of a
book, that the leaves may be slipped easily and rapidly between the
thumb and fingers, and the titles or references always stand out plain
to the eye.
The plan I have adopted is designed to meet both the requisitions
mentioned above, provision being made, however, for the insertion of
new references, not from day to day, but only once or twice a year.
My plan was matured and my old index copied and put into working
order in the new form in the summer vacation of 1873. It then con-
tained not far from ten thousand references. It proved so convenient
and useful the following year, both to students and other readers, that,
when the vacation of 1874 came, I inserted in it the titles of the articles
of every valuable book of the class mentioned in the library. It now
contains little less than fifteen thousand references, or more than the
number of volumes in the entire library. The facility with which it
can now be kept up to date will appear below.
The universal favor with which it has been received, together with
numerous suggestions that it ought to be more widely known, has
induced me to prepare the following description of it.
Its general appearance is that of a number of volumes in manuscript
lying about three-fourths open in a case so constructed as to have a
place set apart for each volume. The volumes are arranged iu alpha-
betical order and fastened in the case. The case is screwed to its place
so as to be a fixture in the library, where it is easily accessible to all.
Indexing Periodical and Miscellaneous Literature. 667
The volumes, which appear to be well bound as they lie in the case, are
really only tied together firmly with binder's thread. With this arrange-
ment it is easy to cut them apart, insert the new references in proper
order, and tie them up again, once or twice a year. The following
diagrams will serve for a more detailed description of the several parts
and their uses.
Dryden.&enius or. E.R. I02:i.
- AND HIS TIMES, lA/.R. 63 ! 19 6.
Fig. 1.
Let Fig. 1 represent the form of the leaves on which it is written. Their
size is 8 inches by 5^, They are ruled on one side with nine lines to the
page, with a cross rule one inch from the right edge. This margin is
required for the tying, and is punched, as represented by the dots, the
holes in each pair being about half an inch apart. Only those subjects
are put upon a page which have the same first or leading word. A
large part of most of the pages is, therefore, left blank for future entries.
I have found the most convenient mode of iudexi ng to be, first to draw
off the titles or subjects on small slips of paper, one title on a slip, then
arrange these in alphabetical order preparatory to copying. When the
index has once been begun very many of the new slips which are pre-
pared from year to year can be copied on the pages already started.
New pages are always to be started for those subjects which have new
leading words. As the volumes are cut apart into loose leaves at the
time the copying is done, the new pages so started can be arranged in
alphabetical order with the old before tying up again, reference being
had only to the first word. Revisions and corrections can also be at-
tended to at the same time.
The covers of the volumes ar6 prepared with special reference to their
adjustment to the case, from which they are never removed except for the
periodical addition of new matter. Suppose Fig.l to be enlarged a little
each way, and it will fairly represent one side of a cover. The sides are
made separate and connected by a strap, as shown hereafter. This half-
cover terminates in a flexible morocco margin which is punched to cor-
respond with the leaves so as to be tied together wath them. The mar-
gin is made wide enough to leave a flexible section or joint above the tie.
Fig. 2 represents a strong morocco strap, nearly as wide in the middle
as the covers, and punched to correspond with them. The distance, a
668
Public Libraries in the United States.
b, between the sets of holes near the middle is two or three inches,
according to the thickness of
the book to be bound. The
ends are about two-thirds as
long, from h to c, as the cov-
ers, and punched so as to be
suspended on fixed pins in the
case, as shown at r s, Fig. 6.
Fig. 2.
The two sides of the cover are now sewed to this strap along the lines
of the corresponding holes and the cover is complete.
Fig. 3.
Pig. 3 gives an outline view of the back of tlie cover when finished,
the strap being laid upon the two sides and sewed along the dotted
lines.
Fig. 4 gives a sectional view of the cover
when the book is closed and placed upon
its back. Covers can be prepared in this
form by any binder at a small expense, and
will last a lifetime.
From two to four hundred leaves can be
clamped within a cover with an ordinary
clamp, and the whole sewed or tied firmly
in a few minutes. To stiffen the volume
when so bound, and to protect the leaves
from being injured by the thread, narrow
brass plates, represented in Fig. 5, are
Fig. 4. Fig. 5.
placed outside the cover. The thread being drawn several times
through at each end, and tied while the book is clamped, will hold these
plates firmly against the sides of the volume, and form altogether a
pretty strong binding. The principal objection to this whole plan would
seem to be the necessity of rebinding or retying once or twice a year.
My experience, however, is that, with no special facilities, one can tie
them up at the rate of three volumes in an hour, which makes the work
too trifling to be considered. Your compensation is that you have your
Indexing Periodical and Miscellaneous Literature. 669
index in the conveuieut form of a book, and all in alphabetical order up
to date, without separate supplements.
Fig. 6.
Fig. 7 represents a book as bound ; below it, (Fig* 6,) is a vacant section
ot the case. The opening, c d, is somewhat larger than the thickness, a b,
(see Fig. 2,) of the book. The ends of the morocco strap, m w, are now-
slipped through narrow slits, o p, Fig. 6, in the inclined boards of the
case, and fastened underneath on the pins, r s. The book then lies
partly resting on the boards and partly suspended by the strap, as rep-
FiG. 8.
resented in Fig. 8. The inclination of the boards and the space, c d,
Fig. 6, between them are such as to allow the book to lie open far
enough for convenient use, or to be closed at pleasure on either side,
while the strap still holds it loosely in its place.
The case is constructed as follows : For a single row of the volumes
two boards are cut of the form a b, Fig. 8. Between these the in-
clined boards which support the books are fitted by inserting them into
grooves or furrows, m n, o p, cut for the purpose. These long boards
form the front and back of the case, the books lying loosely between
them, just low enough to secure their protection. When the index is
large enough to require eight volumes or more, the case should be made
for two or three rows; otherwise the length may be inconvenient. No
lid is required, as the books may be closed for protection against dust
when necessary.
Fig. 9 represents one of the cases I am rmw using, containing
twelve volumes arranged in two rows. Each volume contains about
two hundred leaves, the spaces in the case being large enough, however.
670
Public Libraries in the United States.
Indexing Periodical and MisceManeous Literature. 671
to contain them easily when thej' shall have grown to twice that size.
The brass plates and threads, and all the binding are entirely out of
sight beneath the case, so that the whole presents a neat appearance.
The references are written on the left side only, as represented in Fig. 1 ;
the leading or catch word is thus always first in view as the leaves are
turned.
To make this description complete, it should be added that the refer-
ences to periodical literature are made in the usual way, by an ab-
breviation of the title, the number of the volume, and the page. But
the references to the volumes of miscellaneous literature require either
a special device or the copying of somewhat long titles a great many
times. To save this copying and to condense the size of the index the
following plan has been adopted : The titles of the volumes are num-
bered and written in full with their numbers once for all, in a bold hand,
on a large card which is suspended over the case. The references are
then made by writing two numbers after the subject of the article, one
the number of the volume on the card, the other the page of the article.
I have now three hundred volumes numbered on my card. This device
simplifies the work, condenses the index, and prevents mistakes to such
an extent that were I to begin the whole work de novo I should be in-
clined to adopt it for all the books indexed.
When the covers of the books are once prepared and the index has
been begun, the work of keeping it up in any ordinary library is neither
long nor difiScult. It may properly be divided, however, into two parts ;
the preparation of the slips from an inspection of the articles or essays to
be indexed, and the copying of them and arranging and retying of the
volumes. The latter requires no special preparation or skill, but may be
done by any careful assistant. The preparation of the slips, on the other
hand, requires the most careful attention of one who has had experience
with books. He must decide upon the leading or principal word of the
title, and the best condensed form of it, without hesitation; he must
determine what titles should be repeated under different catch-words,
and what articles should be rejected as worthless; he must be able to
run his eye over the book notices in the leading reviews, and select here
and there one which amounts to a brief review, omitting the rest ; and,
what is most difficult of all, he must be able to make titles and substi-
tute them for a vast number of fancy titles which would be meaningless
in an index. Think of a valuable historical article on steam navigation,
written for one of the British quarterlies at the time the Great Eastern
was launched, as indexed under its fancy title, Triton (The) and the
Minnows; or, of a long article in the North American Keview at the
close of the war, reviewing the Eebellion Kecord, as indexed Scotch the
Snake or Kill It, or Snake, Scotch or Kill it. Some writers have a
fancy for such taking titles, and the indexer must be able to reject
them promptly, and substitute whatever his own judgment dictates.
Mn Poole says in the preface to his index, " My practice has been to
672 Public Libraries in the United States.
ignore entirely all previous indexes and tables of contents; and, after
an inspection of the article, and, if necessary, its perusal, to refer to it
by that title under which I supposed the reader would be most likely to
look for it."
In concluding this paper, I may be allowed a suggestion as to the
co-operation which is possible among librarians in this work of index-
ing. We may suppose that the most important of the periodical and
miscellaneous literature is added about as soon as published to nearly
all of the libraries of the country, and the less important to many.
Kow, as the principal expense of keeping a running index to this
regular accession is in the skilled labor of preparing the slips before
copying, this work should be done once for all. Lttt some librarian
who receives about all of this kind of literature that is worth indexiug,
carefully prepare all the titles ttt for an index, and keep them on hand.
Copies could theu be made, at a trifling expense, of such portions as
any other librarian might order. One general indexer might thus
be paid for great thoroughness, with but little expense to the several
libraries receiving the titles from him. In whatever ft)rra any librarian
might choose to keep his index, this would greatly facilitate the prepa-
ration of the materials for the final alphabetical copy. Some might have
copies made upon thiu slips, suitable for pasting into blank books pre-
pared for the purpose. Others might prefer to have the titles copied
upon cards of uniform size, and fit to be arranged in a case, in the form
of a card catalogue, or to be mixed with the cards of their catalogue.
These would be much cheaper modes than the one I have adopted, as
described above, but in other respects much less satisfactory. Still
other modes of converting the indexer's titles into an index will readily
occur to any librarian who considers it a little ; and I think every one
would realize that the great difficulty of keeping a running index was
overcome as soon as he could purchase, at reasonable rates, copies of
such well prepared titles.
CHAPTER XXX.
BINDING AND PRESERVATION OF BOOKS
BY A. R. SPOrrORD,
Librarian of Congress.
Importance of the subject — Collatiox of books — Materials for binding —
Workmanship — Styles of binding — Haste to be avoided — Maps, charts,
AND plates to BE MOUNTED — RESTORATION OF OLD BOOKS — PRESERVATION OF
annotations AND AUTOGRAPHS — TREATMENT OF PAMPHLETS.
Next to the selection and utilization of books, there is no subject
more important in the admioistration of a public library than the bind-
ing and preservation of the volumes. Carelessness or neglect of the
work in these points will subject any collection of books to danger and
deterioration which may end in the loss of many volumes. However
large or small a library may be, it should be a part of the duty of its cus-
todian to go carefully through the collection at frequent intervals, take
out the books needing repairs or rebinding, and to see to it that none
is damaged beyond recovery before the proper remedy is applied.
Coincident with this duty should be the careful examination of each
book returned from the hands of readers before it is replaced upon the
shelves. Many libraries are filled with imperfect books, from which
plates or leaves are missing, having fallen oat by the wear and tear of
the volumes, and carelessness or some worse abuse on the part of read-
ers. This mischief should, of course, be watched and arrested at the
threshold, and no library should be made the victim of the joint care-
lessness of its officers and the public. No rules for the collection of
fines or the replacement of damaged books are of any value unless reg-
ularly and systematically enforced ; and this can be done only by a cur-
sory examination, at least, of each volume as it is returned from the
hands of the reader.
Equally essential is it to good library management that every book
acquired by purchase or otherwise be carefully collated before being
catalogued or placed upon the shelves. Missing signatures, misplaced
leaves, or abstracted plates and maps are of extremely common occur-
rence in any lot of books purchased or newly received from whatever
quarter. Such imperfections can be detected only by a thorough colla-
tion, page by page. In the case of recent publications wanting in leaves
or illustrations, the publishers are bound to supply the imperfection free
of charge. In th§ case of books which are out of print, it is usually
43 E
G74 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
impracticable to repair iinperfectious ; and, in such cases, the book
shoiikl be retiirued to the seller, and another copy procured ; unless in
special cases the work is a rare one, and the imperfection of small con-
sequence in comparison with the cost and the importance of the book
to the library. A successful and economical repair of such deficiencies,
of course, depends upo.i the promptitude with which reclamations are
made; and without prompt and thorough attention to this matter, mak-
ing it a rule to collate every volume on receipt, a library runs the risk
of becoming filled with imperfect books, which may become quite as
annoying to readers as the total absence of the volumes themselves.
While this is no place for a treatise on the history or the art of book-
binding, a few practical suggestions on the best methods of utilizing this
art for the preservation of library collections seem to be appropriate.
And, first, as to the material to be employed in covering books. The
combined experience of librarians establishes the fact that leather bind-
ing only can be depended on for any use but the most ephemeral. All
books bound in boards or cloth inevitably come to pieces after a few
readings. While reasons of economy may dictate the propriety of leav-
ing some books of reference, and the mass of volumes in any depart-
ment which are but little read, in their original cloth binding, it is neces-
sary to provide all the books which are really much used with a more
solid and permanent covering. In doing this, the problem is how to
combine durability and elegance with economy in expenditure. It is a
false economy to employ cheap binders, who will always slight their
work in order to underbid competition. To save a few cents on a vol-
ume, librarians will sometimes hazard the much greater cost of hav-
ing books rebound a second time ; and each rebinding seriously dete-
riorates every volume which is subjected to the process. The cheapest
binding is that which is done to last, and the most expensive that \^hich
the soonest comes to pieces in the hands of the reader. An inexpert
librarian who accepts the lowest bid for rebinding a lot of books is
served with inferior leather, the thinnest spongy boards instead of solid
tar, cheap sewing-thread, inferior glue, imitation gold-leaf, and other
devices resorted to by every mechanic who has to make a clieap job
imy. Nowhere are the effects of the reign of shoddy, which infests
every art and manufacture, more lamentable than in the book-binders'
art. The sacrifice of all comeliness, solidity, and taste in binding is less
injurious than the increased expense entailed by imperfect work. A
book which comes from the binder in a half-pressed, spongy, and speed-
ily-warping condition, with rough corners, irregular trimmings, wrinkles,
imperfectly-secured plates, half-sewn or starting leaves, and similar im-
perfections, is on the high road to destruction, if not effectually ruined
by the process it has undergone. On the other hand, a book which has
been correctly treated will have a solid and even shape and feeling,
with the leather of the corners^smoothly pared, the back firm and well
rounded, the head evenly trimmed, the leaves opening] freely and uni-
Binding and Preservation of Books. 675
formly in all parts, and the lettering on the back clear and straight.
To pay 25 per cent, additional, or even more, for snch binding, and be
assured of thorough and conscientious work, from the cardinal point of
the sewing of the volumes to the last touch of the finisher, is wise
economy in the end.
While nearly all books published on the continent of Earope are
issued to the public in paper or printed covers, in England and America
they are almost universally published in muslin bindings, the English
style being uncut as to margins, while in this country the book is usually
trimmed all around before the cloth binding is put on. The muslin cov-
ers being made in part by machinery, and all in one piece, are attached to
the book only by a narrow guard of paper or cloth, liable to tear away at
the first severe handling. Books bound in leather, on the other hand,
being first carefully sewed and backed to secure the tenacity of the
leaves, are firmly laced to the boards which form the cover by the twine
or cords to which the leaves are sewn. The leather being then placed
over all, if of the proper texture and durable quality, will insure the
preservation of each properly-bound book for centuries, oven with fre-
quent, if reasonably careful, use or reference.
The quality of the leather used in binding is of cardinal importance.
What passes under the name of morocco leather is commonly only
colored sheepskin, soft, and easily worn out, with a tendency to become
rough and lose its artificial coloring on being handled. Genuine Levant
morocco is expensive, but it is the only leather likely to give permanent
satisfaction on books which are to be continually handled. Calfskin,
which is very largely used in book binding, although it has the merit of
a smooth and elegant appearance, is open to fatal objections. The
leather is brittle and always breaks at the joints, the question of its de-
terioration being only one of time. In most libraries the books bound
in calf or half-calf are continually being sent to the binder for repairs.
The heavier volumes bound in this material frequently break by their
own weight in standing on the shelves, while those subject to frequent
opening break all the sooner. Moreover, calf bindings, especially light
calf, are much more easily stained or soiled than any others, while the
smoothness of the leather renders them peculiarly liable to scratches,
thus quickly ruining the primitive elegance of their appearance. For
these reasons it is bad economy to bind any book in calf for a public
library, however it may be with private ones. Eussia leather, although
stronger than calf, has the same liabilit}^ to break at the joints, while the
idea that its peculiar odor affords any protection against worms, is a de-
lusion. Perhaps nothing need be said of "leatherette," or other shoddy
substitutes for leather and cloth, which have recently come in vogue
among the votaries of cheap binding. They are, one and all, made of
paper, and are stiff, brittle, and sure of breaking at the joints even more
quickly than calf, so that the use of them for a public library would be
a most costly economy.
676 Public Libraries in tJie United States.
As to the color chosen for bindings, it has been found that all morocco
leathers, green, blue, maroon, etc., turn a dingy black after a few decades.
The only permanently fast color for leather is said to be red, the dye
being made from the cochineal insect. The objection that the binding
in red is too gaudy or showy for the shelves of a public library may be
answered by the statement that the mass of every large collection, be-
ing composed of the older literature, will always be of calf or other
dark-colored bindings. The majority of the more recent books, also,
or the literature of the current century, which are kept in their orig-
inal bindings, are in dark-colored muslin. If the books which come to
be rebound, and the new acquisitions requiring it, are all bound in red
morocco, therefore, and distributed, as they will naturally be, with the
related books in each department of the library, they will serve to light
up and relieve agreeably the otherwise too sombre appearance of the
collection. Of course the exceptions may be numerous to binding uni-
formly in this color ; and works in theology, science, etc., may very
properly be dressed in black morocco, which will not turn any dingier
than its native color in the progress of time. No arbitrary rule should
be laid down, though it may be noted that the authorities of the British
Museum Library have adopted a classification of colors, by which his-
torical books are bound in red, theological in blue, poetical in yellow,
books of natural history iu green, etc. As nearly all libraries are
lighted by gas, the chemical effects of which are very injurious to books,
it may be added that calf and Eussia-leather suffer most from the pro .
ducts of gas combustion, and morocco least of all.
Comparatively few books need be bound in full leather, even in a
library largely used, though all books of incessant reference, like the
more popular encyclopaedias and dictionaries, should be fully bound in
the strongest and most durable leather. The mass of books, if bound in
genuine half-morocco, with cloth sides, will stand well a prolonged use.
Those less frequently used may safely have marbled paper sides, but
leather corners should be insisted upon for all but the thinnest volumes.
The binder should .not be permitted to cut any book closely. A sim-
ple shaving taken off the head to render the leaves smooth for handling,
leaving the other margins uncut,' is the best treatment. The prime re-
quisites of good binding are durability and neatness, and to these botli
ornament and false economy should be sacrificed. Gilding is quite un-
necessary in the books of a public library, except for the mere lettering,
or titles. Morocco looks well with what is termed blind-tooling, or
blank finish, and the money spent in extra stamps, fillets, or embossing
would be better applied in securing thorough sewing and " forwarding,''
or fastening in the leather covers. This branch of the bookbinder's
art furnishes the true test of durable work. Too much hurry in bind-
ing books is a waste, as no book can be well bound unless it is given
ample -time to dry and press thoroughly after each process. Freshly-
bound books should be reserved from use for at least three weeks, and
Binding and Preservation of Books. 617
firmly pressed on shelves till they are so dry as not to warp upon expos-
ure. All maps and plans in books should be mounted on cambric, or
other thin cloth. The plates in large volumes should be secured by
being mounted on guards, and such volumes should be kept in drawers
or on sliding shelves, as if placed upright they suffer inevitable injury.
The mounting of maps on paper, and patching with cloth at the folds, are
ruinous expedients. Folding maps and plates are invariably torn and
ruined if not thoroughly protected. In binding periodicals, the covers
should be carefully preserved and bound at the end of each volume ;
thus preserving what is frequently valuable historical material, and
supplying the means of fixing the date, price, etc., of each number. All
half-titles, known as " bastard titles," should be preserved and bound
in, while prospectuses of other publications or miscellaneous advertis-
ing sheets may be rejected, in binding any book, as extraneous matter.
Old books in original binding should be restored rather than rebound,
preserving as far as possible the characteristic features of the primi-
tive binding. For the same reason, annotations and autographs
should generally be preserved, as they frequently elucidate the history
or contents of the volume, or identify it with a former possessor.
Every librarian should give special personal attention to the lettering
of books. Binders are rarely qualified to discriminate the proper
titles to be placed on a book, especially those in foreign languages, and
the time and money expended on full, accurate, and well arranged let-
tering will save much time and trouble in after use to readers and libra-
rians alike. The date and place of publication should in all cases be
the last lettering on the back, and collective works should have some
indication of the contents of each volume of the set supplied in its
lettering.
The binding of pamphlets is a mooted point in all libraries. While
the British Museum and the Library of Congress treat the pamphlet as
a book, binding all separate, this is deemed in some quarters too vexa-
tious and troublesome, as well as needlessly expensive. It must be con-
sidered, however, that the crowding of a heterogeneous collection of
pamphlets into a single cover is just as objectionable as binding together
books on unrelated subjects. Much time is consumed in finding the
pamphlet wanted among a dozen or more that precede or follow it, and,
if valuable or much sought for pamphlets are thus bound, many read-
ers may be kept waiting for some of them, while one reader engrosses
the volume containing all. The loss of one, moreover, entails the loss
of all bound with it; whereas if kept separate the loss would have been
reduced to a minimum. Pamphlets may be lightly bound in paste-
board, stitched, with cloth backs, at a cost varying from 8 to 12 cents
each; ^ and the compensating advantage of being able to classify them
like books upon the shelves should weigh in the decision of the ques-
tion. If many are bound together, they should invariably be assorted
'This cost, however, will hardly iuclude lettering.
678 Public Libraries in the United States.
into classes, and those only on the same general topic should be
embraced in the same cover. The reports of societies and institutions,
annual catalogues, etc., should be bound in chronological series, with
five to ten years in a volume, according to thickness. Libraries which
accumulate many bound volumes of pamphlets should divide them into
series, and number them throughout with strict reference to the cata-
logue. There will thus be accumulated a constantly increasing series
of theological, political, agricultural, medical, scientific, etc., pamphlets,
■while the mass, which cannot be thus classified, may be designated in
a consecutive series of volumes as Miscellaneous Pamphlets. When
catalogued, the title page or beginning of each pamphlet in the volume
should be marked by a thin strip of unsized paper projected above the
top of the book, to facilitate future reference. In all cases the contents
of each volume of pamphlets should be briefed in numerical order upon
the first fly-leaf of the volume, and its corresponding number written
on the title page of each pamphlet.
Keaders should never be permitted the vulgar and deleterious prac-
tice of folding down the corners of leaves — i. e., making "dog's-ears" —
or of wetting the fingers in turning over the pages of a book. All
writing upon margins should be visited with the penalty of exclusion
from library privileges. Under no circumstances should a book be left
open, face downward. Never crowd books too closely upon the shelves.
There should always be room for every volume to slip easily past its
neighbors. Turning books downward upon the fore-edge is another
injurious practice, which deteriorates the solidity of the binding. When
uncut books must be brought into use in a library, they should always
b3 prepared for the readers by the paper-knife, as otherwise the leaves
will be subject to the hazard of being torn and gouged by impatient
fingers past all remedy, except the barbarous expedient of cutting off
all the margins when the book is bound.
CHAPTER XXXI.
PERIODICAL LITERATURE AND SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS.
BY A. R. SPOFFORD,
Librarian of Congress.
Society publications — Pkriodicals and pamphlets — Complete files should be
KEPT — Arrangement — Newspapers — Their number— Tendency to destruc-
tion— Present and future value — Collection of M. de la Bedoyere — Local
libraries should preserve files of local papers and pamphlets — Scrap-
books— Reviews AND magazines- Reports, proceedings, and transactions of
societies — Indexes to scientific journals — The exchanges by the Smith-
sonian Institution — A valuable collection of pamphlets relating to Eng-
lish history.
Within the world of books which every public library contains, and
forminof frequently a large and important department, come periodicals
and pamphlets. These include, not only newspapers and political and
literary journals of all kinds, but the transactions, proceedings, reports,
and other publications, whether regular or occasional, of societies, libra-
ries, governments, and their numerous subdivisions, together with the
whole vast farrago of publications that swarm from the press of all
nations, and do not form systematic works or books devoted to a special
topic. This mass of publications, which it would be a misuse of terms
to call minor literature, is sometimes described under the general head
of ephemera. The correctness of such a classification may be doubted,
since these publications, and especially those of governments and scien-
tific institutions and societies, frequently contain monographs of great
value and completeness, to which the application of the term " ephem-
eral" would be a misnomer. At the same time the fact that most of
these publications appear serially, or else, as in the case of pamphlets,
contain but a few leaves of print, removes them for certain purposes
from the category of distinctly printed works, and requires a special
treatment at the hands of librarians.
Whether a public library be large or small, its value to students will
depend greatly upon the care and completeness with which its selec-
tions of periodical works are made and kept up from year to year.
Xothing is more common in all libraries, public or private, than imper-
fect and partially unbound sets of serials, whether newspapers, reviews,
magazines, or the proceedings and reports of scientific societies, libra-
ries, charities, government and municipal publications, etc. Kothing
C7J
680 Fuhlic Libraries in the United States.
can be more annoying than to find the sets of such publications broken
at the very point where the references or the wants of those consulting
them require satisfaction. In these matters perpetual vigilance is the
price of completeness; and the librarian who is not willing or able to
devote the time and means requisite to complete the files of periodical
publications under his charge is to be censured or commiserated accord-
ing to the causes of the failure. The first essential in keeping up the
completeness of files of ephemeral publications, next to vigilance on the
part of their custodian, is room for the arrangement of the various parts,
and means for binding with promptitude. Some libraries, and among
them a few of the largest, are so hampered for want of room that their
serials are piled in heaps, without order or arrangement, and are thus
comparatively useless until bound. In the more fortunate institutions,
which possess adequate space for the orderly arrangement of all their
stores, there can be no excuse for failing to supply any periodical,
whether bound or unbound, at the moment it is called for. It is simply
necessary to devote sufficient time each day to the systematic arrange-
ment of all receipts ; to keep each file together in chronological order ;
to supply them, for the perusal of readers, with a proper check or receipt,
and to make sure of binding each new volume as fast as the publication
of titles and index enables it to be done properly. While some libraries
receive several thousands of serials, the periodical publications taken
by others amount to a very small number; but in either case the im-
portance of prompt collation and immediate supply of missing parts
or numbers is equallj^ imperative. While deficiencies in daily newspa-
pers can rarely be made up after the week, and sometimes the day, of
their appearance, the missing parts of official and other publications, as
well as of reviews and magazines appearing at less frequent intervals,
can usually be supplied within the year, although a more prompt secur-
ing of them is often necessary. In these publications, as in the acqui-
sitions of books for any library, the collation of each part or number is
imperative, in order to avoid imperfections which may be irreparable.
First in the ranks of these ephemeral publications, in order of number
if not of importance, come the journals of all classes, daily and weekly,
political, literary, scientific, illustrated, professional, mechanical, agri-
cultural, financial, etc. From the obscure and fugitive beginnings of
journalism in the sixteenth century to the establishment of the first con-
tinuous newspapers — the London Weekly ISTews, in 1622, and Eenau-
dot's Gazette, (afterwards the Gazette de France,) in 1631, followed by
the issue of the first daily newspaper, the London Daily Courant, in
1702, and the Boston Weekly IsFews Letter, in 1704, (the first American
journal,) — to the wonderful fecundity of the modern periodical press,
which scatters the leaves of more than fifteen thousand different journals
broadcast over the globe, is a long and interesting history of the trials
and triumphs of a free press. In whatever respect American libraries
may fall behind those of older lands, (and their deficiencies are vast, and.
Periodical Literature and Society Fublications. 681
in man}^ directions, permanent,) it may be said with confidence that in
the United States the newspaper has received its widest and most com-
plete development. Numerically, the fullest approximate return of the
newspaper and periodical press gives a total number of 7,870 periodical
publications regularly appearing within the limits of the United States.^
The largest number of periodicals printed in any country of Europe is
in Great Britain, where a total of 2,252, including newspapers, reviews,
magazines, etc., were issued in 1875.^ In the same year France had
1,559 newspapers and periodicals, Germany 1,985, and Italy 935.
While no one library, however large and comprehensive, has either
the space or the means to accumulate a tithe of the periodicals that
swarm from a productive press, there are valid reasons why more at-
tention should be paid by librarians to the careful preservation of
a wise selection of all this current literature. The modern newspa-
per and other periodical publications afford the truest, the fullest, and,
on the whole, the most impartial image of the age we live in that can
be derived from any single source. Taken together, they afford the
richest material for the historian, or the student of politics, of society,
of literature, and of civilization in its various aspects. What precious
memorials of the day even the advertisements and brief paragraphs of
the newspapers of a century ago afford us ! While in a fi^ld so vast it
is impossible for any one library to be more than a gleaner, no such
institution can afford to neglect the collection and preservation of at
least some of the more important newspapers from year to year. A
public library is not for one generation only, but it is for all time. Oppor-
tunities once neglected of securing the current periodicals of any age in
continuous and complete form seldom or never recur. The principle of
selection will, of course, vary in different libraries and localities. While
the safest general rule is to secure the best and most representative of
all the journals, reviews, and magazines within the limits of the fund
which can be devoted to that purpose, there is another principle which
should largely guide the selection. In each locality it should be one
leading object of the principal library to gather within its walls the full-
est representation possible of the literature relating to its own State
and neighborhood. In every city and largo town the local journals and
other periodicals should form an indispensable part of a public library
collection. Where the means are wanting to purchase these, the pro-
prietors will frequently furnish them free of expense for a public use ;
but no occasion should be lost of securing, immediately on its issue from
the press, every publication, large or small, which relates to the local
history or interests of the place where the library is maintained. This
collection should embrace not only newspapers, magazines, etc., but a
complete collection of all casual pamphlets, reports of municipal govern-
ments, with their subdivisions, reports of charitable or benevolent socie-
1 Rowell's American Newspaper Directory, ia75.
2 Newspaper Press Directory, London, \filb.
682 Public Libraries in the United States.
tie?, scbools, etc., and even the prospectuses, bulletins, catalogues, etc.,
of real-estate agents and tradesmen. Every library should have its
scrap-book (or series of them) for preserving the political broadsides and
fugitive pieces of the day which in any way retlect or illustrate the spirit
of the times or the condition of the people. Tiiese unconsidered trifles,
commonly swept out and thrown away as worthless, if carefully pre-
served and handed down to the future, will be found to form precious
memorials of a by-gone age. How many pages of our modern philosophic
historians are illuminated by traits of character and manners derived
from these ephemeral handbills, broadsides, ballads, and other forgotten
" rubbish " of the centuries that are gone.
While the tiles of the journals of any period furnish unquestionably
the best instruments for the history of that epoch, it is lamentable to
reflect that so little care has ever been taken to preserve a fair repre-
sentation of those of any age. The destiny of nearly all newspapers is
swift destruction; and even those which are preserved commonly sur-
vive in a provokingly fragmentary state. The obvious causes of the
rapid disappearance of periodical literature are its great volume, neces-
sarily increasing with every year, the difiiculty of lodging the files of
any long period in our narrow apartments, and the continual demand
for paper for the uses of trade. To these must be added the great cost
of binding flies of journals, increasing in the direct ratio of the size of
the volumes. As so formidable an expense can be incurred by very few
l^rivate subscribers to periodicals, so much the more important is it that
the public libraries should not neglect a duty which they owe to their
generation as well as to those that are to follow. These poor journals
of to-day, which everybody is ready to stigmatize as trash not worth
the room to store or the money to bind, are the very materials which
the man of the future will search for with eagerness, and for some of
which he will be ready to pay their weight in gold. These representa-
tives of the commercial, industrial, inventive, social, literary, political,
moral, and religious life of the times should be preserved and handed
down to posterity with sedulous care. No historian or other writer on
any subject who would write conscientiously or with full information
can afford to neglect this fruitful mine of the journals, where his richest
materials are frequently to be found.
As a single instance of the value to the historical stores of a public
library of this ephemeral literature, it may be noted that the great col-
lection of printed matter, mostly of a fugitive character, relating to the
French Revolution, gathered by the late M. de la Bedoyere, amounted
to 15,500 volumes. Fifty years of the life of the wealthy and enthusi-
astic collector, besides a very large sum of money, were spent in
amassing this collection. With an avidity almost incredible he ran-
sacked every book-shop, quay, and private shelf that might contribute
afresh morsel to his stores; and when Paris was exhausted, had his
agents and purveyors busy in executing his orders all ov^er Europe.
Periodical Literature and Society FuUications. 683
Rival collectors, and particularly M. Descliieus, who had been a con-
temporary in the revolution, and had laid aside everything that ap-
peared in his day, only contributed at their decease to swell the pre-
cious stores of M. de la Bedoyere. This vast collection, so precious for
the history of France at its most memorable period, contained several
thousand volumes of newspapers and ephemeral journals, and was
acquired in the year 1863 for the National Library of France, where it
will forever remain a monument to the enlightened and far-sighted
spirit of its projector.
The life-long devotion of a late American collector, Peter Force, of
Washington, to the same historical spirit, resulted in amassing a large
and rich library of manuscripts, newspapers, books, pamphlets, maps,
broadsides, etc., mainly illustrative of American history. This invalu-
able collection, which no amount of money could have re-assembled, was
fortunately not permitted to be scattered, but was secured, during the
lifetime of the possessor, for the Library of the United States.
In the absence of a great library of journals, or of that universal
library which every nation should possess, it becomes the more impor-
tant to assemble in the various local libraries all those ephemeral publi-
sations, which, if not thus preserved contemporaneously with their issue,
will disappear utterly, and elude the search of future historical inquirers.
And that library which shall the most sedulously gather and preserve
such fugitive memorials of the life of the people among which it is sit-
uated will be found to have best subserved its purpose to the succeed-
ing generations of men.
Not less important than the preservation of newspapers is that of
reviews and magazines. In fact, the latter are almost universally reck-
oned as far more important than the more fugitive literature of the
daily and weekly press. Though inferior to the journals as historical
and statistical materials, reviews and magazines supply the largest fund
of discussion upon such topics of scientific, social, literary, and religious
interest as occupy the public mind during the time in which they
appear. More and more the best thought of the times gets reflected in
the pages of this portion of the periodical press. No investigator in
any department can afford to overlook the rich stores contributed to
thought in reviews and magazines. These articles are commonly more
condensed and full of matter than the average books of the period.
While every library, therefore, should possess for the current use and
ultimate reference of its readers a selection of the best, as large as its
means will permit, a great and comprehensive library, in order to be
representative of the national literature, should possess them all.
The reports, proceedings, and transactions of institutions and societies,
whether scientific, historical, commercial, literary, or lAilanthropic, also
present materials of the first importance to the student. Embodying as
they do the last result of the thought or investigation of scientific men,
each of whom has made a special field of inquiry his own, these publi-
684 Public Libraries in the United States.
cations supply what will be vainly sought for in the older literature
upon the same topics. Two invaluable indexes to the vast range of
papers printed in scientific journals and transactions have been given
to the world. Eeuss's Repertorium commentationum a societatibus lit-
erariis editarum, published at Gottingen, A. D. 1801-21, covers, in
sixteen quarto volumes, this occasional literature of learned societies
from the beginning to the present century. This is a topical index. The
Eoyal Society of London has completed in six large quarto volumes a
Catalogue of Scientific Papers, published from A. D. 1800 (where Reuss's
Repertorium stops) to 1863, in the transactions of societies, as well as in
journals and other periodical works. This gives the contents of nearly
1,400 serial publications devoted to science, in a single alphabet by au-
thors' names, with the reference, date, and number of pages in the
memoir, and is to be followed by a classed catalogue, covering the same
ground, in an alphabet of subjects. The Smithsonian Institution has ren-
dered an incalculable service to the scientific development of this country
through its broad and liberal system of exchanges with learned societies
throughout the world. The fruits of these exchanges, so far as repre-
sented in printed books and serials, are now deposited in the Library of
Congress, or of the United States, at Washington. They are there acces-
sible to all readers, and, consisting as they do of the publications of more
than two thousand societies and institutions witliout the limits of the
United States, besides nearly all American societies which print their
transactions or proceedings, they afford a rich repository of scientific
results, continually increasing, for the reference and use of American
scholars.
Of the multitudinous literature of pamphlets it is not necessary to
speak at length. Suffice it to say that the library which neglects the
acquisition and proper preservation and binding of these publications
is far behind its duty both to its own generation and to those which are
to follow. The pamphlet literature of every period furnishes often the
most precious material to illustrate the history and development of that
period. The new ideas, the critical sagacity, the political controversies,
the mechanical and industrial development, the religious thought of
many epochs find their best expression in the pamphlets which swarm
from the press. The fact that multitudes of these productions are anony-
mous does not detract from their value as materials for the student.
As one illustration of this value, take the Thomason collection of pam-
phlets of the period of the civil war in Great Britain. An indefatigable
bookseller named Thomason sedulously collected and laid aside every
scrap or book which appeared from the press from A. D. 1649 to 1660, the
period of the interregnum in the English monarchy represented by Crom-
well and the Commonwealth. This vast collection, numbering over 20,000
pamphlets, bound in 2,000 volumes, after escaping the perils of fire and
of both hostile armies, was finally purchased by the King and afterward
presented to the British Museum Library. Its completeness is one
Feriodkal Literature and Society Publications. 685
great source of its value, furnishing, as it does, to the historical student
of that most interesting revolution the most precious memorials of the
spirit of the times, many of which have been utterly lost except the sin-
gle copy preserved in this collection. Several great European libraries
number as many pamphlets as books in their collections. The Koyal
Library of Bavaria, at Munich, has 400,000, largely consisting of theses
or discussions of special topics by the candidates for degrees in the uni-
versities. Pamphlets, from their peculiar style of publication and the
difficulty of preserving them, tend to disappear more quickly than any
class of publications except newspapers and broadsides or hand-bills.
They are far less likely to be preserved in the hands of private holders
than reviews and magazines. Multitudes of pamphlets are annually lost
to the world from the want of any preserving hand to gather them and
deposit them permanently in some library ; so much the more import-
ant is it that the custodians of all our libraries should form as complete
collections as possible of all pamphlets, at least, that appear in their own
city or neighborhood. How to do this is a problem not unattended with
difficulty. Pamphlets are rarely furnished for sale in the same manner
as, books, and when they are, booksellers treat them with such indig-
nity that they are commonly thrust aside as waste paper almost as soon
as they have appeared from the press. If all the writers of pamphlets
would take pains to present them to the public libraries of the country,
and especially in their own neighborhood, they would at once enrich
these collections and provide for the perpetuity of their own thought.
A vigilant librarian should invite and collect from private libraries all
the pamphlets which their owners will part with. It would also be a
wise practice to engage the printing-offices where these fugitive leaves
of literature are put in type to lay aside one copy of each for the library
making the collection. The preservation and binding of pam^^hlets, a
question not without practical difficulty, is elsewhere treated in the pres-
ent volume.
CHAPTER XXXII.
WORKS OF REFERENCE FOR LIBRARIES,
BY A. R. SPOFFORD,
Librarian of Congress.
Catalogues insui-ticiext — Reference books needful — Their relative value —
Principle of selection — Books most useful should be readily accessible
TO readers — The examples of the British Museum and Library of Congress —
Catalogue of reference books.
Public libraries are useful to readers in proportion to the extent
and ready supply of the helps they furnish to facilitate researches of
every kind. Among these helps a wisely selected collection of books, of
reference stands foremost. Considering the vast extent and opulence
of the world of letters, and the want of experience of the majority of
readers in exploring this wide and almost boundless field, the import-
ance of every key which can unlock any portion of its hidden stores
becomes apparent. The printed catalogue of no single library is at all
adequate to supply full references even to its own stores of knowledge,
while these catalogues are, of course, necessarily useless as to other
sources of information elsewhere existing. Even the completest and
most extensive catalogue in the world, the manuscript catalogue of the
British Museum Library, although now extended to more than 1,600
folio volumes, is not completed so as to embrace the entire contents of
that rich repository of knowledge in a single alphabet. For lack of
information of the aid furnished by adequate books of reference in a
special field, many a reader goes groping in pursuit of references or
information which might be readily found in some one of the many vol-
umes which may be designated as works of reference. The diflSdence
of many students in libraries, and a mistaken fear of giving trouble to
librarians, frequently deprives them of even those aids which a few
words of inquiry might bring forth from the ready knowledge of the cus-
todians in charge.
That is the best library, and he is the most useful librarian, by whose
aid every reader is enabled to put his finger on the fact he wants just
when it is wanted. In attaining this end it is essential that the more
important, recent, and valuable aids to research in general literature
and science, as well as in special departments of each, should form a part
of the library. In order to make a fit selection of books — and all libra-
ries are practically reduced to a selection, from want of means to possess
C86
Works of Reference for Libraries. (jS7
the whole — it is iudispeiisable to know the relative value of the books
concemed. Many works of reference of great fame, and ouce of great
value, have become almost obsolete through the issue of more exteusiv^e
aud more carefully edited works iu the same field. While a great and
comprehensive library should possess every work of reference, old or
new, which has aided or may aid the researches of scholars, not forget-
ting even the earlier editions of works often reprinted, the smaller
libraries on the other hand are compelled to exercise a close economy
of selection. The most valuable works of reference, among which the
more copious and extensive bibliographies stand foremost, are fre-
quently expensive treasures, and it is important to the librarian fur-
nishing a limited and select library to know what books he can best
afford to do without. If he cannot buy both the Manuel du libraire, of
Brunet, aud the Tresor des livres rares et precieux, of Graesse, both of
which are dictionaries of the choicer portions of literature, it is import-
ant to know that Brunet is the more indispensable of the two. From
the 20,000 reference books lying open to the consultation of all readers
in the great rotunda of the British Museum reading room, to the small
and select case of dictionaries and other works of reference in a town
or subscription library, the interval is indeed wide. But where we can-
not have all, it becomes the more important to have the best; and the
reader who has at hand for ready reference the latest and most copious
dictionary of each of the leading languages of the world, two or three
of the best general bibliographies, the most copious catalogue raisonne
of the literature in each great department of science, the best biographi-
cal dictionaries, and the latest and most copious encyclopaedia issued
from the press, is tolerably well equipped for the prosecution of his re-
searches. Collateral helps of all kinds will be perpetually unfolded as
he i)roceeds. No book that treats upon the subject that engages him
but will supply hints-or references to other sources of information ; and
the whole world of knowledge is so related that all roads may be said
to cross and converge, like the paths which carry the explorer over the
surface of the globe on which we live.
Next in importance to the possession in any library of a good select-
ion of the most useful books of reference, is the convenient accessibility
of these works to the reading public. Just in proportion to the iu dis-
pensability and frequency of use of any work should be the facility to
the reader of availing himself of its aid. The leading encyclopaedias,
biographies, and dictionaries of reference should never be locked up
in cases, nor placed on high, remote, or inaccessible shelves. There
should be in every library what may be termed a central bureau of
reference. Here should be assembled, whether on a circular case made
to revolve on a pivot, or on a rectangular case, with volumes covering
both sides, or in a central alcove forming a portion of the shelves of the
main library, all those books of reference and volumes incessantly
needed by students in pursuit of their various inquiries. Oat of 1,100,000
Q8S Public Libraries in the United States.
volumes belongiog to the British Museum Library, every reader has in-
stant access, without tickets or formality, to 20,003 books of reference,
arranged in convenient classes by subject matters on the shelves of the
reading room, where all pursue their studies. For any of the remaining
million and more of volumes the reader must present his tickets to the
library attendants, who produce the books from whatever portion of the
vast and widely distributed domain of letters they occupy. This superior
accessibility of so large a library of reference books is of all others the
most popular and appreciated feature of that liberally managed insti-
tution, the British Museum. In the Library of Congress, or of the United
States, at Washington, a good selection of reference books, comprising
all the leading encyclopaedias, biographical dictionaries, classical, genea.
logical, and scientific glossaries, dictionaries of dates, of languages, etc., is
placed on shelves in an accessible portion of the main library, while the
rest of the 300,000 volumes it contains are stored in alcoves, which are
under lock and key, and must be applied for, as in most extensive libra-
ries, by the ticket system. This supply of reference books would be
greatly extended if room were attainable. It is important that the cus-
todians of all libraries should remember that this ready and convenient
supply of the reference books most constantly wanted serves the double
object of economizing the time of the librarian and assistants for other
labor, and of accommodating in the highest degree the reader, whose time
is also economized. The misplacement of volumes which will thus occur
is easily rectified, while the possibility of loss through abstraction is so
extremely small that it should not be permitted to weigh for a moment
in comparison with the great advantages resulting from the rule of liber-
ality in aiding the wants of readers.
These leading works of reference should not be permitted to be taken
out, even in a library of circulation, but should be at once available at
all hours to public use and reference.
LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL BOOKS OF REFERENCE I3IP0RTANT TO BE
USED IN LIBRARIES.
[Note. — The specially useful manuals, among many of more or less value, are marked
l>y an asterisk in the list. The abbreviation v. stands for volume.]
Architecture.
Nicholson (P.) Architectural dictionary.
Architecture.
'* Fergusson (J.) History of architecture
in all countries from the earliest times
to the present day. 2d ed. 4 v. 8*^.
London, 1874-75.
Gwilt (./.) Encyclopiedia of architec-
ture. New ed. Revised by W. Pap-
worth. 8°. London, 1867.
* Mitchell (T.) Rudimentary manual of
architecture. History and explana-
tion of the principal styles, ancient,
medijeval, and renaissance, with glos-
sary. 12''. Loudon, 1870.
2v. 4°. London, 1854.
Parker (J. H.) Glossary of terms used
in architecture. 5th ed. 3 v. 8°. Ox-
ford, 1850.
Stuart (R.) Dictionary of architecture,
historical, descriptive, topographical,
etc. 3 V. 8"^. London, 1843.
VioUtt-Le-Diic {E. E.) Dictionnaire rai-
sonn^de I'architecture fran^aise du
ll«-lG'=siccle. 10 V. S'^. Paris, 1858-68.
Works of Reference for Libraries.
689
Architecture.
* Weale{J.) Ruilimeutary dictionary of
terms used iu arcUitecture. VZ^. Loo-
don, 1870.
Art. See Pine Arts.
Bible. See Theology.
Bibliography and Literature.
OeneraL
Boita {A. C. L.) Handbook of universal
literature. 12". New York, I860.
* Brunei (J. C.) Manuel du libraireet de
I'aniateur des livres. 5^ 6d. augmen-
t6o d'un tiers par I'auteur. 5 v. 8°.
Paris, 1860-61.
Bare {G.F.de). Bibliographie instruc-
tive ; on, trait6 de la conuoissance des
livres rares et singuliers. 7 v, 8°.
Paris, 1763-63.
Cailleau {A. C.) and Dados ( — ). Dic-
tionnaire bibliographique, historique
et critique. 4 v. 8°. Paris, 1790-
1802.
Darling (.7.) Cyclopfedia bibliograpb-
ica: a manual of theological and gen-
eral literature. 2 v. 8°. Loudon,
1854.
Denis (F.) Pinion (P.) et Martonne (G.
F. de). Nouveau nianuel de biblio-
graphie uuiverselle. 8°. Paris, 1857.
Ebert (F. A.) General bibliographical
dictionarj', from the german. 4 v.
8°. Oxford, 1837.
Graease (./. G. T.) Tr6sordes livres rares
et pr6cieux ; on, nouveau dictionnaire
bibliographique. 6 v. 4". Dret<de,
1861-67.
— Supplement. 4°. Dresde, 1868-69.
Hain (L.) Repertoriuni bibliographi-
cum; libri onines ab arte typograph-
ica iaventa usque ad annum 1500. 2
V. in 4. 8°. Stuttgartiae, 1826-38.
HaJlam {H.) Introduction to the liter-
ature of Europe, 15th-17th centuries.
New ed. 4 v. 8°. Loudon, 1871.
* Home {T. H.) Introduction to the
study of bibliography. 2 v. in 1. 8°.
London, 1814,
Jocher {C. G.) AUgemeines gelebrten-
lexicon; darinne die gelehrten aller
stiinde welche vom anfange der welt
bis auf jetzige zeit gelebt, beschrie-
ben werden. 4 v. 4°. Leipzig, 1750-
5L
44 E
Bibliography and Literature.
Jocher {C. G.) The same. Fortsetzuug
uiid ergiinzungen; von J. C. Adelung
und H. W. Rotermund. [A-Rin.] 6 v!
4°. Leipzig, [etc.] 1784-1819.
Leypoldt (F.) Works of reference for
the use of the librarian, editor, liter-
ary student, book collector and book-
seller.
[In Wekki.y trade circular, Oct. 24, 1872, new
Her. V. 2l>, no. 17].
MaMaire{M.) Aunales typographici ab
artis invent.ne origine ad annum 1664.
9 V. in 5. 4". Hagse Comitum, [etc.]
1722-89.
Panzer {G. TV.) Annales typographici,
[14.57-1536]. 11 V. 4°. Norimbergae,
1793-1803.
Petzholdt (J.) Bibliotheca bibliograph-
ica. Kritisches verzeichniss der das
gesammtgebiet der bibliographic be-
treffendeu literatur des in- und aus-
landes. 8°. Leipzig, 1866.
Porter (K.) Books and reading. 12°.
New York, 1871.
Potter (A.) Handbook for readers and
studeuts. 16°. New York, 1863.
Sismondi {J. C. L. Simonde de). Histor-
ical view of the literature of the south
of Europe. Translated, with notes,
byT.Roscoe. 2 v. 12°. London, 1846.
Africa.
Gay (./.) Bibliographic des ouvrages
relatifs a I'Afrique et i I'Arabie. 8°.
San Rerao, 1875.
America.
Bartlett {J. R.) Bibliography of Rhode
Island. 8°. Providence, 1864.
— The literature of the rebellion. A
catalogue of books and pamphlets
relating to the civil war in the United
States, together with works on Amer-
ican slavery. 8^=. Boston, 1866.
Brasseur de Bourbourg (C E.) Biblio-
th^que mexico-guat^malienne. 8P.
Paris, 1871.
Britiah museum. Catalogue of america:i
books in the library. [By H. Stevens].
8°. London, 1856.
Colburn (J.) Bibliography of the local
history of Massachusetts. 8°. Bos-
ton, 1871.
690
Public Libraries in the United States.
Bibliography and Literature.
Cleveland {C. D.) Coiiipeiulinm of amer-
ican literature. 12°. Philadelphia,
185ri.
Davidson {J. If.) The liviiijr writers of
the soutli. 1-2^. New York, 1669.
Diiycklnck {E. A.) and {G. L.) Cyclop*-
dia of aiiicrican literature, enihracini;
critical notices of authors. New ed.
•2 V. 4°. Philadelphia, 1875.
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1492 and ir.51. 8°. New York, 1866.
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* — The same. [For 1875]. Embracing
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Lvdewig (H. E.) Literature of ameri-
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Bich (0.) Bibliotheca aniericana nova ;
catalogue of books relating to America,
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— Catalogue of books, relating princi-
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a catalogue of americau publications.
1820-18.52. 8°. New York, 1852. •
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* Thomas (I.) History of printing in
America. 2d ed. with a catalogue
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the revolution of 1776. 2 v. 8°. Al-
bany, 1874.
Triibnei- (X.)' Bibliographical guide to
americau literature; a classed H.-^t
I of books published in the United
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I London, 1859.
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12°. Boston, 1873.
British and American literature.
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Arnold (T.) Manual of english litera-
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Clevfland {C. D.) English literature of
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Collier (J. P.) Bibliographical and crit-
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Craik (G. L.) Compendious history of
english literature and of the english
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2 V. 8o. New York, 1863.
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* — The same. v. 2. January, 1863. to
January, 1872. 8°. London, 1873.'
* — The same. English catalogue of
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4 V. 8°. London, 1873-76.
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London catalogue of books ; containing
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* Lowndes ( W. T.) Bibliographer's man-
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Great Britain since the accession of
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* — Practical treatise on the law, privil-
eges, and usage of parliament. 7th
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18C0-65.
Haivkins {Sir J.) General history of the
science and practice of music. 5 v.
4°. London, 1776.
Hogarth {G.) Musical history, biogra-
phy, and criticism. 16°. London,
1835.
Hiillah (J.) History of modern music.
16°. London, 1862.
Eieseivetter {R. G.) History of the mod-
ern ransic of western Europe. 8°.
London, 1848.
* Moore (J. W.) Complete encyclopaedia
of music. 8°. Boston, 1854.
Mmikalischea conversations lexikon ; en-
cyclopiidie der gesammten musikal.
wissenschaften, von H. Mendel, v.
1-5. 8°. Berlin, 1870-75.
Schliiter (J.) General history of music.
8°. London, 1865.
Mjrthology.
Jnthon (C.) Classical dictionary. 8°.
New York, 1862.
*Brewer (E. C.) Dictionary of phrase and
fable. 2d ed. 12°. London, 1871.
Bulfindi {T.) The age of chivalry. 12°.
Boston, 1859.
— The age of fable. 12°. Boston, 1855.
D wight (M.A.) Grecian and roman
mythology. 12°. New York, 1855.
Murray (J. S.) Manual of mythology.
2d ed. 12°. London, 1874.
*SmHh (IF.) Dictionary of greek and
roman biography and mythology. 3
V. 8°. London, 1870.
— Classical dictionary. 8°. London,
1866.
Thorpe (B.) Northern mythology; pop-
ular traditions and superstitions of
Scandinavia, North Germany, and
Netherlands. 3 v. 12°. London, 1865.
Mythology.
* Wheeler (TV. A.) Dictionary of the noted
names of fiction. 12°. Boston, 1885.
* White (C.A.) The student's mythology.
12°. New York, 1870.
Natural History and Zoology.
Agassiz {L. J. R.) Bibliotheca zoologiiB,
etc. A general catalogue of all books,
tracts, and memoirs on zoology, geol-
ogy, etc. Enlarged by Strickland and
Jardine. 4 v. 8°. London, 1848-54.
Baird ( W.) Cyclopaedia of natural his-
tory. 8°. Glasgow, 1858.
Banks {Sir J.) Catalogus bibliothecae
historico-naturalis Joseph! Banks,
equitis, auctore Jona Dryander. 5 v,
8°. Londini, 1793-1800.
Bosgoed {D. M.) Bibliotheca ichthyolo-
gicaet piscatoria. 8°. Haarlem, 1874.
Dic^ionnaiVe des sciences naturelles. [Ed.
byF. Cuvier]. 71 v. 8°. Strasbourg,
1816-4.5.
*Engelmann { W.) Bibliotheca historico-
naturalis; verzeichniss der bilcher
liber naturgeschichte, 1700-1843. v. 1.
Anatomie und physiologie, zoologie,
palaeontologie. 8°. Leipzig, 1846.
*_ — andCarus{J. V.) The same. Supple-
mentband. Bibliotheca zoologica; ver-
zeichniss der schriften iiber zoologie,
welche in den periodischen werkea
enthalten vora jahre 1846-1860, selb-
stiindig erschienen sind. 1 v. in 2. 8°.
Leipzig, 1861.
* English cyclopaedia. Conducted by C.
Knight. Natural history. 4 v. 8°.
London, 1854-56.
— The same. Supplement. 8°. London,
1870.
Hagen {H. A.) Bibliotheca entomolo-
gica, bis 1862. 2 v. 8°. Leipzig, 1862.
* Maunder { S. ) Treasury of natural his-
tory. 6th ed. 12°. London, 1869.
*Wood {J. G.) Illustrated natural his-
tory. 3 V. 8°. London, 1870.
— See, also, Science.
Naval Science.
Bowditch {N.) American practical navi-
gator. Continued by J. I. Bowditch.
28th ed. 8°. New York, 1859.
""Busk {H.) Navies : their present state,
and future capabilities. 12°. Lon-
don, 1859.
* Cooper {J. F.) History of the navy of
the United States. Coiftinued to 1860.
3 V. in 1. 8°. New York, 1866.
708
Fiiblic Libraries in the United States.
Naval Science.
*Dana {R. H. jr.) Seaman's friend; a
treatise on practical seamanship. 8th
ed. 12^. Bastou, ISoS.
E unions {G. F.) Navy of the United
States, 1775-1353 ; with a history of
each vessel's service and fate. 4°.
Washington, 1853.
Falconer ( W.) Dictionary of the marine.
Modernized and improved, by W.
Barney. 4^. London, 1815.
Jal (A.) Glossaire nautique. Reper-
toire polyglotte des termes de marine.
4°. Paris, 1843.
*LuGe (S. B.) Seamanship ; compiled
from various authorities, for the use
of the United States naval academy.
3ded. 8^. New York, 1863.
Paget (J. C.) Naval powers and their
policy ; with tabular statements of
british and foreign iron-clad navies.
8°. London, 1876.
Periodical Literature.
'Andreivs (A.) History of british journal-
ism, to 1855. 2 V. 12°. London, 1859.
Cucheval-Clarigny (X.) Histoire de la
presse en Angleterre et aux fitats-
Unis. 12°. Paris, 1857.
Grant {J.) The newspaper press ; its or-
igin, progress, and present position.
2 V. 8°. London, 1871.
*Hat'm (E.) Bibliographic historiqne et
critique de la presse periodique fran-
gaise. 8°. Paris, 1866.
* Hudson (F.) Journalism in the United
States from 1630 to 1872. 8°. New
York, 1873.
Hunt (F. E.) TIjc fourth estate : contri-
butions towards a history of news-
papers. 2 V. 12°. London, 1850.
Mitchell 4' Co, (C) Newspaper press di-
rectory for the united kingdom. 8°.
London, 1875.
*' Poole ( William F.) Index to periodical
literature. [2d ed. to 1851]. 8°. New
York, 1853.
"Powell (G. P.) American newspaper
directory, containing lists of all the
newspapers and periodicals published
in the United States and Canada. 8°,
New Y'ork, 1875.
Smithsonian institution, ( Washington, D.
C.) Catalogue of publications of socie-
ties in the library of the Smithsonian
institution. 8°. Washington, 1866.
Periodical Literature.
Steiger {E.) Periodical literature of the
United States. 8^. New Y'ork, 1873.
Po3try.
*'AlUngham{W.) The ballad book : a
selection of the choicest british bal-
lads. 16°. Cambridge, 1865.
* Chalmers (A.) Works of the english
poets from Chaucer to Cowper. 21 v.
8°. London, 1810.
Child {F. J.) English and Scottish bal-
lads, selected and edited. 8 v. 16°
Boston, 1857.
Coggeshall ( W. T.) Poets and poetry of
the west. 8°. Columbus, (0.) 1860.
* Dana{C. A.) Household book of poe-
try. 11th ed. 8^. New York, 1875.
Emerson {R.W.) Parnassus. 12". Bos-
ton, 1875.
Griswold {R. W.) Female poets of
America. With additions by R. H.
Stoddard. 8°. New York, 1874.
— Poets and poetry of America, to the
middle of the 19th century. With ad-
ditions by R. H. Stoddard. 8°. New
York, 1873.
— Poets and poetry of England in the
19th century. With additions by R.
H. Stoddard. 8°. New York, 1875.
Hale (S. J.) Complete dictionary of
poetical quotations. 8°. Philadel-
phia, 1876.
* Library of poetry and song. With in-
troduction by W. C. Bryant. 8°.
New York, 1871.
*Palgrave (F. T.) Golden treasury of the
best poems in the english language.
16^. Boston, 1863.
Warton (T.) History of english- poetry,
1100-1700. New ed. improved, by
Richard Taylor. 3 v. 8>-". London,
1340.
* Whittier (J. G.) Songs of three centu-
ries. 12*^. Boston, 1876.
Political Economy and Finance.
Annuaire de I'economie politique et de la
statistique, 1346-1875. Public par M.
Block. 19 V. 18=^. Paris, 1846-76.
*Blanqui (A. J.) Histoire de r6couomie
politique en Europe ; suivie d'une
bibliographic. 4"= ^d. 2 v. 12°. Paris,
1860.
"Carey {H. C.) Principles of social sci-
ence. [Political economy]. 8°. Phil-
adelphia, 1858-60.
Works of Reference for Libraries.
709
Political Economy and Finance.
*Coquelin (C) and Guillanmin (U. G.)
Dictionnaire de I'^conomie politique.
3^6l\. 2 v. 80. Paris, 1364.
*Jevons ( W. S.) Money and the mechan-
ism of exchange. 12^. London and
New York, 1875.
'McCuUoch (J. R.) Literature of political
economy; a classified catalogue, with
historical notices, etc. 8°. London,
1845.
MacLeod (H. D.) Dictionary of politi-
cal economy; biographical, biblio-
graphical, historical, and practical.
V. 1. [A-C]. 8°. London, 1863.
[Xo more published).
*Mill {J. S. ) Principles of political econ-
omy, with some of their applications
to social philosophy. 7th ed. 2 v. 8°.
London, 1871.
— The same. People's ed. 12°. Loudon,
1865.
*Pcrry (A. L.) Elements of political
economy. 5th ed. 12°. New York,
1874.
Smith (Adam). Inquiry into the nature
and causes of the wealth of nations.
Ed. by J. E. T. Rogers. 2 v. 8°.
London, 1870.
Sumner {W. G.) History of american
currency. 12°. New York, 1874.
* Walker {A.) The science of wealth : a
manual of political economy, embrac-
ing the laws of trade, currency, and
finance. 8th ed. 8°. Boston, 1871.
Politics. See Government.
Quotations and Proverbs.
AlUbone {S. A.) Poetical quotations.
8°. Philadelphia, 1873.
— Prose quotations. 8°. Philadelphia,
1876.
^Bartlett (J. B.) Familiar ^quotations.
7th ed. 12°. Boston, 1875.*
*Bohn{H. G.) Handbook of proverbs.
12°. London, 1855.
— Polyglot of foreign proverbs. 12°.
LondoU; 1857.
*Booth (J.) Epigrams, ancient and mod-
ern. New ed. 16°. London, 1873.
Dodd {H. P.) The epigrammatists: a
selection from epigrammatic litera-
ture of ancient, mediaeval and modern
times. 12°. London, 1870.
Dttplessis {P. A. G.) Bibliographie par^-
miologiqne. 8°. Paris, 1847.
Quotations and Proverbs.
Friswell (J. H.) Familiar words ; or
quotation handb ook. 3d ed. 16"
London, 1874.
Grocott {T. C.) Index to familiar quota-
tions. New ed. 16°. Liverpool, 1871.
Hazlitt ( W. C.) English proverbs and
proverbial phrases. 8°. London, 1869.
Henderson {A.) Latin proverbs and
quotations. 8°. London, 1^69.
^ Kelly ( W. K.) Proverbs of all nations
compared, examined, and illustrated.
3d. ed. 16°. London, 1870.
* Laconics : or the best words of the best
authors. 3 v. 18°. London, 1829.
"" Riley (R. T.) Dictionary of latin quo-
tations. 12°. London, 1870.
Wander (K. F. W.) Djutsches sprich-
worter-lexikon. 4 v. 4°. Leipzig,
1867-75.
Science.
*Jrt«(tai of scientific discovery ; or, year-
book of facts in science and art, for
1849-1871. By D. A. Wells, and oth-
ers. 21 V. 12°. Boston, 1850-71.
* Annual record of science and industry
for 1871 to 1875. Edited by S. F. Baird,
[etc.] 5 V. 12°. New York, 1872-76.
Candolle (A. L. P. P. De). Histoire des
sciences et des savants depuis deux
sifecles. 8°. Geneve, 1873.
Crahb {G.) Technical dictionary; ex-
planation of words used in arts and
sciences. 12°. London, 1851.
Engelmann ( W.) Bibliotheca mechanico-
technologica, bis 1843, in Dautschland.
2«aufl. 8°. Leipzig, 1844.
Humboldt (F. H. A. von). Aspects of na-
ture in different lands. Translated
by mrs. Sabine. 2 v. in 1. 16°. Lon-
don, 1850.
* — Cosmos. Translated under the super-
intendence of E. Sabine. 8th ed. 5 v.
12°. London, 1850-.58.
Nichol (./. P.) Cycloptedia of the physi-
cal sciences. 8°. London, 1833.
*Nuttall (P. A.) Dictionary of scientific
terms. 12°. London, 1869.
"^ Pogyendorff {J. C.) Biographisch-lite-
rarisches handworterbuch zur ge-
scliichte der exacten wissenschaften.
8°. Leipzig, 1858-60.
Reuss {I. D.) Repertorium commenta-
tionum a societatibus litterariis edi-
tarum. [To 1800]. 16 v. 4°. Got-
tingae, 1801-20.
710
Public Libraries in the United States.
Science.
*Eodwell {G-.F.) Dictionary of science ;
embracing astronomy, chemistry, dy-
namics, electricity, heat, hydrodynam-
ics, hydrostatics, light, magnetism,
mechanics, meteorology, pneumatics,
sound, and statics. 8°. Philadelphia,
1873.
*Royal society of London. Catalogue of
scientific papers. [Index to the au-
thors, titles, and dates of scientific
papers in the transactions of societies
and in periodicals, from 1800 to 1863].
6 V. 4°. London, 1867-72.
Schoedler (F.) and Medlock (fiT.) Treas-
ury of science, natural and physical
12°. London, 1874.
Tolhausen {M. A.) Technological die
tiouary in french, euglish and german
8°. London, 1873.
Ure (A.) Dictionary of arts, manufac-
tures and mines. 7th ed. by E. Hunt
f.nd F. W. Rudler. 3 v. 8°. Lou
don, 1875.
Tear-book of facts in science and art,
1839-187.5. 37 V. 16°. London, 1839-76,
See, also, Natural History.
Theology.
Ahhot (E.) Literature of the doctrine
of a future life. 8^. Philadelphia,
1864.
[Appendix to A.LGER ("W. R.) Critical history
of tlie doctrine of a future lifej.
* Abbott ( L.) and Conant ( T. J.) Diction-
ary of religious knowledge. 8°. New
York, 1875.
Bible (The) of every land. A history of
the sacred scriptures in every lan-
guage and dialect into which transla-
tions have been made, illustrated by
specimen portions in native charac-
ters. 4^'". Loudon, [I860].
Cotton (ff.) Elitions of the bible, and
parts thereof, in Euglish, 1505-1850.
2d ed. 8°. Oxford, 1852.
*Cruden {A.) Complete concordance to
the holy scriptures. 8"^. New York,
1849.
Theology.
"Darling (J.) Cyclopaedia bibliograph
ica: a manual of theological litera-
ture, etc. 2 V. 8°. London, 1854.
— The same. Holy scriptures. 8". Lon-
don, 1859.
Home (T. H.) Manual of biblical bibli-
ography ; a catalogue of editions and
versions of the holy scriptures. 8°.
London, 1839.
— Introduction to the critical study and
knowledge of the holy scriptures.
11th ed. 4v. 8°. London, 1863.
Eitto (./.) Cyclopaediaof biblical litera-
ture. 3ded. 3v. 8^. London, 1869.
*M'Clintock (J.) and Strong (J.) Cyclo-
paedia of biblical, theological, and ec-
clesiastical literature. V. 1-6. [A-N].
8°. New York, 1867-7.5.
*Malcom(H.) Theological index. Ref-
erences to the principal works in
every department of religious litera-
ture. Embracing nearly 70,000 cita-
tions alphabetically arranged under
two thousand heads. 2d ed. 8". Phil-
adelphia, 1870.
0^ Callaglian {E. B.) List of editions of
the holy scriptures, and of parts
thereof, printed in America previous
to 1860. 4°. Albany, 1860.
Fei-enn^s(F.) and Brunei (G.) Diction-
naire de bibliographie catholique.
Suivi d'un dictionnaire de bibliylogie.
5 V. 8°. Paris, 1858-60.
Smith {W.) Dictionary of the bible
3 V. 8°. London, 1860-63,
* — The same. Revised and edited by H.
B. Hackett and Ezra Abbot. 4 v.
8^. New York, 1868-70.
Zachold (E, A.) Bibliotheca theologica.
Verzeichniss der auf dem gebiete der
evangelischen theologie wahrend der
jahre 1830-1862 in Deutschland erschie-
uenenschriften. 2 v. 8°. Gottingen,
1834.
Voyages and Travels. See Geography.
Zoology. See Natural History.
CHAPTER XXXIII
LIBRARY MEMORANDA.
BY JUSTIN WIXSOR,
Superintendent Boston Public Library.
Ephemera — Binding — Reference books — Library statistics.
EPHEMERA.
The librarian of a great library largely escapes that choosing between
books necessarily imposed on those in charge of smaller collections. The
larger the available income for the purchase of books, the less distracted
he is in making choice of them. Ev^erything will come in use sooner
or later in a large collection, as everybody expects to find everything on
the shelves. No selection can, therefore, be wholly amiss. But the per-
plexity most commonly arising with the lesser libraries is that of the pres-
ervation and storing of what are usually denominated ephemera. For a
given bulk the labor which must be bestowed on pamphlets, broadsides,
scraps, etc., to render them of any use in a library — assorting, catalog-
uing, binding, etc. — is vastly greater than for books; and, as labor is
money, and as money should be made to go as far possible in a library^
there is no reason why ordinary libraries should give any of their re-
sources to this end, except so far as the matters to be preserved are
of local interest. These tbey should care for by all means, as the com-
munity which they serve, presently and prospectively, has a right to
expect of them, A few great libraries in the country, the chief one
in each principal geographical section, should do this work, and they
should open an exchange account with each other, say, in our country,
the Boston Public Library for New England; the State Library at Albany
perhaps for the Middle States, or the Library Company at Philadelphia ;
the Library of Congress for the whole country, and particularly for those
remoter sections where there is no large library to look out for their
preservation ; the public libraries of Cincinnati or Chicago for the West ;
and the San Francisco Mercantile for the Pacific Coast. The lesser
collections will do the best thing for the future historical investigator,
if they will make regular contributions into the larger repository of
all such grist as may come to their mill, so that it can there be cared
for and rendered available for use by indexing of one kind or another.
The cost of this work is large, and the chief libraries should by all
means iirovide for it. A great mistake would be made if the present
711
712 Public Libraries in the United States.
outlay is compared with the present advantage, ^he experience of the
Old World libraries shows how material of this sort, which would have
cost little to accumulate at the time, is now beyond recovery, or is ob-
tained at prices that are appalling ; and these prices are given because
of the real value of this material for history. Ephemera are the best reflex
of the times which saw their first issue, and we cannot read Macaulay, for
instance, without seeing the legitimate use which an historian can make
of them. It should be remembered that unless the chief libraries make
it a part of their business to preserve these things, the work is not done
at all. Societies notoriously neglect the preservation of their annual
reports. The Uuited States Government and its departments are with-
out complete files of their important documents. Perhaps not a State
in the Union can show a full collection of its own printed records.
Cities and towns are almost always deficient in this way, and what col-
lections they have are often at the hazard of a fire in the town clerk's
sitting room. The States should compel by law the sending of every
town document to the State libraries and to one other large library in
their section of the country. Librarians cannot do better than make
occasional collections illustrating important anniversaries in their
neighborhood, preserving for such purpose everything that has passed
through the press — books, pamphlets, newspapers, broadsides, prints, and
also manuscripts, the originals of addresses, poems, etc., photographs,
music — in fact everything which at the next recurring anniversary will
have interest; and there is little that a hundred years will not enhance
in value.
BINDING.
In the matter of binding, it cannot be too strongly impressed upon a
librarian's notice that he should acquire something of an expert's
knowledge of the binder's art. There are a great many tricks in all trades,
and a binder's has its full share of them. There are mud-board, and
sham leather, and false gold, gluing instead of sewing, and twenty other
devices that can be practiced upon a librarian ignorant of such matters,
so that his books will not last and future cost will be incurred. Cheap
binding is often dear binding. Strong sewing, real leather, and solid
board are worth paying for.
By all means let large libraries bind in with their periodicals, as well
as with pamphlets, their original covers. Matter of real importance
is preserved in this way, and the color of the covers forms convenient
marks on the book's edge for cleiiirly indicating the successive numbers.
Books issued in parts should have the covers for the parts bound at the
end, preserving all of them if they vary. Many an important question
has been settled by such covers. It increases the expense somewhat,
but the large libraries should incur it. It is not worth while for the
smaller libraries to do it.
In binding pamphlets, bind important ones singly; but the general
Library Memoranda. 713
mass can be bound in groups, either subjects or authors. Never bind
them in miscellaneous collections.
Foul air and an air heated and vitiated by gas light are very detri-
mental to binding, but genuine morocco stands the best. Calf is hand-
some for a private collection, but unsuited for a public library ; it
dries and cracks very easily. There is no propriety in a public library
of putting on full binding, except in rare instances nor much tooling
on the backs. If books are found by shelf numbers, the lettering on
the back should be as brief as possible; put the author's name at the
top and the title below it, with a dash between.
The cost of labor and material makes binding in this country at the
present time very costly, and orders should be given to European agents
to bind all books before shipment. If the time might be spared, books
could, indeed, be sent to Europe for binding at less cost by one-half than
they can be bound for here, and yet pay freight and insurance both
ways.
If binders can be found who understand the working of it, half parch-
ment binding gives variety to the shelves, costs less than morocco, is
very durable, and answers every purpose for books not much in use.
At all events, see that the binder protects and strengthens the corners
of all the books with a bit of parchment wrapped about the angle be-
neath the paper. For this purpose parchment scraps can be bought by
the pound from the principal stationers.
Eemember, also, that money is saved by rebintiing before the book
gets so far gone that the inner edge of the leaves has become torn or
worn and cannot be properly sewed over.
It is always best for a public library that books which are issued in
loose sheets in covers or portfolios should be bound. Much risk of loss
of parts is thereby avoided.
REFERENCE BOOKS.
In the matter of reference books, all libraries should be well supplied.
and no hesitancy should be felt in repeating the book in newer editions,
as issued. Ask librarians who have had experience what the selection
is that they have found best.' An important library should have all
the great encyclopedias; a library with restricted means is compelled
to choose. Every library should afford Chambers's, and if it can get
another, let it be Appleton's. The latter, without Chambers's, strength-
ens the references to American subjects; but Chambers's is by no
means a superfluity alongside of Appleton's (new edition) large work.
Webster's Unabridged is the best dictionary, even for Worcesterians, in
orthography — since it offers the user his choice in this respect, and is
much superior in all others. Guides tojsourses of reading are inadequate,
since the wants of no two people are alike; but of helps of this kind an
intelligent reader will avail himself in his own way ; consequently pro-
vide them, and also a sufQciency of maps and tables of statistics.
' For a list of works of reference for libraries, see Chapter XXXII, i)p. 68d tt seq.
714 Public Libraries in the United States.
LIBRARY STATISTICS.
There is no branch of library economy more important, or so little
understood by a librarian as helps to himself, as the daily statistics
which he can preserve of the growth, loss, and use (both in extent and
character) of the collection under his care. The librarian who watches
these things closely, and records them, always understands what he is
about, and what he accomplishes or fails to accomplish. The patrons
to whom he presents these statistics will comprehend better the machin-
ery of the library, and be more indulgent toward its defects. The meth-
ods employed in the library, of course, determine in large measure what
kinds of statistics are desirable and what are possible. Some sj^stems,
like a slip system for recording loans, for instance, will yield results, and
important ones, which it is impossible to get under a ledger system, or if
gotten are attainable only by labor which costs too much. It is all im-
portant that the nature and future of a library should be well understood
at the beginning, and that its system should be devised to yield the
desirable statistical results. If it is not so devised, it is very difficult
to engraft a cliange upon its radical methods at a subsequent period.
For this reason, however desirable it would be to procure uniformity in
library statistics throughout the country, there is little chance of its ever
being accomplished.
CHAPTER XXXIV
TITLES OF BOOKS.
BY PROF. OTIS H. ROBINSON,
Librarian University of Rochester.
Naming books — Enigmatical and misleading titles — Miscellanies — Explana-
tory, OBSCURE, incomplete, AND UNSUITABLE TITLES — HiNTS TO READERS — IM-
PROVEMENT IN TABLES OF CONTENTS AND IN INDEXES — A LIBRARY MANUAL.
The subject of this paper might well be entitled Enigmas ; a friend
has suggested Sphinxiana, which is perhaps better. And yet the com-
parison is not perfect; for the poor librarian has no oracle to assure him
that, should be guess the meaning of the titles. now published, the mon-
ster who propounded them will dash her head against a rock and expire.
No sooner has he studied out one batch than another is issued, with
which in turn he has to struggle without hope of coming to an end.
No act of a man's life requires more practical common sense than the
naming of his book. If he would make a grocer's sign, or an invoice
of a cellar of goods, or a city directory, he uses no metaphors; his pen
does not hesitate for the plainest word. He must make himself under-
stood by common men. But if he makes a book the case is different.
It must have the charm of a pleasing title. If there is nothing new
within, the back at least must be novel and taking. He tortures bis imagi-
nation for something which will predispose the reader in its favor. Mr,
Parker writes a series of biographical sketches, and calls it Morning
Stars of the New World. Somebody prepares seven religious essays,
binds them up in a book, and calls it Seven Stormy Sundays. Mr. H. T.
Tuckerman makes a book of essays on various subjects, and calls it The
Optimist, and then devotes several pages of preface to an argument,
lexicon in hand, proving that the applicability of the term optimist is
" obvious.-' An editor, at intervals of leisure, indulges his true poetic
taste, for the pleasure of his friends, or the entertainment of an occasional
audience. Then his book appears, entitled not Miscellaneous Poems,
but Asleep in the Sanctum, by A. A. Hopkins. Sometimes not satis-
fied with one enigma, another is added. Here we have The Great Iron
Wheel; or, Eepublicanism Backwards and Christianity Reversed, by J.
E. Graves.
These titles are neither new nor scarce, nor limited to any particular
class of books. Every case, almost every shelf, in every library con -
715
716 Public Libraries iti the United States.
tains such. They are as ofd as the art of book making. David's
lamentation over Saul and Jonathan was called The Bow. A single
word in the poem probably suggested the name. Three of the orations
of -S^schines were styled The Graces, and his letters The Muses.
" Were it inquired of an ingenious writer," says Disraeli, " what page
of his work had occasioned him most perplexity, he would often point to
the title page." No one will question this. The remote reference of titl e
page to contents must often have been discovered only by the severest
effort. Were the perplexity to stop with the "ingenious writer," the
latter might indulge his fancy in that direction unmjlested. But what
say the reader, the librarian, the cataloguer !
The books whose titles give special trouble to the reader, and gen-
erally to the librarian also, may be classified under several heads.
1. First of all are the miscellanies. These are miscellaneous essays,
reports of societies, and all periodicals, wiiether scientific or literary ;
also biographical sketches, with remains of essays, speeches, correspond-
ence, scientific papers, and the like. Of this class of books good titles
can only be general, from the nature of the case. All that can be asked
is that where it is practicable such qualifying words be used as will sug-
gest the general department of learning to which the contents belong.
How much better is Familiar Lectures on Scientific Subjects, by Sir
John F. W. nerschel, than Conferences faites a la gare Saint-Jean a
Bordeaux, the two books being on almost the same class of subjects.
2. Secondly are those books which are strictly miscellaneous, but
whose authors or publishers were not content to have them so called.
Of these are many to which the name of one essay is given, the others
falling under a general " and other essays."
De Quincey's The Avenger is bound up by the publishers with sev-
eral other essays, including the one on China. The Avenger occu-
pies seventy-four pages, China one hundred and twenty-two, and yet
China is hidden under the title The Avenger, etc. Roger's Reason and
Faith and Other Miscellanies is a volume of four hundred and fifty-eight
pages, one hundred and twenty on reason and faith, the rest being
on Thomas Fuller, Pascal, Luther, sacred eloquence, etc. Hawthorne's
Snow-Image, and other twice-told Tales has twenty-two pages on the
Snow-Image and two hundred and thirty-eight devoted to fourteen
other essays.
In this class are also to be included the books which are put forth
under some distinguished name connected with the subject or subjects
written upon.
A new book by Dr. William Forsyth, though not strictly miscellane-
ous, will serve as an illustration. The back of the book says, Horten-
sius, the Advocate. Within, a preliminary title page contains "Hor-
tensius, or the Advocate." Go further, and you find on the title page
proper, Hortensius, an historical essay on the office and duties of an
advocate. Now, if you read the book you find a series of essays on the
Titles of Books. Ill
Atheuian courts, advocacy in ancient Rome, tbe bar in the Middle
Ages, advocacy in England, etc., and that Hortensius serves not even
as the central figure of the book, but only as a title.
To these may be added a great many fancy general titles, from which
it is ditficult; to draw any inference as to the contents. Recess Studies^
edited by Alexander Grant, and published in 1870, is found to be a
collection of essays or papers by different authors on the existing con-
dition of Great Britain and Ireland, political, social, and religious. A
Free Lance in the Field of Life and Letters, by W. C. Wilkinson, con-
sists of critical examinations or reviews of the writings of George Eliot,
James Russell Lowell, William Cullen Bryant, and others. Paradoxes
and Puzzles, historical, judicial, and literary, by John Paget, con-
sists of reviews of passages in Macaulay's History, vindications of Nel-
son, Byron, and others; an examination of the cases of Elizabeth Can-
ning, Spencer Cowper, and others ; also some essays on art, with reviews
of Rubens, Ruskin, and Cruikshank. The back of the book gives simply
Paradoxes and Puzzles, by John Paget. One would naturally, there-
fore, classify it with De Morgan's Budget of Paradoxes, which is a
collection of scientific scraps, mostly mathematical, thrown together
without order, like scraps in a rag bag. After Paradoxes and Puzzles,
it is natural to mention Guesses at Truth, by two brothers. This is
put up in the same manner. Let no one suppose, however, that the
guesses of one have any reference to the puzzles of the other. Chips
from a German W^orkshop, by Max Miiller ; Tablets, by A. B. Alcott J
Dreamthorp, essays written in the country, by Alexander Smith ;
and My Study W'indows, by James Russell Lowell, may be added with-
out remark. Let it be understood, parenthetically, however, that Pro-
fessor Lowell " would have preferred a simpler title, but publishers
nowadays are inexorable on this point."
Of the two classes of books already mentioned, no reader should ex-
pect to find the contents except by means of a general index, alphabeti-
cally arranged. The fault of a fancy title is, not that it conceals mate-
rial which would otherwise be easily found, but that it often suggests a
particular treatise, while the contents are miscellaneous. That it is
practicable for a librarian to keep a general alphabetical index of con-
tents of such books may be seen by reference to the article in this vol
ume on that subject. ^
3. We mention, as a third class, books on particular subjects, whose
titles are wholly and inexcusably enigmatical. The Past, the Present,
and the Future, by H. C. Carey, a treatise on social science, has no word
suggesting its nature till you come to the table of contents. Social
Pressure, by Arthur Helps, is still worse, for it has no preface nor table
of contents. Berkeley's Alciphron; or, the Minute Philosopher, is a
double enigrTia, You find little comfort even in chasing down the first
'See Chapter XXIX, Ou Indexing Periodical and Miscellaneous Literature, pp. G63
^i aeq.
718 Public Libraries in the United States.
word in a dictionary of biography. The Oceana of James Harrington,
and The Leviathan of Hobbes, are said, by those who have read them,
to be on nearly the same subject. An explanatory clause in the title of
the latter relieves one a little after he has taken the pains to hunt it
up. Tooke's Diversions of Purley is a marvel of obscurity. It would
puzzle us more to divine its nature from its title than it did the review-
ers of its day to determine its rank among works on the English lan-
guage. The Blazing Star, by Greene, just published, sheds no light
on the contents of the book. The Voices of the Xi^ht and Voices
of the Bay, by the Eev. John Gumming, were evidently selected be-
cause they sounded well together. A careful study of their prefaces
shows that they are a collection of sermons relative to the present and
the future state of the people of God. Walter Goltou's Deck and Port,
Land and Lee, and Ship and Shore, belong to the same class. Leaves
of Grass would be well enough for Walt Whitman's book were it not
that the title Leaves of Grass has a definite meaning.
4. Another class of books differs from those last mentioned in the
addition of an explanation or suggestion to the principal title. Berke-
ley's Siris is explained as on The Virtues of Tar Water. A recent
book is announced as The Eise and the Fall; or. The Origin of
Moral Evil. Another, still more recent, is Seed Truths ; or, Bible
views of mind, morals, and religion, by Pharcellus Church. Would it
not have been well for Dr. Church to have given his " views" simply,
and let the public judge whether they contained "seed truths?" Vol-
taire's Essai sur les Mceurs was abandoned by the English publish-
ers, who gave to Mr. Nugent's translation the true title, An Essay
on Universal History, etc. The Sons of the Sires, is a spirited title
surely, though one is at a loss to know what sons or what sires, till he
reads on and finds that the book professes to give A History of the
rise, progress, and destiny of the American Party. The Mysteries
Opened is a work on the nature of baptism, and of the Lord's supper.
The Cradle of Rebellions is on secret societies. The Day Star of Amer-
ican Freedom is on toleration in the province of Maryland. Here we
have The Poetry of Science by Hunt, the Poetry of the Vegetable
World by Schleiden, and The Magic of Science by Wylde, which
contain neither poetry nor magic, but simply some elementary les-
sons in the physical sciences. Ruskin's works are destined to live ia
our language and to be sought after in our libraries for many a year,
but we cannot forgive him the trouble he has given to the thousands,
who will have to get below their titles to find out what they are all
about. The Crown of Wild Olive, on work, traffic, and war; Unto
this Last, on the first principles of political economy ; Sesame and
Lilies, on Kings' treasuries and Queens' gardens ; The Queen of the Air,
on the Greek myths of cloud and storm ; Ariadne Florentina, on engrav-
ing, are a few of the many enigmas set afloat in the literary world by
this one author. Becker's Gallus, Becker's Charicles, Donaldson's Var-
ronianus, and The New Cratylus are of the same sort.
Titles of Books. 719
This tendency to the adoption or coinage of high sounding titles, to be
followed by an explanation, prevails extensively. Jeremy Bentham's
Science of Morality would be too couimoaplace. It is Deontology; or,
the Science of Morality. Again, we have Eunomus ; or Dialogues con-
cerning the Law and Constitution of England, by Edward Wynne.
Most of this fourth class would be well enough if the leading or fancy
part of the title could be stricken out. It generally expresses a some-
what happy conceit which the author flatters himself is not alto-
gether foreign to his book. But the reader is not prepared for it
till he has read through to the end. Were he to find there such ex-
pressions as Seed Truths, The Cradle of Eebellions, and The Crown
of Wild Olive, it would do no harm. The difiSculty is that this fancy
title is put first, and it is generally all that appears on the back of the
book. One must know it to find the book in a shop or library. The
consequence is that the book must go by that title only which is least
significant and most confusing to the inexperienced. To know the true
titles of books, those by which they ought always to be called, is pos-
sible only for scholars.
Were it any part of the purpose of this paper to entertain the reader,
sufficiently amusing examples of the several classes mentioned would
not be wanting. Think of the linguistic genius which devised Aglos-
sostomography, for a description of a mouth without a tongue ; or
Ocean Macromicrocosmic for a treatise on the motion of the blood.
A treatise on patience, fortitude, and pain, was called The Three
Daughters of Job; another, containing a collection of passages from
the fathers, The Shop of the Spiritual Apothecary. The last two
are given by Disraeli in his Curiosities of Literature. He adds also
Matches lighted at the Divine Fire; The Sixpenny worth of Divine
Spirit; Some fine Biscuits baked in the Oven of Charity, carefully
conserved for the Chickens of the Church, the Sparrows of the Spirit,
and the Sweet Swallows of Salvation. The Grumbling Hive was
misunderstood at first. It afterward appeared, with additions, as
The Fable of the Bees. A treatise on algebra by Eobert Eecorde, pub-
lished in 1557, was entitled The Whetstone of Witte. An introduction
to the Talmud was called The Bones of Joseph. Kuskin's Notes on
the Construction of Sheepfolds, a work on church doctrine and disci-
pline, is said to have had " a considerable run among the Muirland
farmers, whose reception of it was not flattering." A similar reception,
we fancy, was given to The Secret of Hegel, by the young lady who
supposed she had ordered the last new novel. My Summer in a Gar-
den beguiled a hasty reviewer into a homily on horticulture.
5. The second class above mentioned was found to consist mostly of
books whose contents were more general or miscellaneous than their
titles indicated. The converse of this also frequently occurs, where the
title applies well enough to the subject treated, but is general enough
to apply equally well to several others. Such general titles as Cosmos,
720 Puhllc Libraries in the United States.
The Earth, The Universe, may be proper in some cases, since a more
particular one might involve an error in the opposite direction. There
is no good reason, however, for calling phj^sical speculations on a future
state, The Unseen Univei-se. With what disappointment do nine out
of ten readers lay down the book whose back presents them with Knowl-
edge is Power, Knight, when they find that it simply contains the Re-
sults of Labor, Capital, and Skill. Maine's Early History of Institu-
tions, recently published, promises the survey of a very wide field, but
is found to contain a comparatively narrow one. First Principles by
Herbert Spencer, Lamartine's Confidential Disclosures, and Among My
Books by James Eussell Lowell, are given without explanation on the
title pages. They are significant onl}^ when one has become somewhat
acquainted with their several authors. A Book about the Clergy, by
J. C. Jeaffresou, stands also unexplained. How many subjects, theo-
logical, homiletical, devotional, biographical, political, and historical,
might be covered by such a title. It is a work of two handsome octavo
volumes, giving illustrations of English history in the usages and
characteristics of its clergy. What a hotchpotch of titles we have of
which nature is the leading word ! Nature Displayed, by Dufief, is on
teaching language. The Light of Nature Pursued, by Tucker, is on
religion and morality. The System of Nature, by D'Holbach, is an
atheistical treatise on the moral and the physical world. Macmillan's
Footnotes from the page of Nature, is on the first forms of vegetation.
Here are Voices of Nature by Cheever, and Voices of Nature by Dyer,
one a series of analogies between the natural and the spiritual world,
the other a collection of poems on all sorts of subjects. We have also
The Book of Nature by John Mason Good, and The Book of Nature
by Schoedler and Medlock. The former is a series of lectures on the
physical sciences, language, literature, philosophy, history, criticism,
etc.; the latter, as the title indicates, is devoted to physics, astronomy,
chemistry, and the other physical sciences-
It is not to be forgotten that the inappropriateness of many titles
arises from the changes which time has wrought in the use of scientific
terms. Observations on Man may have been a good title to the
philosophy of David Hartley in his day; but to-day we should hardly
expect to find anything under it but a work on ethnology or anthro-
pology.
C. Another source of great perplexity to the reader and the librarian
is the lack of completeness in the title page. It might be impertinent
to complain here of the suppression by the author of his own name, but
there is no good reason for so frequent an appearance of the sine loco et
anno of our catalogues. A book is often wanted on account of its place
and date, and more often it is not wanted for the same reason. The
title may declare the book a "new treatise" on some science of recent
growth, as chemistry or geology; you find after much patient study that
it was "new" half a century ago, but is very old now, and good only for
Titles of BooJcs. 721
historical purposes. A cyclop;iedia without a date, and there are such,
deceives nobody. It is rather suspected of never having been up to
date. The cataloguers of the Library of the British Museum took
great pains to make the descriptions of their books as complete in this
respect as possible. When the place and date were not given, they
endeavored to fix them by reading the book, and other books if neces-
sary, by comparing the type with that of other books, and thus exhaust-
ing every resource before leaving a point unsettled. Here were untold
hours of exhaustive labor, all because of the whims or negligence of
authors and publishers.
7. To complete our survey of books under whose titles much valuable
matter is likely to lie completely hidden from the inexperienced until dis-
covered by accident or the assistance, of others, one other class should
be mentioned. To this belong those books which are, on the whole,
properly named, but which naturally contain separate monographs or
connected chapters on subjects not plainly suggested by the title.
Sale's excellent Preliminary Discourse of one hundred and thirty-two
heavy octavo pages on the Arabs and their religion both before and
after the time of Mohammed, together with the life of their prophet, may
be well enough, bound up with his translation of the Koran, and an ex-
perienced reader would not be surprised to find it there; but to the
majority it must be pointed out or lost. Robertson's View of the Prog-
ress of Society in Europe in the Reign of Charles V, is a case of the
same kind. The Moriae Encomium of Erasmus and the Opus Majus
of Roger liacon illustrate this class, as also some of those previously
mentioned. Peter Bayne's Christian Life, social and individual, is a
good title, and yet one would not be likely to take it down to read
up on Howard, Wilberforce, Foster, Arnold, and Chalmers. Farrar's
Seekers after God hides instead of suggesting the names Seneca, Epic-
tetus, and Marcus Aurelius, to whom it is wholly devoted. Young's
Tour in France appears on the back of a stout quarto. It is found to be
a most valuable work, written with reference to agriculture and other
sources of national prosperity in France near the close of the last
century, and giving the prices of produce, labor, etc. Its abbreviated
title might apply to a pleasure excursion just .as well as to an indis-
pensable work in the department of political economy. The celebrated
forty-fourth chapter of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
•on the Roman law and the great reformation under Justinian, is
hardly covered by the general title of that work. Fifty-eight octavo
pages of Donee's Illustrations of Shakspeare are devoted to a dis-
sertation on the Gesta Romanorum. A multitude of examples of this
class will occur to every one whose reading has been extensive; exam,
pies, too, where the chapter, or separate dissertation or monograph,
thus hidden from the mass of readers, is large enough to make a good
sized volume by itself.
It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to determine the percentage
4Ce
722 Public Libraries in the United States.
of a large library which is practically concealed under the several classes
of titles mentioned. Few persons would probably estimate it at one-
fourth of its real amount until they had begun to take the books down
and examine them one by one. While this paper has been growing,
examples have accumulated beyond all that was anticipated, until sev-
eral tables are loaded with them. An examination of the few that
are given will show also that the quality of this hidden material is not
inferior to the average of library books. Nothing has been said of
■works of fiction ; while their titles are often less significant than one
might desire, their very nature would seem to take them out of the range
of legitimate criticism in this respect. The conclusion from snch a sur-
vey of a library can only be that the backs of books which stare down from
the shelves at the reader, or even their fuller title pages, are by no means
to be trusted as to the nature of their contents. They are like finger
marks along the highway which have been painted and set up with
reference to the taste of the artisan rather than to the geography of
the country.
The inquiry now naturally arises : What guides can be furnished to
conduct one by the shortest possible route, among so many insignificant
and false signals, to the small segment of a library which he wishes to
read on a given subject? The inquiry is not, How shall the experienced
reader be assisted ? though it may be doubted whether even he will not,
in his search, often pass by what, if found, would serve him best. The
question in most libraries has reference to the learner, not to the learned;
to the general reader, not to the specialist. It must be understood,
also, that it is the subject and not the book's title which the reader has
in mind. He is investigating a subject, preparing a sermon, or an essay,
or an article for the next quarterly, or reading up for a speech or a de-
bate— he does not know what books contain the information he wants;
he does not care what their titles are ; he wants the matter, and at once.
The difficulty has two phases: First, he may wish to exhaust his avail-
able resources. This he soon learns, where so much is hidden, is next to
impossible. Secondly, and more commonly, he may wish to select for his
special purposes a small portion of the whole amount at his command.
To do this, he must not only be able to find every treatise or part of a trea-
tise bearing on his subject, but he must also have the means of acquiring
some information regarding everything within his reach, so as to make his
selection intelligently. So far as we know, no general method has been
adopted to meet his wants in either case, though it is probable that some
libraries have particular devices not generally known. The common
practice is for the reader, having become tired and dissatisfied with his
own search, to get his references from some one who has some knowl-
edge of the subject, or to expect the librarian to be a general encyclo-
paedia of book contents. Every librarian, especially of a college library,
will understand this. He has been worn out day after day in trying to
meet this demand. He has found that the demand is too great. Be ha
Titles of Books. 723
ever so learned, the differentiation of the sciences will have produced
some important points wbich have escaped him. Be he ever so faithful,
his nerves will tire, his memory will flag. Even an ordinary library is
greater than all the men likely to be in charge of it.
What guide, then, can be furnished ? The current of thought respect-
ing libraries has not taken the direction of supplying one. The great
object has been to accumulate books. Every effort has been put forth
to multiply volumes, but comparatively little has been done to multi-
ply the facilities for making them useful. To the credit of authors and
publishers be it said, there is a tendency toward fuller indexes and more
complete tables of contents ; by so much are books made more conve-
nient instruments of learning. We could wish that the same spirit
might be extended also to the title pages. But this we can scarcely
hope. Fancy and fashion will always prevail over strictly practical
ideas. This question must be solved in the libraries. It should be con-
sidered in view of the past and the probable future. One or two hun-
dred years ago books were comparatively few. Scholars might then
know something of nearly the whole range of reading, each iu his own
department of study; with a few rare exceptions librarians might get
a sort of mastery over their books, so as to become the personal guides
of their readers.
Libraries for the use of students in colleges and professional schools
were seldom of sufficient magnitude to raise the question about facilities
for reference. When books were few, it mattered little whether the titles
were well or ill chosen. A good index of authors or catalogue of titles,
with an aphabetical or classified arrangement, might then have seemed
adequate to the wants of all. The case is different now. The old books
are still on our shelves and new ones are coming from every quarter.
Most of the old libraries have been doubled several times during the
last century, and new ones have been formed almost without number. The
spirit of bookmaking was never more prevalent than now. Let it con-
tinue another century or two, and it will be next to impossible to make a
judicious selection of what one has money to buy or time to read. Cat-
alogues have grown with the growth of libraries, but no one has yet
given us a science of cataloguing. Hardly can we find two alike, and
none can be said to accomplish all that is desired. Cataloguers have
generally attempted two things : first, to make a list, alphabetical or
otnerwise, of all their books ; and, secondly, to furnish a guide to the
reader in selecting what he wishes to read. Now, has not the failure- to
devise any plan of cataloguing on which there should be a general agree-
ment arisen largely from the impossibility of accomplishing both these
results with the same instrument? In the great multiplicity of books, and
in the minute divisions and subdivisions of nearly every field of inquiry,
has there not come to be room for two separate works for these two sepa-
rate objects? Let the complete list of books be in any convenient form —
this is not the pla-ce to propose a plan for that — is it not of the utmost im -
724 FiibUc Libraries in the United States.
portance that there bi a!sa, ia afldition, a giiiile to the av^erage reader?
He seldom wishes to be pointed to all the books iti a library, even in the
department in which he is reading; he is not likely to care for a tenth
part of them. What lie does care for is the means of making an intel-
ligent selection of what he wants from the great mass that he does not
want. As nearly all catalogues are constructed, it is as we have seen
impossible to find all a library contains which he might want, and if
found, a selection of what he actually does want is possible only at the
expense of much time and strength.
A biographical dictionary is designed to give a few briefly stated
facts about the life, character, work, and influence of every man in any
way eminent in the field which it covers. A dictionary of antiquities
brings before the reader, in a few well chosen sentences, the prominent
customs, social, religious, etc., of the ancients. Now, would it not be
practicable to make a reference dictionary or library manual on a some-
what similar plan, which should contain the most important subjects of
inquiry in the principal departments of human knowledge, under terms
general or particular, alphabetically arranged, without definition or dis-
cussion, but simply with references to the best material to be found upon
them, by whatever author and under whatev^er title? The selection of
terms would not differ much from those of a first class cyclopcedia. On
many subjects, references ivould be necessary to different views and
opinions and different modes of treatment. After the reference, a few
words of description would suffice to show definitely the department of
inquiry to which the treatise or monograph belongs, and the place it
occupies in that department. Such facts as the number of pages in the
reference, the time when it was written, the author's facilities for
acquiring the necessary information, his political, religious, social, or
scientific views, his object in writing, his mode of treatment, and the
general effect produced, would not only determine the reader as to its
desirability for him, but put him into such relation to it as often to
enhance its value for him many fold. In short, much might be done to
introduce to a general reader a choice selection of the best material on
a given subject, with its leading peculiarities, so that he might approach
it at once with th'e attitude of a scholar. Everybody knows how great
the advantage is in reading a new book when one knows something of
the author, and has read a brief and judicious review of the book. The
class of facts mentioned above lies mostly outside the range of even the
most complete catalogue. They are usually given to students by teach-
ers or librarians in their personal intercourse, the same descriptions and
explanations being repeated over and over again every year. What is
desired, therefore, is a digest of this personal instruction, prepared with
the utmost care, extended to every department of a somewhat complete
library, and reduced to the exact form of a dictionary. Such a work
could not be produced by an ordinary cataloguer, or even by the most
experienced librarian. It might grow up under the hands of many
Titles of Books. 725
specialists, with the direction of an editor. It would be the constant
companion and guide of every reader, joang- and old. It would do
much to lift from librarians and teachers a burden which, already too
great, is rapidly becoming greater. Could such a work be thoroughly
organized and carried through to the end by a man like Dr. William
Smith, the question of cataloguing would become a comparatively sim-
ple one.
In another respect, not before mentioned, such a work would be of
incalculable value. A purchaser has little trouble in buying new books.
He has before him the reputation or position of the author, and the
fresh and tersely stated opinions of the reviewers. He makes his pur-
chases easily, also, within a certain range of knowledge with which he
is specially familiar. Oatside these two classes, every purchase made
by a librarian or library committee must either be made at considerable
risk or after laborious investigation. The work proposed, if properly
made, would put the purchaser into such relation to works in every
field of inquiry as to render his selection intelligent and comparatively
easy.
Were an illustration of this subject needed, we might introduce into
a library a sophomore somewhat above the average of his class in
capacity and attainment, and suppose him to have resolved upon a
course of reading in English history. An easier case could not well be
put. Give him a catalogue, or take him to the department of the hj^story
of Great Britain. There are the books: Hume, Macaulay, Lingard,
Goldsmith, Hallam, Knight, Froude, May, Smollett, Green, Brodie,
Buckle, Godwin, Henry, and a host of others, of every shade of ijoliti-
cal, social, and religious opinion — in fact, who agree in little else than
that they have written on English history. Now, your sophomore will
be very likely to turn u])on you in confusion and say, " Sir, I have a
few hours a day of leisure time which I want to devote to the reading
of English history; what books shall I read f And then you begin
your oft-repeated task of learning from him his particular needs, and
selecting for him the books he can use to best advantage. It is not suf-
ficient to say that it is the function of teachers to mark out courses of
reading. True, the case we have put might come, perhaps it ought to
come, within the range of a i)rofessor, still a guide is wanted. Teach-
ers cannot be fresh upon every subject, they cannot anticipate every
demand; and, besides, the great mass of readers are without teachers.
Of course, no such work is here suggested as Malcolm's Theological
Index, or Hardy's Descriptive Catalogue of materials relating to the
History of Great Britain and Ireland, or a digest of legal decisions.
These are works for specialists. They have little or no relation to the
general reader whose needs we have pointed out. In many cyclopaedias
we find at the close of here and there an article a collection of refer-
ences for the further investigation of the reader. These references we
have had constantly in mind while preparing the latter part of this
726 Public Libraries in tJie United States.
paper. They are usually thrown together without any well defined plan
or order running through the book, bat according to the tastes of the
individual writers. Prepare these references properly and m ike a sepa-
rate work of them, and you will supply as real a demand as that for
which the cyclopsedia was written. Such a work would be liable to
failures and excesses, but no more so than any dictionary or cyclopoedia.
How much more of solid information about books should we have if as
great effort had been put forth in the direction to which we have called
attention as has been made in tracing the histories of old editions, or
old books, determining where a certain leaf was torn, what title pages
lack a certain word, or whether a certain autograph is genuine.
CHAPTER XXXV
BOOK INDEXES.
BY F. B. PERKIXS,
Boston Public Library.
Gexeral remarks — I.mportaxce of ixdexes— Directions for makixg and using
INDEXES.
"ludexes are the souls of books."
Perhaps ths most widely kaowu, or possibly it would be more appro-
priate to say the least uakaown, instance of indexing is the case of the
great mind of Mr. Justice Best, an English judge. In the index to a
certain law book, it is said, appeared the following entry:
Best, Mr. Justice, bis great mind, page 459.
And when the investigator interested in mental philosophy, or in the
biography of eminent men, turned to the pige indicated he found that
a certain witness having been contumacious, " Mr. Justice Best observed
that he had a great mind to commit the witness."
This is a pretty good illustration of what an index ought not to do. An
almost equally instructive case is one which is recorded of that most
excellent man and eminent professional indexer, (at least of " rerums,"
as some one phrased it,) the Rev. John Todd, D.D. — a case which re-
minds one of the alleged fact that lawyers always draw ill worded wills
for themselves. The doctor, it seems, l^id it down that the topic The
Importance of Christianity to the World should be indexed under the
word "importance." Nothing could be of less "importance" as a ref-
erence unless it be one of the particles used. Dr. Todd might almost
as well have directed to index the phrase under " of" or " the."
The case of Dr. Todd does not indicate that his labor on indexes had
profited him much; yet Dr. Johnson is repor ed to have said that " an
index commonly profits most him that made it." Our well known advo-
cate of indexes, Dr. S. A. AUibone, seems to have meant to get all the
good out of indexing that was possible on this principle, by annexing to
his Dictionary of Authors twenty indexes. For an alphabetical list of
authors this is providing pretty well.
But Dr. Todd, Dr. Johnson, and Dr. AUibone are by no means all the
great authorities that have held and expressed decided views about
indexes. Lord Campbell, the English literary judge, whose biographies,
according to Lord Lyudhurst, " added a new terror to death," has recom
727
728 Public Libraries in the United States.
mended for non-indexiug bookmakers a fate almost stern enougli to justi-
fy sucb a reputation as that. He says, in the preface to one of his bookSy
that he meant " to bring a bill into Parliament to deprive any author
who publishes a book without au index, of the privilege of copyright,
and, moreover, to subject him for his offense to a pecuniary penalty.'"
Mr. Carlyle, in his Frederick the Great, without any such threats as
Lord Campbell's, twice refers, in his scolding way, to " indexlessness" as
a reprehensible quality. " Books bo rn mostly of chaos," he says, " which
want all things, even an index, are a painful object." A book " wanting
all things " would seem somewhat like that fabled gun which was " with-
out lock, stock, or barrel." And in another place, in calling names at
somebody he dislikes, Mr. Carlyle observes, " He writes big books, want-
ing in almost every quality, and does not give even an index to them.'^
Certain sorts of books require indexes, and others do not ; so that
these express and implied denunciations do not apply except for
cause; a dictionary, for instance, being itself an index, in virtue of its
alphabetical arrangement, does not need another index, nor does the
ordinary novel. A contributor to Notes and Queries, it is true, lays
it down that " every book worth reading requires an index." This, how-
ever, cannot easily be maintained, except by the " vicious circle " pro-
cess of saying first that no book not requiring an index is worth read-
ing. And probably this stern zealot is one whose practice would bear
out his hard doctrine. But the rule would work a fearful devastation
in circulating libraries ; and I cannot believe that any reader of Pick-
wick ever wanted an index to it. Yet Dr. Allibone (in a short note
ill the American Bibliopolist of January, 1872) quotes a request from
Dr. Johnson to Kichardson, to add to one of his novels " an index rerum,
that when the reader recollects any incident he may easily find it, which
at i^resent he cannot do, unless he knows in which volume it is told."'
One almost suspects the old doctor of being sly and ironical in this sug-
gestion, though the size and tediousness of Richardson's novels make
the suggestion so perfectly proper as to be even awfully serious. The
novels of to-day, however, certainly do not need indexes, nor do books
of poetry, (unless it be Mr. Browning's,) nor collections of popular essays,
such, for instance, as the thin compositions of Mr. Boyd, the English
Country Parson. Let not this rule be applied to the Poet at the
Breakfast Table, of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, to which sparkling
book is affixed an entertaining and witty index of ideas, which is one
of the most diverting parts of the work. But Dr. Holmes would put
valuable truths and witty thoughts into the inventory of a country store.
The proper general rule for indexes is obvious enough. Books of facts
and for reference should be indexed. This is about as pio"oand a rule
as to say that tools which are to be used with the hand should have
handles.
Plain as the rule seems, however, it is violated by authors them-
selves, and by translators and their like who live by the labors of others.
Book Indexes. 729
Snch a case is that of M. Tbiers's History of tlie Freucb Kevolution and
his Consulate and Empire, the latter of which, in twenty volumes, .has
been translated into Eaglish and printed in London without an index. If
3-0U wish to fix the date of any occurrence between 1795 and 1815, for
instance, hunt through the twenty volumes until you find it. Accord-
ing to the sentence from an old writer which stands at the head of this
paper, the English "traitor" has deprived that great body of its soul.
(I traduttori, traditori, is the Italian proverb, and " traduce" and "trans-
late" are only lead over and carry over.) According to a certain Span-
iard, he has left in the French the only part of the book which is neces-
sarily the author's ; for this energetic Spaniard, who would have been a
joy to the very hearts of Lord Campbell and Dr. Allibone, thus stated
the case : " The index of a book should be made by the author. Any-
body can do the rest of it."
How much better than this barbarous omission is the practice of the
German booksellers referred to in one of M. Bayle's notes : " The Ger-
man booksellers have a laudable custom of adding good indexes to the
books they reprint." Worthy men ! What wonder, when the German
avenues to knowledge are so diligently lighted and opened out, that a
century or two later a distinguished English scholar, Professor Seeley,
should find cause to observe that " Good books are usually found to be
written in German." ^o wonder at all ; they have handles to their
tools. And yet it will not be found, I believe, that as much as $04,500
was ever paid in Germany for one job of indexing ; it was in England,
though, and for part of a job. It was for indexing the journals of the
House of Commons; for a piece of which was paid, in March, 1778,
£12,900. This, except £500, was for thirty-one years' work, done by
three men, one of whom got £0,400, or about $32,000, for thirteen years'
indexing.
Having said so much about indexing, I will try to make a few sug-
gestions 0:1 it; for there is an art both of making and of searching
indexes.
Considerations of space, time, and cost must usually be taken into
account; so that for making an index the first step must commonly be
to calculate how many pages are to be given to it and how many entries
will go to a page. This last will depend upon considerations which in
many cases need a printer's suggestions, unless the other persons con-
cerned know something of the printer's business. If, for instance, a
double columned page can be used, there will be a saving in expense •
so there will by using small type and setting it solid. This point being
determined, divide the whole number of entries to be allowed by the
number of pages to be indexed, and thus find the average number to be
allowed per page of the book. This average will often vary much on
different pages; but by making a fixed number of entries to each page
of the manuscript you can always easily see how you are getting on,
730 Public Libraries in the United States.
and adjust the work to tbe average. A careful and thorough iudexer
will usually feel a constant impulse to make too many entries.
The quickest way is, not to try to do the alphabeting while you are
writing the entries, but to write them one after another, as the words
for the entries are found in the pages of the book, doing the alphabeting
afterward. It is convenient to select a paper whose width will match
the average length proposed for the index entries; a wide paper (two
lines of narrow paper will do instead) for long entries. This, with a
little care, will avoid many cases of running over on to the second line
in the print, which tends, of course, to double the space occupied per
printed entry, and thus to halve the number of entries available. Other
things being equal, of course the more entries the better. Between each
two entries, as written, leave blank paper enough to allow of clipping
the entries apart with ease ; a blank line is enough.
Work as thoughtfully as time and pay permit. Choose for your index
entries words actually used iu the book, and if there is room put in
synouymes, if desirable, with a reference to the word actually used.
Chapter heads, tables of consents, running titles, paragraph sideheads,
and marginal notes often give a good deal of the author's own nomen-
clature, which the indexer ought always to use.
Having gone through the book in this way, have a pair of shears long
enough to cut across the pages of your manuscript at one clip, and cut
the whole of your manuscript index into single entries. Next, alphabet
them by initial letters. This process is usually best done by using a
diagram or imaginary frame of five rows of five letters each, on which
to put the titles at this first handling. The following arrangement of
printers' dashes will show what I mean. (The letters placed at the left
hand of the first row and right hand of the last indicate well enough
where the rest belong.)
A U
B V
C W
D X
E Y, Z.
It is true that I and J might be run together; that K and Q are very
short letters ; that U and V might go together; and that X, Y, and Z
might all be put in the same place. But these five ranks in five files
are so symmetrical a plan — with the three fives of A, F, K, P, U across
the head, C, H, M, 11, W across the middle, and E, J, O, T, Y, Z across
the foot — and hence so easily remembered on mnemonic principles, that
they will be found for most people the best general index diagram by
which to alphabet items. After a little practice, one can distribute items
on this diagram without having to look at it; that is, a habit of hand
€an be formed to it, which is indispensable to easy and quick sorting^ of
anv kind.
Book Indexes. 731
This primary alphabeting having been completed, it is best to begin
at the end and sort backward for the second arrangement, if it is the
ultimate one. If there is a very large number of items, it may be nec-
essary to handle them a third time; but there are not many cases where
two handlings will not do. This second handling is intended to leave
the items piled in their proper index order, the first uppermost, for which
the backward progress is best. To do this, take the Y, Z handful and
spread it out on the sorting table singly ; pick out the last slip and
lay it down, the last but one and lay it crosswise at some angle over
the last, and so on. When the Y, Z's have been thus laid, go on to the
X's, then to the W's, and so on until you have finished the A's. I'^ou
will probably top off with some member of the Abbott family if you
are making a catalogue of English authors; with some Mr. van der Aa
or other if a general collection of encyclopjedia items. The first five
items of the writer's index rerum of about 100,000 items (on catalogue
slips — not in the absurd book of worthy but unindexical Dr. Todd) are,
Abarbanel, Abarca, Abarim, Abaris, Abas.
In this secondary alphabeting, do no "three-letter" or any other
number of letter work, but subalphabet to the very end of your words,
so as to put Constantinople before Constantinopolitanus on principle.
No other rule is worthy a workman, and as often happens the thorough
method will in practice require only very little more time than the un-
thorough. It will sometimes be a help to lay out secondary piles of A's,
B's, etc., by the second letters, and then to do the ultimate subalphabet-
ingfrom these piles. Some letters permit a great many more secondary
piles than others. Thus, A can be followed by all the 25 other letters ;
B, however, only by the vowels and two liquids, (unless, of course, you
come across bdellium in making a concordance to the Bible, or Bhagavad
in a list of Hindoo literature,) eight in all.
When the heap of ultimately alphabeted items is ready, make the
copy for the printer. This is done by taking a pile of sheets of cheap
or waste paper, drawing two streaks of mucilage or paste down the
sides, (or three, two at the sides and one in the middle,) and then swiftly
laying on the single item strips across these gummed sheets, close to-
gether. Use no more paste or mucilage than necessary. Lay each
successive sheet of gummed strips upon the previous one, under a light
board or similar weight, to let them dry flat. When all are finished
take them carefully apart, detaching any that stick with a paper-knife.
Revise the whole once, with final corrections. Send to printer.
These directions seem prolix, but they do, in fact, constitute a well
proved practical working method, which only requires writing the items
once. Any experienced iudexer will see the force of this consideration,
while he may prefer many variations in detail. Such variations, if
found convenient for any one's own tendencies of mind or hand, should
always be adopted.
In searching an index, the only rule that is of much importance is
732 Public Libraries in the United States.
this : If you do not find what you require under the proper word,
search, first, for its synonymes ; and, secondly, for words that contain it ;
and, thirdly, for words that it contains. Thus, suppose that one is look-
ing up the subject of coinage in America. Lo jk first for Coinage ; then
for Numismatics, Mint, and Money, (partial synonymes;) then for Anti-
quities (often contains Numismatics;) then for Higley copper, Rosa
Americana, Cent, Dollar, Pine-tree shilling, etc., (subordinate parts con-
tained in the subject of coinage.) If nothing is found under such an
assortment of entries as that, the hunt may be given up, unless one is
in position to search the book itself.
CHAPTER XXXVI
LIBRARY BIBLIOGRAPHY.
BY A. K. SPOFFORD,
Librarian of Congress.
Literature of libraries — Edwards — Petziioldt — Monographs ox libraries —
Manuals for readers — Parliamentary reports on the British Museum li-
brary— Library catalogues, foreign, American — List of books, and arti-
cles IN periodicals, on libraries.
While the literature of libraries, it* we include the catalogues and
annual reports of individual collections, extends to many thousands of
volumes, there have been comparatively few books devoted to the gen-
eral subject of library economy and the history and statistics of libra-
ries. Mr. Edward Edwards's Memoirs of Libraries, including a Hand-
Book of Library Economy, printed in London in 1859, forms the only
systematic treatise on the subject in the English language. This
work, while crude and hasty in many parts, and embodying many errors
of statement, has yet an extremely valuable assemblage of information
respecting libraries, ancient, mediasval, and modern. It goes at consid-
erable length into the history and statistics of the greatest public libra-
ries of Europe, devoting 118 pages to the library of the British Museum,
GO pages to the National Library of France, 120 pages to the various
libraries of Germany and Austria, 3S5 pages to British libraries, (exclu-
sive of the British Museum Library,) and 75 pages to the libraries of the
United States. Its chapters on library economy and management, al-
though useful, are very far from being thorough or comprehensive ; and
it is a subject of regret, both to English and American readers, that
a great book of nearly two thousand pages, devoted wholly to this sub-
ject, could not have been made still more valuable by the omission of
extraneous matter and tedious catalogues of no general interest, and by
the insertion of more full and systematic information regarding the
internal economy of public libraries.
On this branch of the subject, while there are several valuable mono-
graphs in the German and other languages, Dr. Julius Petzholdt's Kat-
echismus der Bibliothekeulehre, the second edition of which was pub-
lished at Leipzig in 1871, is undoubtedly the most valuable. This little
manual is fairly crammed with information in detail as to every depart-
ment of a librarian's labors.
A list of the principal monographs on the general subject of libraries,
or library history, management, classification, and catalogues, is appended
733
734 Piiblic Libraries in tJie United States.
to this brief article. It also iucludes references to articles iu mauj^ of the
reviews and magazines on this subject which possess the most general
interest. It is to be regretted that the most copious bibliography of
catalogues and works relating to libraries, Vogel's Literatur friiherer
and noch bestehender europiiischer offeatlicher und Corporations-Biblio-
t^eken, published at Leipzig iu 1840, is now nearly forty years iu
arrear. V/'ere a similar work, giving the titles of all publications
relating to libraries in all countries, to be now executed, the 54S pages
of Vogel's industrious compilation might be more than quadrupled in
extent, without devoting more than a line or two to each publication.
Of the various encyclopcedia articles upon libraries, that contained
in Knight's English Cyclopaedia, 1860, volume 5, division of arts and
sciences, is the best. This was written by the late Thomas Watts, of
the British Museum Library, and it contains fifty closely printed
columns.
Of the various handbooks for the guidance of readers in libraries, it
may be said that no one of them possesses sufficient excellence to justify
unqualified commendation. The Course of English Reading, by J.
Pycroft, while the most extensive and pretentious of these manuals, is
more than a quarter of a century behind the time in its list of books
illustrating the various departments of knowledge. It presents, more-
over, a model to be avoided in its principal contents, as well as in its
style of composition. Of the more recent attempts to furnish a guide
to students, accompanied by lists of works recommended in special
fields, some swarm with errors of type as well as of judgment; while
several can be consulted to great advantage, none can be relied upon
as a satisfactory guide to a course of reading.
Much valuable information regarding the management of large libra-
ries, and the most expedient and practically useful catalogue system, is
to be found in the evidence before select committees of the British
Parliament, in 1835 and in 1850, to inquire into the condition and man-
agement of the British Museum Library. The testimony of many of
the first scholars and literary men of England, including Henry Hallam,
Thomas Carlyle, Augustus de Morgan, J. Payne Collier, George L.
Craik, John Wilson Croker, and others, was taken as to the supply of
books, the conveniences to students and to the public, the inconvenience
of the absence of printed catalogues, etc.
It remains to consider perhaps the most important contributions to
library bibliography, namely, catalogues. Without assuming to add
anything to the elaborate discussion of the various plans for cataloguing
libraries; or to speak of the rationale of each system, all of which have
their zealous advocates, it will only be attempted here to give a very
brief indication respecting some of the more extensive and more useful
printed catalogues of public libraries at home and abroad. At the out-
set it must be observed that these are intended solely for the inexpert
reader.
Llhrary BiTjUofjraphj. 735
Tbe schemes for the classification of knowledge have now become so
numerous that a classification of the systems themselves has fairly be-
come a desideratum. Attempts have been made to apply the systems
for the distribution of human knowledge which have been invented by
distinguished scholars to the classification of libraries and library cata-
logues. These attempts, however, have not been signally successful.
Bacon's well known survey of human learning, distributed primarily
under the three divisions of memory, of imagination, and of reason,
according to the faculties of the mind assumed to be employed in the
production of books, admirable as it may be for the classification of
ideas, makes a sorry figure when applied to the divisions of a library.
In the practical work of classifying books so as really to bring together
all those on related topics, it turns out a worse than Procrustean bed.
The first thing to be done is to get rid of the system-mongers, each of
whom has a plan admirably adapted to the operations of his own mind,
but quite unmanageable by those of other men.
The literature of catalogues is very coi)ious, and may be said to begin,
within half a century after the invention of printing, with the catalogue
issued by the elder Aldus of Greek books printed by that famous typog-
rapher. What has been called the first bibliographical system was
published by Conrad Gesner in 1548, and it has had numerous succes-
sors. Edwards, in his Memoirs of Libraries, gives comparative tables of
thirty-two of the principal schemes for the classification of books, to
which the reader is referred.
The largest libraries in the world are wholly without complete priuted
catalogues, although some of them have contributed to public informa-
tion catalogues of portions of their stores, some of which are of consid-
erable service. Thus the National Library of France, no w the largest col •
lection in the world, numbering nearly 2,000,000 volames, has printed in
ten volumes quarto a catalogue of French history and biography, copious
and full of value, besides a similar catalogue of medicine, partially com-
pleted. The Library of the British Museum, while its manuscript cata-
logue reaches about 1,600 volumes in folio, is only very i)artially repre-
sented in the various printed catalogues of parts of the collection
which have been issued. These include, besides sundry catalogues of
manuscripts, maps, etc., a catalogue of printed books, prepared by Dr.
Maty and others, in two folio volumes, of the date of 1787 ; a catalogue,
in eight volumes octavo, prepared by Sir Henry Ellis and H. H. Baber,
and issued 1813-19; a catalogue of the Eoyal Library, in five folio vol-
umes, 1820-29; a Bibliotheca*Grenvilliana, comprising a catalogue of the
library presented to the museum by Thomas Grenville, in four volumes
octavo, 1842-72 ; a valuable list of books of reference in the reading
room, numbering about 20,000 volumes, the second edition of which was
printed in 1871; and a first and only volume, in folio, of a catalogue of
printed books, containing the letter A, by the late librarian Panizzi,
which was printed in 184L The last named volume is prefaced by the
736 Public Libraries in the United States.
iiiiiety-tbree rules for the compilation of the catalogue, which have beeu
largely availed of, though uot adopted as a whole, in many other library
catalogues, and the latest edition of which, with amendments, may be
seen in Thomas Nichols's Handbook for Eeaders at the British Mu-
seum, 1866, i>p. 38-54.
The printed catalogue of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, in three
massive folio volumes, printed in 1843, with a supplement in another
volume containing the books added from 1835 to 1847, although not
edited with critical accuracy, is invaluable as containing a larger assem-
blage of titles in English literature than is found in the printed cata-
logue of any one library.
The catalogue of the Library of the Faculty of Advocates at Edin-
burgh, in three volumes folio, 1742-1807, is also important, but will
be supplanted by the new catalogue of that library now in press, which'
has reached its third volume, in quarto. This elegantly printed work is
distinguished by the copious biographical information supplied as to most
of the writers whose books are catalogued, and it gives the title pages of
all works with approximate fulness and accuracy. It is, however, desti-
tute of collations, or indications of the number of pages, publishers'
names, etc., of the works. It is arranged on the plan of a dictionary of
authors; anonymous works, however, being entered (as in the Bodleian
catalogues) under the leading term in the title page, and not under the
first word of the title.
The catalogue of the Manchester Free Library, prepared by A. Cresta-
doro, issued in 1864, is an admirably edited work, arranged in an alpha-
bet of authors, followed by "subject-matter entries, or classiflcation." In
the latter alphabet the titles are abridged into a single line, still pre-
serving the date and place of i)ublication, as well as the leading topic of
the work and the name of the author. This catalogue gives the num-
ber of pages of every work in a single volume, but is without publish-
ers' names. Anonymous books appear under the leading word of the
title.
The catalogue of the Liverpool Free Public Library, established in 1850,
is greatly abbreviated as to titles, and is arranged on the combination
plan ; authors, titles, and subjects being thrown into a single alphabet.
Among American library catalogues which will be found most useful
may be briefly named the following, nearly in the order of the relative
importance of the collections:
The catalogues of the Library of Congress comprise ten voluuies, con-
sisting, first, of a catalogue arranged by authors' names, in a single
alphabet, published in 1864, to which have been added supplementary
catalogues up to and including the year 1875. These annual catalogues,
embracing each the accessions of a single year, report the titles of all
works with approximate fulness, and give, in the case of all works not
exceeding two volumes, the number of pages, of maps and plates, if
any, and the name of the publisher. The reader is thus furnished with
Librarii Bibliography. 731
some idea of the extent of eacli work, while the addition of publishers'
names supplies a valuable aid to the identification of editions.
These catalogues of authors are supplemented by a Catalogue of Sub-
jects, in two ro3'al octavo volumes, 1,744 pages, issued in 1869. This is
arranged on the plan of a strict classification of subjects, but on th^
synthetic rather than the analytic method, bringing topics which bear
a close relation to each other together in subordinate alphabets under
a general head, instead of scattering them through the catalogue, each
under its own distinct head. Numerous cross references guide the reader
to other portions of the catalogue in which aids may be found upon the
subjectin hand. To these must be added the Catalogue of Publications
of Scientific Societies in the Library of the Smithsonian Institution, now
deposited in the Library of Congress. There has also been published
during the present year (1876) a select catalogue of the 'principal addi-
tions to the library during the three years, 1873, 1874, and 1875. This
is an alphabetical catalogue of authors, followed by an index of subjects,
in which a double reference is found for most works, first under the title,
and secondly, under the subject matter of the work. In either case this
subject index catalogue is complete in itself, giving author, date, and
place of publication, thus rendering any reference back to the catalogue
of authors superfluous.
The Boston Public Library has issued an abbreviated Index to the
Catalogue of Books in the Upper Hall, in a very closely printed vol-
ume, published in 1861, with a supplement in 1866. These catalogues
are arranged ou the plan of entering the title in the alphabet under
the author's name, while in an index of subjects in the same alphabet
the title re-appears, greatly abbreviated, without date or place of publi-
cation. A similar Index to Books in the Lower Hall embraces the lighter
literature which is kept for popular reading and circulation. Besides
these larger catalogues, which contain perhaps less than half the titles
embraced in the present collection of books, the Boston Public Library
has issued several invaluable classed catalogues, on a more extended plan
of description for the titles of works. These carefully prepared volumes
embrace respectively, 1st, history, biography, and travels; 2d, arts, sci-
ences, and professions ; 3d, poetry, drama, collections, and miscellanies ;
4th, French, German, and Italian books ; 5th, fiction and juveniles; and,
6th, a chronological index to historical fiction. The catalogue devoted
to history, biography, and travels is admirably edited, supplying not
only full titles of the works in the library on these subjects, but a great
amount of collateral information in literary history and biography, with
copious references to articles in periodical literature, illustrating each
topic that is treated.
The catalogue of the Astor Library, New York, issued in four volumes
octavo in 1857-61, with a supplement in 1866, is a dictionary of authors,
with a condensed index of subjects in the final volume, referring simply
to the names of writers under each topic, without description. A dou-
47 E
738 Fiihlic Lwraries in the United States.
ble reference has tbu« to be made by readers who pursue the topical
method of iuquiry.
The new catalogue of the Library of the Boston Atheuiiium, now in
progress of publication, attempts a threefold guide to the wants of
readers. It throws into one alphabet a dictionary of authors, under
which every title appears with approximate fulness, but without colla-
tion or publishers' names; an index of titles, in which most w^orks re-
appear under the first important word of the title, with cross reference
to the author simply ; and a catalogue of subjects, in which all the titles
on a given topic are again arranged in au alphabet of authors, with
titles but little abbreviated, and date and place of publication inserted
iu all cases. This is, in some respects, the best finding catalogue of any
considerable public library yet issued, reducing to a minimum the num-
ber of double searches or cross references to te aiade by the reader.
The catalogue of the Library Company of Philadelphia extends to
1856, iu three octavo volumes, and is arranged under general subject
headings, with au alphabet of authors under each, followed by a copious
index in one alphabet of authors' names, of subjects, and of leading
■catchwords in titles, referring the reader iu each case to the page upon
which the work is found fully described.
The catalogues of the Xew York State Library at Albany comprise
the alphabetical Catalogue of the General Library, 1855, and its sup-
l)lement, in 1861, each of which is followed by an index to subjects,
repeating under each topic the names of the writers, and closely abbre-
viated titles of the works, without date or place of publication. This
library has also issued a catalogue of the law department, 1850, and a
catalogue of maps, manuscripts, engravings, coins, medals, etc., 1856,
all of which possess considerable value for reference. Its latest publi-
cation was a Subject Index of the General Library, a useful, but greatly
abbreviated reference list, issued in 1872.
The New York Mercantile Library, now reaching 160,000 volumes?
very largely composed of duplicates, issued its latest general catalogue
in 1866, which is arranged in an alphabet of authors, with au abbreviated
index of subjects in a separate alphabet. Supplements on the same
plan were published in 1869 and 1872. The catalogue of the Mercantile
Library of Philadelphia, 1870, is on the most succinct plan, embracing
authors, titles, and subjects, by a threefold arrangement, in a single
alphabet. The catalogue of the Public Library of Cincinnati, issued in
1871, treats authors and subjects iu a single alphabet, without, however,
giving any complete alphabet of titles. Kepresenting one of the largest
and most popular libraries of the country, it will be found a highly use-
ful manual for reference.
The Mercantile Library Association of San Francisco made its con-
tribution to catalogue literature in 1874, in a handsome volume of \)o^
pages. This is a catalogue of authors, subjects, and titles, iu one alpha-
bet; the description of each work being full under the author's name
only, while imprints are omitted both under the titles and the subjects.
Library BiUiograiiliy.
739
LIST OF BOOKS AND ARTICLES IX PERIODICALS OX THE SUBJECT OF
LIBRARIES.
Adresses des bibliotheques publiques en
France. 47 pp. 10^. Paris, cercle de la
libmirie, [1875].
Albert (.L F. M.) Recherches sur les piin-
cipes fondamentaiix de la classificatiou
bibliographique. vii,63pp. 8-~. Paris,
Vaufeur, 1847.
American social science association. Free
pnblic libraries. Sugj^estions on their
fonndation and administration. With a
selected list of books. 74 pp. 16-. Xew
Tori; Hard cj- Houghton, 1871.
Appun (F. G.) Dissertatio de transposi-
tione bibliotliecarum. 4^. Helmstadii,
1724.
Art of m.aking catalogues of libraries. 6^.
London, 1856.
Bailly (J. L. A.) Notices bistoriques sur
les bibliotheques anciennes et modernes.
210 pp. 12°. Paris, Eoitsselon, 1828.
Balbi (Adrian). Essai statistique sur les
bibliotheques de Vieune. 206 pp. 12^.
Vienne, F. Volke, 1835.
Blume(F.) Iter italicuni. Archive, bibli-
othekeu u. s. w. in Italien. 4 v. 12'^-
Berlin, Xicolai, 1824-30.
Bolin (J.) Observations on the plan and
progress of the catalogue of the library
of the British museum, lanon.] 2^ pp.
S°. London, 1855.
Bonnange (F.) Nonveau systeme de cata-
logue au moyen de cartes. Paris, La-
croix, 1806.
Boston public library. Handbook for
readers, with regulations. 3d ed. 117
pp. 32^. Boston, Bocktcell cj- ChurcliiU,
1875.
— Points to be considered in cataloguing,
revising and proof-reading. 8*-. Boston,
1870.
Botfield (B.) X^otes on the cathedral libra-
ries of England. xvi,527i)p. S^. Lon-
don, 1349.
Bougy (A. de). Histoire de la biblio-
th('que Sainte-Geuevieve. 8-. Paris!
Comon, 1847.
British (The) museum, historical and de-
scriptive. 432 pp. 12°. Edinburgh, JV.
4- R. Chambers, 1850.
British museum. A guide to the autograph
letters, maouscripts, original charters,
and royal, baronial and ecclesiastical
seals exhibited to the public in the de-
partment of manuscripts. 48 pp. 16- .
ILondon'], trustees, 1870.
— A guide to the printed books exhibited
to the public in the Grenville library and
king's library. 41 pp. 16=^. [London],
trustees, 1858.
— A guide to the printed books exhibited
to the public. 32 pp. 16=. [London],
trustees, 1^69.
— A list of the books of reference in the
reading room. 2d ed. revised, xxviii,
349 pp. 2 pi. 8-. London, by order of the
trustees, 1871.
Buchon (J. A. C.) Rapports sur la situa-
tion des bibliotheques publiques en
France. 8^'. Pans, [18—].
Budik (P. A.) Vorbereitungstudien fiir
den augchenden bibliothekar. 8-^. IVien,
Ceroid, 1834.
— Vorschule fiir bibliothekarisches ge-
schiiftsleben. vi, 14U pp. 8°. Miinchen,
C. Franz, 1848.
Celsius (M. O.) Bibliothecae regiae stock-
holmensis historia brevis. 12^. Holmiae,
1751.
Clarke (Vr.) Repertorium bibliographi-
cum ; soiue account of the most cele-
brated british libraries, xlvii, 073 pp.
8 1. London, TV. Clarke, 1819.
Clemens (P. C.) Musei sive bibliothecae
tam privatae quam publicae exstructiu,
cura, usns. 4-. Lugduni, 1635.
Cotton des Houssayes (J. B.) Des de-
voirs et des qualit(5s du bibliothc'caire.
8-^. Paris, Aubrij, 1857.
Cowtan (Robert). Memories of the Brit-
ish museum. 423 pp. 8^. London, E.
Bentley <^- son, 1872.
Critical and historical account of all the
celebrated libraries in foreign countries,
as well ancient as modern, [anon.] 5 p.
1. 206 pp. 12°. London, J. Jolliffe, 1739.
Danjou (F.) Expos6 succinct d'un nou-
veau systeme d'organisation des biblio-
theques publiques. 29 pp. 8^. Mont-
pellier, 1845.
740
Public Libraries in the United States.
Delepierre (Octave). Exameu de ce que ]
reuferme la bibliotheque du inus6e bri-
taunique ; extrait de documeuts authen-
tiques soumis au parlemeot ea 1846.
109 pp. 16°. Bruxell€8,A.randale,l8i6.
Delessert (B.) .M6moire sur la biblio-
theque royale. 12 pp. 1 pi. 4°. Faris,
1833.
Durey de Noinville (J. B.) Dissertation
sur les bibliothfeqnes. 156 pp. 2 1. 16°.
Paris, H. Chauhert, 1758.
Ebert (F. A.) Die bilduug des biblio-
thekars. 26 ausg. 63 pp. 8°. Leipzig,
Steinaker <f Wagner, 1820.
— Geschichte und beschreibung der ko-
niglichen offentlichen bibliothek zu
Dresden, xviii, 358 pp. 8°. Leipzig,
Broclhaus, 1822.
— Uber offeutliche bibliotbeken. beson-
ders deutsclie universitilts-bibliothe-
ken. 16°. Freyierg, 1811.
Edwards (Edward). Comparative table
of the principal schemes proposed for the
classification of libraries, vi, 22 pp. 2 pi.
fol. Manchester, 1855.
— Free town libraries, their formation^
management, and history in Britain,
France, Germany, and America. With
brief notices of book-collectors, and the
respective places of deposit of their sur-
viving collections. xvi,371,262 pp. 8°.
London, Triihner cf co. 1869.
— Libraries and founders of libraries. 8°.
London, Triihner ^ co. 1864.
— Memoirs of libraries : including a hand-
book of library economy. 2 V. 841 pp;
1104 pp. London, Triibner 4' co. 18.59.
— Eemarks on the " Minutes of evidence "
taken before the select committee on the
British museum ; with an appendix re-
specting the improvement of the mu-
seum. 2ded. 76 pp. 12°. London,18d6.
— A statistical view of the principal pub-
lic libraries in Europe and America.
3d ed. vi, 48 pp. 12 pi. fol. London,
1849.
Falkenstein (K.) Beschreibung der k.
offentlichen bibliothek zu Dresden. 8".
Dresden, Walther, 1839.
Farnham (L.) Glance at private libraries,
[in and near Boston]. 8°. Boston, 1855.
Foisy (F. M.) Essai th^orique et pratique
sur la conservation des biblioth^ques
publiques. 8°. Faris, [1833].
FoUini (V.) Osservazioni sopra I'opera
intitolata Delia costruzione e del regola-
mento di una pubblica universale biblio-
teca, di L. della Santa. 60 pp. 8-. Fi-
renze, 1817.
Franklin (A.) Histoire de la bibliotheque
mazarine. 8°. Faris, Aubry, 1860.
Friedrich (J. C.) Kritische erorternngeu
zum iibereinstimmenden ordnen und
verzeichnen offentlicher bibliotbeken.
110 pp. 8°. Leipzig, Dyk, 1835.
Gallois (— le sieur). Traits des plus
belles bibliotheques de I'Europe. 6 p. 1.
240 pp. 18°. Faris, E. Michalles, 1685.
Garner (J.) Systema bibliothecae eollegii
parisiensis societatis Jesu. 4°. Farisiis,
1678.
Great Britain. Farliament. Report from
the select committee on the condition,
management and affairs of the British
museum ; with minutes of evidence.
2 p. 1. 6/3 pp. fol. London, 1835.
Report from the select committee on
the British museum; with minutes of
evidence, viii, 605, 173, 145 pp. fol.
London, 1836.
Report of the commissioners ap-
pointed to inquire into the constitution
and government of the British museum ;
with minutes of evidence, iv, 823,172
pp. fol. London, 1850.
On the collection of printed books at
the British museum, its increase and ar-
rangement. [Private and confidential.
By Antonio Panizzi]. 44 pp. fol. Lon-
don, 1845.
Report from the select committee on
public libraries ; with minutes of evi-
dence. XX, 317, X, 70 pp. 12 pi. fol. Lon-
don, 1849.
The same. [Second report]. vi,410
pp. fol. London, 1850.
The same. [Third report]. Addi-
tional returns respecting foreign public
libraries. 52 pp. fol. London, 1851.
Greenough (W. W.) Free lending libra-
ries. 1 p. 1.10pp. 8°. Camlridge,\_Mass.']
1874.
Guild (Reuben A.) The librarian's man-
ual ; a treatise on bibliography, com-
prising a select and descriptive list of
bibliographical works ; also sketches of
publick libraries. 304 pp. sm. 4°. New
York, C. B. Norton, 1858.
Library Bibliography.
741
Heitz (E.) Die offentl. bibliotheken der
Schweiz iiu j. 1867. 4^^. Basel, Schweig-
hanser, 1872.
H3sse (L. A. C.) Bibliotb^conomie : on
noiiveau manuel complet pour I'arraDge-
meut, la conservation, et I'adniinistra-
tiou des bibliotbeqnes. Par A. Constau-
tin, \_i)seudon.'\ Nouv. ^d. 2 p. 1. 266 pp.
2 pi. 18°. Paris^ Bnset, 1841.
Hirsching (F. K. G.) Versucb einer be-
schreibung sebenswiirdiger bibliotbeken
Teutschlauds. 4 v. 8°. Erlangen, 1786-91.
Jewett (Cbarles C.) Notices of public
libraries in the United States of America.
[Smithsonian reports, appendix]. 207
pp. 8°. Waslungton,l>io\.
— On the construction of catalogues of
libraries, vi, 78 pp. 8^. Washington, 1852.
Kayser (A. E.) tjber die manipulation
bei der einrichtung einer bibliothek der
verfertiguug der biicherverzeichuisse.
8°. Bayreufh, 1797.
Klng(D.) Historical sketch of the Red-
wood library, Newport, Rhode Island.
53 pp. 8=^. Boston, J. Wilson cf- son, I860.
Koehler (D.) Sylloge aliquot scriptoruui
de bene ordinauda ot ornanda bibli-
otlieca. 4°. Francofarti, 1728.
Laborde (L. E. S. J. de). fitude sur la
construction des bibliotheques. 52 pp.
13 pi. 8^. Paris, A. Franck, 1845.
— De I'organisation des bibliotheques dans
Paris. [Lettres 1.2, 4, «fe 8]. 8^. Paris,
A. Franck, 1845-46.
Lacroix (F.) Reforine de la bibliothfe-
que du roi. Par le bibliophile Jacob,
Ipseud.l 12°. Parts, Techener, 1845.
Lambecius (P.) Conimentarii de augus-
tissiraa bibliotheca caesarea vindobo-
nensi. Ed. 2^ 8 v. fol. Findobonae,
1766-82.
Legipontius (O.) Dissertationes de ordi-
nanda ct ornanda bibliotheca. 4°
Norimbergae, 1747.
Le Glay (A. J. G.) M^moire sur les biblio-
theques publiques, et les principales
bibliotheques particuliferes du d6parte-
meut du nord. 496 pp. 8^. Lille,
archives departementales, 1841.
Le Prince (N. T.) Essai historique sur la
bibliotheqne du roi, aujourd'hui biblio-
thfeque imp^riale. Nouv. 6(1. revue et
augnient^e des annales de la bibliothe-
qne, par Louis Paris. 466 pp. 16°. Pa-
ris, bureau du cabinet historique, 1856.
Lind (L.) Det danske bibliotek. 8°.
Kjobenhavn, 1725.
Livermore (George). Remarks on public
libraries. 40 pp. 8°. Cambridge, Bolles
cj- Houghton, 1850.
Lomeier (J.) De bibliothecis liber singu-
laris. Ed.2^ 12°. Ultrajecti, 16S0.
Ludewig (H.) Bibliographic und biblio-
theken in den Vereinigten-Staaten von
Nord-Amerika. [7 articles in the Sera-
peum : ZeitschrifC fiir bibliothekwissen-
schaft, u. s. w. Hrsg. V. R. Naumann-
Jahrg. 6, p. 209 ; jahrg. 7, pp. 113, 129,
161, 177, 190, 204. Leipzig, Weigel, 1845-
46.]
— Zur bibliothekonomie. xxs, 41 pp. 8°.
Dresden, C. H. Gartner, 1840.
Mader (J. J.) De bibliothecis atqve ar-
chivis vivorvm clarissimorvm comnien-
tationes. Ed. 2'». 3 v. 4°. ^elmstadii,
1702-5.
CONTENTS.
Barvoetius (A.) Catalogu3 mss. graecorum
bibliothecae S. Laurentii scorialensi.
BoxiKACius (B.) De archivis liber.
Buui (Richardus a). Philobiblion.
BuASSiCAXUS (J. A.) De bibliothecis, cumpri-
mis regia budeDsi.
Cassax^us (B.) Catalognssloriaeinundi.lib. xii
UiCAKELLA (A.) De bibliotheca vaticana.
CoxiusGiL"S (H.) Epistola de bibliotheca augus-
ta in aice wolfenbiittelensi.
COUDERIUS (B.) De bibliotheca S. Laurentii sco-
rialensi.
De scriptis et bibliothecis antediluvianis.
Ei'iLOGUS ad lectorem, cum encomio bibliothecae
augustae.
FiGREi.ius (E.) De statuis doctorum in biblio-
thecis.
Hari>t (H. ah). Oratio de memorabilibns biblio
thecae rudolpheae.
Heidjiaxnu 1 (C.) Oratio de bibliotheca julia.
LOMEIERUS (J.) De bibliothecis.
Lirsius (,.J.) De bibliothecis syntagma.
Naud^us (G.) Dissertatio de instituenda bi-
bliotheca.
Neaxder (M.) De bibliothecis deperditis ac-
noviter instructis.
P XCIXOLLUS (G.) De librariis.
Panvinius (0.) De bibliotheca vaticana!
PATRicius(F.)Deinstitutionereipublicae,lib.i-ix"
Pflugk (J. a). Epistola de bibliotheca budensi.
PiGXORius (L.) De servis rei librariae adhibitis.
Pipping (H.) Sacra arcana retecta bibliothecae
Thomanae lipsienais.
Sagtttvrius (0.) Oratio de bibliotheca jenensi
academica.
ScHOi'T (F.) De bibliotheca vaticana.
Spizelius (T.) Dissertatio de bibliothecis.
Struve (B. G.) Historia et memorabilia biblio-
thecae jenensis.
Thomasixus (J. P.) De bibliothecis mstis. cum
recensione praecipuarum hiblioth. mss. pa-
tavinarum et venetarum.
Ursinls (F.) De bibliothecis commentatio.
742
Fublic Libraries in the United States.
Maichelius (D.) lutrodnctioadhistoriam
literariam de praecipuis bibliothecis pa-
risieusibus. 12^. Cautabrigiae, 1721.
Molbech (C.) Ueber bibliotbeks-wissen-
schaft ; oder, einrichtung uud verwal-
tuug offentlicher bibliothekeii. Aus dem
diinischen von H. Eatjen. viii,304 pp.
d". Leipzig, J. C. Hinrichs, 1833.
Mosel (I. F. E. vou). Geschichte der k. k.
bof-bibliotbek zu Wiea. viii, 39S pp. 2 pi.
S'^. Wien, Bed; 1835.
Namur (J. P.) Histoire des bibliotbeques
publiques de la Belgique. 3 v. 8°. Bru-
xelles, F. Parent, 1840.
• COXTEXTS.
V. 1. Bibliotheque tie Bruxelles. xi, 320 pp.
V. 2. Bibliotheque de Louvaiu. xi, 2S2 pp. 1 pi.
V. 3. Bibliotht^que de Liege, viii, 206 pp. 1 pi.
— Manuel dii bibliotb6caire. iv, 368 pp.
8^. Bruxelles, J. B. Tricher, 1834.
Naudet (J.) Rapport snr la situation du
catalogue de la bibliotheque royale. 8^.
Paris, Duverfjer, [1847].
— Repouse de la bibliothtjque nationale a
m. Feuillet de Conches. 72 pp. 8°. Pa-
ris, 1851.
Nichols (Thomas). A handbook for read-
ers at the British museum, xvi, 1G6 pp-
12^. London, Longmans, 1866.
Palermo (N.) Classazione dei libri a
stampa dell' i. r. bibliotheca Palatina in
corrispondenza di un uuovo ordinamento
dello scibile umano. cxiv, 388 i>p. S'^-
Firenze, Vihlioteca Palatina, 1854.
Papworth (J. W. and W.) Museums, li-
braries, and picture galleries, their estab-
lishment, formation, arrangement, [etc.]
8°. London, Chapman cj- Hall, 1853.
Paris (A. P.) De la n<Scessit6 de com-
mencer, achever et publier le catalogue
general des livres imprimes [de la bi-
bliotheque royale]. 2« 6d. 63 pp. 8°.
Paris, Techener, 1847.
Petit-Radel (Louis - Charles - Francois).
Recherches snr les bibliotbeques au-
cienues et modernes, jusqu'ala fondation
de la bibliotheque mazarine. 448 pp.
12=. Paris, Bey 4- Gravier, 1819.
Petzholdt (J.) Adressbuch der biblio-
theken Deutschlands, mit einschluss vou
Oesterreich-Ungarn und der Schweiz.
3 V. 8^= 471 pp. Dresden, Srhunfeld,
1875.
— Katecbismus der bibliothekenlehre.
Auleitung zur einrichtung und ver-
waltung von bibliotheken. 2« aufl. xii,
220 pp. 17 pi. 12-. Leipzig, Weber, 1871.
Petzholdt (J.) — continued.
— Uebersicht von bibliographischen syste-
men. 8^^. Dresden, Scltonf eld, 1360.
Pillon (A. J. B. A.) Plaintes de la biblio-
theque nationale an peujde fran^ais et ;\
ses repr6sentants. 8°. Paris, 1848.
Preusker (K.) tjber oftentliche, vereins-
und privat-bibliotheken. 2 v. in 1. 8-.
Leipzig, J. C. Hinrichs,' 1839-40.
Quincy (J.) History of the Boston Athe-
nieum. xii, 264, 104 pp. 8^^. Cam-
bridge, Metcalf 4' CO. 1851.
Ranner (G. E.) Kurzgefasste beschrei-
bung der uiirnbergischen stadtsbiblio-
thek. 8°. Niirnherg, Ebener, 1821.
Ravaisson (F.) Rapports sur les biblio-
tbeques des d6parteraents de I'ouest.
8°. Paris, Joubert, 1841.
Reinhard (C.) Ueber die jiingsten schick-
sale der Alexandrinischen bibliotbek.
12°. Guttingen, 1792.
Rhees (William J.) Manual of public
libraries, institutions, and societies, in
the United States and Britisb prov-
inces of North America. 687 p}). 8'^.
Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott 4" co. 1859.
Richter (B.) Kurze anleitung cine bibli-
otbek zu ordnen, und in der ordnung za
erhalteu. 8°. Augsburg, Eollman, 1836.
Ritschl (F.) Die Alexandrinischen bibli-
otheken unter den ersten Ptolemaern
[etc.] 8°. Breslau, G. P. Aderholz, 183-i.
Sainte-Beuve (C. A.) A propos des
bibliotbeques populaires. 24 pp. 12^.
Paris, M. Levy freres, 1867.
Salvioni (A.) Del modo di ordiuare una
pubblica biblioteca. 32 pp. 8^. Ber-
gamo, 1843.
Santa (L. della). Delia costruzione e del
regolanieuto di una pubblica universale
biblioteca con la pianta dimostrativa.
8". Firenze, 1816.
Schleiermacher (A. A. E.) Bibliographi-
sches system der gesanimten wissen-
schaftskunde, mit einer einleitung zum
ordnen von bibliotheken, [etc.] 2 v.
xlviii, 1661 pp. 8'-''. Braunschweig ^
Vieu-eg, 1852.
Schmidt (J. A. F.) Handbuch der bibli-
othekswis^enschaft, der literatur und
biicherkunde. vi, 472 pp. 8=. Weimar^
B. F. Voight, 1840.
Sohrettinger (J.) Handbuch der bibli-
othek-wissenschaft, besonders zum ge-
brauche der nicht-bibliothekare. x, 187
pp. 8^. men, F. Beck;18ii.
Lilrary Blhliographij.
743
Schrettinger (J.) — coutiiined.
— Versnch ciues lebrbnchs tier bibli-
otbekwisseiischaft. 4 parts hi 2 v. 16^.
^liinchen, J. Lindaner, 1329.
Seitzinger (J. G.) Bibliothekstecbnik^
Mit einem beitrage znm archivswesen.
2« ausgabe. Ivi, 102 pp. 44 tab. 8=.
Leip:ig, H. Cosfenohle, ISiJO.
Shurtleff (X. B.) A decimal system for
the arraugemeut and ailmiiiistration of
libraries. 80 pp. 4^. Boston, priraiehj
printed, l'?50.
Simeon (.T.) Books and libraries ; a lec-
ture. 12^. London, 18G0.
Sims (Ricbard). Handbook to the library
of the British niusenm ; -^-ith some
account of the principal libraries in
London. 414 pp. 16^. London, J. II.
Smith, 1854.
Soboltstchikoff (B.) Principes pour
Torganisation et la conservation des
graudes bibliotheques. 76 pp. 12^.
Paris, Eenouard, 18o9.
Spofford (A. R.) The public libraries of
the United States. A paper read before
the American social science association
at New York, oct. 26, 1839. 23 pp. 8^.
Xew York, Nation press, 1869.
[Also in tlie Journal of social science : trans.ic-
tions of the American association, no. 2, p. 92].
Struve (B. G.) Introductio in notitiam
rei litterariae et usum bibliothecarum.
6^. Francnfurti, 1754.
Ternaux-Compans (H.) Surl'iStat actuel
des bibliotheques publiques de Paris. 8°-
Paris, Delaunay, 1837.
United States. Report of commissioner
of education for 1872. Statistics of libra-
ries for 1872, p. 820. List of libraries
containing more than 1000 volumes, p.
United States — continued.
872. Summary of libraries (by states),
p. liv. 8^. JTashinjton, government print-
ing office, 1873.
— The same for 1873. Statistics, p. 729
Summary, p. Ixxxviii. S^. Washington ,
governmenf printing office, 1874.
— The same for 1S74. Statistics, p. 753.
Summary, p. Ixxsvii. 8=. Washington
government printing office, 1875.
— Ninth censu>. Statistics of libraries
in the United States at the censuses
of 1870, 1830, and 1850. [In v. i. Popu-
lation, etc. p. 471]. 4^. Washington^
government printing office, 1872.
Valentinelli (G. ) Delle biblioteche della
Spagna. 178 pp. 8^. Wien, I860.
Vidal (L. J.) Conseils pour la formation
des bibliotheques speciales admiuistra-
tives, communales, professionelles, niili-
taires, industrielles, et autres. 8".
Paris, Ledoyen, 1864.
— Essai sur les bibliotheques administra-
tives. 8°. Paris, Levavasseur, 1843.
Vogel (Ernst Gustav). Literatur friihe-
rer uud uoch bestehender europiiischer
uffeutlicher und corporations-bibli-
otheken. 548 pp. 12'^. Leipzig, T. O.
Weigel, 1840.
Voisin (A.) Documeus pour servir a
I'histoire des bibliotheques en Belgique.
8^. Gand, 1840.
Werlauff (E. C.) Historiske efterretuin-
ger oni det store k. bibliothek i Kioben-
havn. 2eu udg. x, 432 pp. 8°. Kioben-
havn, 1844.
"Wilken (F.) Geschichte d. k. bibliothek
zu Berlin. 8^. Berlin, 1828.
Wynne (J.) Private libraries of New-
York, viii, 472 pp. 1 pi, 8°. Neiv Tork^
E. French, 1860.
ARTICLES IN PERIODICALS.
[Note.— The references to pages in the englisb reviews in this list are to the original editions, not
to the american reprints].
American almanac for 1837. p. 78, Public^
libraries.
American biblical repository, v. 11. p.
174, Public libraries.
— 3d series, v. 4, p. 166, A plea for libraries.
Athenaeum. 1874, part 2, p. 412, Public
libraries of London. Sion college, pp.
513, 577, Lambeth palace, p. 879, Dr.
Williams's library.
p. 238, Bibliotheque imp^riale pub-
lique de St. Pdtersbourg, catalogue.
Athenaeum — continued.
— 1874, pt. 1, p. 389, Roman libraries.
— 1872, pt. 1, p." 274, Advocates' library.
p. 719, Guildhall library.
p. 461, Strasbourg library.
Atlantic monthly, v. 21, p. 203, The old'
Philadelphia library.
Bibliotheca sacra, v. 7, p. 173, Libraries^
in Boston and vicinity.
— v. 7, p. 402, Public libraries in New Eng-
land.
744
Public Libraries in the United States
Bibliotheca sacra — contiuued.
— V. 18, p. 209. Free public libraries.
Blackwood's Edinburgh inagaziue. v.
85, p. 168, School and parochial libra-
ries.
— V. 90, p. 65, Public libraries, their format
tion, etc.
— V. 101, p. 606, How to make a cata-
logue of books.
British and foreign review, v. 4, p. 213,
Report from select committee on the
British museum.
British quarterly review, v. 6, p. 72, Pub-
lic libraries in London and Paris.
Chambers's Edinburgh journal. 1848, v.
9, u. s. p. 9, Foreign public libraries.
Eclectic review, 4th series, v. 28, p. 1
British and continental libraries.
Edinburgh review, v. 38, p. 379, British
museum.
— V. 92, p. 371, British museum commis-
sion : catalogue of printed books.
— V. 109, p. 201, Library of the British
museum.
Eraser's magazine, v. 3, p. 465, Histor-
ical researches on the pretended burning
of the library of Alexandria by the Sar-
acens, under the caliph Omar.
Galaxy (The), v. 7, 1869, p. 527, The Astor
library.
— V. 8, p. 528, Ten years in a public library-
Harpers' magazine, v. 29, p. 482, Libra-
ries.
— V. 46, p. 41, The library of congress.
Hours at home. v. 4, p. 222, Libraries, old
and new.
— V. 7, pp. 278, 297, Books and libraries in
ancient Eome.
Lippincott's magazine, v. 3, p. 280, Cir-
culating libraries.
National almanac for 1874. p. 58, The
public libraries of the United States.
New Englander. v. 1, p. 307, Public libra-
ries.
North americau review, v. 5, p. 430, Li-
braries.
— V. H, p. 191, University libraries.
— V. 23, p. 206, Public libraries in the Uni-
ted States.
— V. 45, p. 116, Libraries.
— V. 71, p. 185, Public libraries.
— V. 107, p. 568, Harvard college library.
— V. 108, p. 96, The new catalogue of Har-
vard college library.
Norih british review, v. 15, p. 160, Public
libraries.
— v. 31, p. 447, Memoirs of libraries.
— V. 51, p. 305, Babylonian and assyriau
libraries.
Norton's literary almanac for 1852, j). 21,
Public libraries in the United States.
— The same, for 1853, p. 32, Americau libra-
ries. Second series.
— The same for 1854, p. 3, Libraries.
p. 49, Proceedings of the libra-
rians' convention in New York, sept. 15,
16, and 17, 1853.
Quarterly review, v. 72, p. 1, Libraries
and catalogues.
— V. 88, p. 136, The British museum.
— V. 92, p. 157, The British museum.
— V. 104, p. 201, The British museum.
Revue des deux i^ondes. 15 mars, 1846,
La bibliothcque royale et les biblio-
theques publiques.
— 1 dec. 1875, Le musde britannique.
— 15 dec. 1875, Le mus6e britannique.
Scribner's monthly, v. 1, p. 353, The New
York mercantile library.
— V. 3, p. 150, The Boston public library.
Statistical journal, v. 23, 1870, pp.327,
365, Statistical notes on the free town
libraries of Great Britain and the con-
tinent.
Westminster review, v. 8, p. 105, Conti-
nental libraries.
— V. 9, p. 429, The imperial library of
Paris.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
LIBRARY REPORTS AND STATISTICS.
BY THE EDITORS.
INTUODL'CTIOX — COAIPAUATIVE STATISTICS BV M. BaLBI — C'OMI'AKISOX Ol' lilXENT
STATISTICS Ol' NIXE IMPORTANT EUROPKAX LIBRARIES — COMPARATIVE STATISTICS
OF American- PUBLIC LIBRARIES — Americax public libraries ix 1776, lt300, axd
1«76 — Growth of public libraries by periods— Public libraries graded
accordixg TO xumber of volumes — Classificatiox of libraries — Library
funds- Statistics of sixty-two libraries — Benefactions— Loss and wear of
library books — Classification of circulation — Analysis of library sta-
tistics—Summary OF expenditures by the General Govern.-siext ox account
ov libraries.
DIFFICULTIES OF COMPARING LIBRARY STATISTICS.
In introducing this subject it is thought well to first present some of
the difficulties in the way of instituting a just comparison between dif-
ferent libraries, because they illustrate perfectly many of the obstacles
that lie in the path of one who undertakes to present trustworthy sta-
tistics of libraries at all. A fair study of these difficulties, and of others
which are to be stated, may show the way to overcome them.
The views and tables respecting European libraries by the eminent
statistician M. Balbi are first presented. While it is not to be inferred
that difficulties and divergencies of equal extent prevail in the United
States, every student of the subject will at once admit that they exercise
an appreciable influence. The reader will observe that three authori-
ties of recent date — the two new American cyclopajdias, Johnson's and
Appleton's, and Petzholdt's Adressbuch — have been added to the com-
parative table by the writers of this chapter. Otherwise M. Balbi has
been allowed to tell his own story.
We deem it necessary to introduce the comparative table we have drawn up by a
few observations relating not only to the difficulties which even an approximate deter-
mination of the number of volumes of the principal libraries presents, but relating as
well to the propriety of basing such a comparison on a knowledge of the number of
their volumes. We do not seek to hide from ourselves the fact that even if the com-
parative table we present should give the exact number of volumes in each library, it
would still be of quite minor usefulness and utterly inadequate to enable a person to
form an idea of the relative importance of these establishments. This in fact is to be
inferred neither from the size of the books nor from their number. Two or three
thousand volumes preserved in the War Ddpot at Paris, or among the military ar-
chives at Vienna; a few hundreds of the precious manuscripts of the Vatican Library
745
746 Fublic Libraries in the United States.
at Rome, the Lanrentian at Florence, the Ambrosian at Milan, the Royal at Paris,
the Bodleian at Oxford, or merely a thousand of the incunabula these libraries
and those of the other capitals of Euroj)e possess ; a thousand even of those which
form the principal part of Lord Spencer's niaj^nificent collection, (justly rejjfarded as
the first of all the libraries at present owned by private individuals,) considered either
with reference to scientific value and the special subjects of which they treat, or with
reference to their high price, are undoubtedly ecjuivalent to tliis or that library of
Italy, Spain, or Portugal which coutaius twenty or thirty thousaud volumes relating
only to ascetic subjects, scholastic theology, and the old Aristotelian philosophy.
How many thousand volumes of the latter class would it not be necessary to accu-
mulate to represent the value of even a few of those portfolios which form the mag-
nificent collections of engravings of His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, of His Impe-
rial Highness the Archduke Charles, or of the cabinets connected with the royal libra-
ries of Paris, Munich, Dresden, Loudon, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, or the Imperial
Library of Vienna! How many of these also would it not be necessary to amass
to represent the value of some small special libraries; for example, the libraries of
the celebrated Oriental scholars Morrison, Klaproth, Neumann, and Hammer, or that
which the noted Baron Schilling collected during his voyage to Kiachta, which scholars
wish to see united to the library of some public establishment at St. Petersburg,
where it is at the present time ; or the valuable botanical library of M. De Caudolle at
Geneva, joined to the magnificent herbarium of this first of living botanists; or eveu
the collection of Japanese books that the celebrated traveller Siebold has just brought
to Europe — a collection which, in spite of its meagreness, (it consisting of only 1,500
volumes,) is the largest that this portion of tiie world possesses, independently of the
importance of the works it contains!
But, while admitting the inadequacy' of this isolated element to measure the relative
importance of libraries, we none the less consider it the foundation of any comparison of
which these establishments admit. We even add that it is as yet the only element
which can be reduced to figures. As this inquiry concerns only the principal libraries
the general or special character of which is indicated by their titles, or by the names
of the institutions to which they belong, the careful reader will avoid confounding
libraries composed in great part or almost wholly of modern works, or those, at least,
of considerable importance in regard to science, letters, or the fine arts, with similar
collections long since made in the quiet retreats of certain religious corporations ;
collections which in our day have lost nearly all the value they once had. Put on his
guard by these considerations, the intelligent reader will not seek to draw a comparison
between elements which in their nature are not comparable. With this reservation
in mind, the respective number of volumes will, up to a certain point, indicate
relative importance. This, moreover, is the only element which travelers, historians,
and statisticians have up to this time taken the trouble to work up. It is also the
only one which affords iis the means of making useful and interesting approximate
comparisons between the present time, so rich in productions of the human mind, and
the periods which have preceded it.
To be frank, one may say without fear of error that, with the exception of a few of
the principal libraries of Europe, in each of these useful establishments, at present so
numerous in this part of the world, and still so rare in America, the United States
alone excepted, the exact number of volumes is unknown. The long and varied re-
searches to which we gave ourselves up in compiling the comparative table of the
principal public libraries of Europe, published in 1822, in the Statistical Essay on the
Kingdom of Portugal, and the Statistical R6sum6, relative to tlie principal public
libraries of Europe and America that we published in 1828, put us in possession of a
quantity of facts as interesting as they are important, which confirm our assertion.
The imposing and scrupulously minute details so frequently published by statisticians,
geographers, and travelers, otter only a delusive exactitude; since authors who are
contemporaneous, sometimes writing even in the same year, assign to the same library
numbers of volumes which dilfer from each other by a fourth, a third, a half, and even
by more than four times and ten times as many.
Lihrarif Reports and Statistics.
147
The table following is only a fragment of the one we drew up for our manuscript
dissertation. It exhibits the most surprising disparity of estimates made as to the
number of volumes contained in a given library by the most celebrated geographers
the most learned statisticians, and the most judicious travelers, as well as some of the
opinions advanced by those skilful writers who manage to appropriate the labors of
their predecessors without being polite enough to mention them. We greatly regret
our inability to add to the table of the libraries of Paris the estimates taken from the
excellent Statistics of France from 1818 to 1828, a work that the painstaking scholar
M. Cottin yearly reproduces, with important changes, under the modest title of the
Commercial Almanac. These estimates would certainly render more piquant the col-
location of figures relative to the richness of the libraries in the French capital. We
do not cite his estimates subsequent to the year 1828, because, haviiig worked with
that scholar, to insert his estimates concerning these libraries would be to ofier our
own calculations.
Comparative labJc of the prindpal eslimaies made of ilie numher of volumes ui several noted
libraries.
PARIS.
KOYAL LIBUARY, NOW Bn3LI0TIIE(ji;E NATIOXALE.
(18-27)
Ebert
Petit-Radel
Boismarsas.
liritisb Kevi
Bailly
Villenave
Malchus
Schnabel
Bisinger
Andr6
.Johnson's Cyclopaedia, (1875) .
Appleton's Cyclopasdia, (1874)
Xumber of vol-
350, 000
350, 000
350, 000
450, 000
450, 000
450, 000
500, 000
900, 000
800, 000
800, 000
000, 000
000, 000
Number of MSS.
70, 000
50, 000
50, 000
80, 000
80, 000
100, 000
50, COO
80, 000
50, 000
50, 000
Number of dis-
sertations, fujri-
t i V 0 publica-
tions, etc.
350, 000
350, 000
450, 000
450, OOO
400, 000
JIAZAUIN LUSRARY.
00, 000
90, 000
100, 000
100, 000
150,000
160, 000
160, 000
3,437
3,437
4,000
4,000
4,000
Malchus
Villenave
* Except as otherwise indicated the authorities cited in these tables wrote in the following years re-
spectively: Eustace, 1817 ; Petit-Eadel, 1819 ; Stein. 1819-1827 ; Hassel, 1819-1824; Laborde, 1820 ; Dib-
din, Boismarsas, 1821 ; Ebert, 1822-1823 ; Andr6, Bisinger, 1823; Blume, 1824-1830 ; Wuriaff, 1825; Mal-
chus, 1826 ; Conversatious-LexikoD, 1827 ; Wilken, Bailly, Amati, Meidinger, 1828 ; Zedlitz, 1828-1831 ;
Schnitzler, Galanti, 1829; Hffiudel, 1830; Stieit, Stark, 1831; Schnabel, Valerj-, 1831-1833; Cannabich,
Garinei, Rainpoldi, 1832 ; Wachler, Chamber, Uohn, 1833; A Week at Munich, Duchesne, Plieningor,
Villenave, 1834 ; d'Haussez, 1835.
748
Public Libraries in the United States.
Comparative table of the principal estimates made of the number of volumes, etc. — Continued.
MADRID.
ROYAL LIBRARY.
Authors.
Number of vol-
umes.
XumberofMSS.
Xumber of dis-
sertations, fugi-
t i V e publica-
tions, etc.
Villenave
100, 000
100, 000
125, 000
130, 000
130, 000
180, 000
200, 000
200, 000
200, 000+
200, 000+
220, 000
200, 000
A large number.
2,000
Haendel
Lanflois ... ..
Hassel
2, 000
Malchus
2,000
A large number,
do
British Review (1827)
Bailly (1833) . ...
Johnson's Cyclopcedia (1875)
1
ESCORIAL.
CONVENT LIBRARY.
Bisino'er .. . ..
60, 000
4,300
i;bert
17, 600
30, 000
60, 000
90, 000
90, 000
130, 000
130, 000
130, 000
130, 000
Hassel
Malchus
A large number.
4,300
4,300
5,000
15, 000
British Review (1827) .
Villenave
ROME.
VATICAN LIBRARY.
Schnabel
Blume
Ebert
"Villenave
Audr6
Valery
Rampoldi
Malchus
Bisinger
British Review, (1827)
Bailly, (1833)
D'Haussez
Eustace .
■Quarterly Review, (1826)
Johnson's Cyclopaedia, (1875) .
Appleton's Cyclopaedia, (1874)
30, 000
30, 000
30, 000
30, 000
40, 000
80, 000
90, 000
160, 000
160, 000
400, 000
400, 000
800, 000
200, 000
, 000, 000
105, 000
105, 000
4,000
25, 000
40, 000
40, 000
40, 000
24, 000
45, 000
50, 000
50, 000
38, 000
50, 000
Library Reports and Statistics.
749
Comparative table of the principal estimates made of the number of volumes, etc. — Continui d.
FLOEENUE.
MAGLIABECCHIAXA LIBRAUY.
Authors.
Number of vol-
umes.
Number of MSS.
Number of dis-
sertations, fugi-
tive publica-
tions, etc.
Malchus
90, 000
100, 000
ViO, 000
120, 000
150,000 +
150, 000
150, 000
200, 000
200, 000
8,000
Ebert . ...
8, 000 to 9, 000
Amati
10, 000
12, 000
Valery
Johnson's Cyclopaedia, (1875)
LAURESTIAX LIHKARY.
Andr6 . . '
5,000-h
6,000
8,000
9,000
Biume
Ebert
Valery
Hassel
20, 000
90, 000
90, 000
90, 000
120, 000
Villenave
3,000
About 3, 000
3,000
British Review, (1827)
Baill V, (1833)
Malchus ,
NAPLES.
LIUHAKY OV THE MUSEO JiOKBOXICO.
Bisinger
80, 000
80, 000
80, 000
80, 000
80, 000
150, 000
150,000+
160, 000
180, 000
200, 000
200, 000
Hassel
Malchus
Ebert
4,000
4,000
3,000
3,000
Villenave
Valery
Galanti
Andr6
Appleton's Cyclopaedia, (1874)
750
Fuhlic Libraries in the United States.
Comparative table of tlxe principal estimates made of the numler of volumes, etc. — Continued.
BOLOGXA.
UMVEItSITY LUillAliV.
unies.
Xumber of MSS.
Xiimber of dis-
sertations, fugi-
tive publica-
tions, etc.
Valery
80, 000
100, 000+
100, 000 +
110,000
115,000
120, OCO
150, COO
150, 000
160, 000
200, 000
200, 000
20O, 000
200, 000
4,000
■kndiu
Kampoldi
A large number.
Lalaiide . . . ...
Ebert
Conver.sations-Lesikon
MIL AX.
;kera LimiAKY.
Valery
100, 000
120, 000
140, 000
109, 000
Xearly 200, 000
185. 000
1*5, 000
Ebert
Malcbus
^
Mr. Gironi, the librarian
1,000
Rampoldi
AMUUOSIAX LIUUAUY.
40, 000
4C, 000+
50, 000
50, 000
60, 000
60, 000
76, 000
90, 000
90, 000
*100,000 +
140, 000
100, 000
100, 000
14, 000
12, 000
10, 000
12, 000
10, 000
15, 000
15, 000
15, 000
15. 000
Bailly, (1833)
Villeuave
Valery
Ebert
Ilassel
Bisinger
Amati
Millin
Johnson's Cyclop.X'dia, (1875)
1
Appleton's Cyclopitdia, ( 1874)
!
Mr. Amati remarks thil this numler includes 4,033 volumes ccutainirg 18, OCO manuscripts.
Library Ileporfs and Statistics.
751
Comparative table of the principal estimates made of the number of volumes, etc. — Coutiuuetl.
TUKIX.
UNIVERSITY LUiRARY.
Authors.
Xumber of vol-
UUJCS.
Number of MSS.
Number of dis-
sertations, fugi-
tive publica-
tions, etc.
D'llaussez
35, 000 to 4U, 000
60, 000
CO, 000
110,000
112, 000
I -.20, 000
150, 000
Valery
1 9^0 1 ....
Malchiis
BEllLIX.
ROYAL LIBUAItY.
Scbnabel i-io nnn
7 000
Hassel
: 100,000
1 100,000
Malcbus
1 160,000
j 160,000
Bailly, (1633)
1 160,000
Amlro
7,000
Guthrie, by Lauglois.
1 160,000
ItiO 000
Amati
2, 000
2, 000
Villenave
Schubert
' -'-^O 000
AVachler
iJOO 000
4,611
.4,611
7,000-r
Wilcken
Zertlitz
(1875)
:i00,000 to 400,000
' 700, 000
, (l.-'-l)
' 700, 000
700,000
PetzhokU, (IST-l)
DRESDEN.
ROYAL LinUARY.
.Sclinabcl .
...-l 200,000
5,000
2,700
2,700
2,700
Eben ...
Stein
' 2-'i0 000
150, COO
Villenave
220 000
lla.ssel .
' 250 too
Streit
250 000
4, 000 to 5, 000
4,000
4,000
4,000
4,000
5,000
Audi 6....
40, ono
100, coo
100, ooo
Malchus..
'View, (1627)
...,[ 250,000
Bi.siu"'er
250 000
Amati . . . .
(Jyclopicdia
s Cyclop.Tjdi.
(1874)
(1875)
' 200, 000
400, 000
Appleton'
Petzlioldt
(1^74)
' son 000
500, 000
752
Public Libraries in the United States.
Comparative table of the principal estimates made of the number of volumes, etc. — Continued.
BEESLAU.
UXIVERSIXr LIBRARY.
Xumbei- of toI-
umes.
Stein ..
Andre.
Ebert .
100, 000
100, 000
100, 000
British Review, (1827) 100,000
Malchus I 100,000
Baillj-, (1633) .' 100,000
Hassel
ZedUtz
Allgemeine Handlang-Zeitung
"Wachler.,
JohDson's Cyclopiedia, (1875)...
Appleton's Cycloptedia, (187-1)..
Petzholdt, (1874)
115, 000
130,000 to 140, 000
IGO, 000
200, 000
340, 030
350, 000
340,000 (titles)
1 Number of dis-
Number of MSS. ' venations, fngi-
1 1 V 6 publica-
! tions, etc.
j
i
1
2,300
GoTTINGEN.
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY.
About 200, 000
200, 000
200, 000
200, 000
200, 000
240, 000
210,000
280, 000
280, 000
280, 000
295, 000
300, 000
300, 000
300, 000
300, 000
300, 000
300, 000
403, 000
400, 000
400, 000
Sehnabel
Villenave
Streit .
5,000
110, 000
5,000
•5,000
5,000
110, 000
110,000
Bailly, (1833)
110, 000
Hassel
ilalchus
5,000
5,000
5,000
Bisiiiger
Appleton's Cyclopfcdia, (1874)
Petzholdt (1874)
Lihranj lleports and Statistics.
753
Comparative lahlc ofihej'^fiiidpal csiimaies made of the nnmher of volumes, etc. — Coutinuetl.
WOLFEXBUTTEL.
DUCAL LIliUAKV.
Xuuibpr of vol-
umes.
Schubert, (1824)
British Review, (18-37) ...
Bailly, (1833)
Stein, (1827, K.eisen, etc.).
Hassel
Steiu
Andre
Ebert
Villenave
Streit
Bisinger
Amati
Malch us -
Neue geographische Ephemeriden. Weimar.
Johnson's Cyclopaedia, (187.5)
Appleton's Cyclopaedia, (1874)
Tetzholdt, (1874)
100, 000
lug, 000
109, 000
120, 000
190, 000
190, 000
190, 000
190, 000
190, 000
200, 000
200,0004
200, 000
210, 000
2^0, 000
250, OO'O
200, 000
250,000 to 300,000
j Number of dis-
Number of MSS. I ^ertations, fugi-
t i V 6 publica-
tions, etc.
4,000 !
4,000 i
40, 000
40, 000
4,500
4,500
40, 000
4,000
10 000
100, COO
FREIBURG.
U.N1VF.1«1TY LIBRARY.
Ha.ssel
....' 19,000
Malchus . ...
30 000
Ebert . .
70, 000
100,000
100,000 i
100 000
250, 000 j
Appletons Cycloptedia, (1874)
Petzlioldt (1874)
170,000 '
! Q.nO onn
48 E
754
Public Libraries in the United States.
Comparative talle of the principal estimates made of the nuniber of volumes, etc. — Continued.
MUNICH.
CENTRAL OB ROYAL LIBRARY.
Authors.
Xumber of vol-
umes.
Number of MSS.
Number ^of dis-
sertations, fugi-
t i V e publica-
tions, etc.
250, 000
300, 000
300, 000
300, 000
400, 000
400, 000
400, 000
400, 000
400, 000 +
400, 000 +
400, 000
400, 000
400, 000
500. 000
500, 000
600, 000
400, 000
900, 000
400, 000
16, 000
400, 000
Dibdin
Villenave
9,000
9,000
Ebert
Malchus
Bailly (1833)
Areati .
8,000
10, 000
90, 030
Schnabel
400, 000
Petzholdt (1874)
400 000
COPENHAGEN.
ROYAL LIBRARY.
130, 000
130, 000
200, 000
200,000 +
250, 000
260, 000
260, 000
260, 000
300, 000
300,000 to 400,000
Nearly 400, 000
400, 000
400, 000
500, 000
500, 000
500, 000
500, 000
550, 000
Mauy
3,000
Many
Ebert
10, 000
Amati
Many
ay
■Raiiiv ns'n>
Many
A large number.
A large number
Appleton's Cyclopaedia (1874) .
Library Beports and Statistics.
755
Comparative table of the principal estimates made of the number of volume'^, efc— Continued.
OXFORD.
nODLEIAN LIBRAUY.
Number of vol-
umes.
XumberofMSS.
Number of dis-
sertations, fugi-
t i V e publica-
tions, etc.
Bisinger
ileidinger
Haendel
Quarterly Review, (1826)
Ebert
Villenave
Malchas
Bailly, (1833)
British Review, (18-27)
Stein
Andr6
Cannabich
Conversations-Lexikon ,
Schnabel
Oxford Guide
Johnson's Cyclopsedia, (1875) .
Appleton's Cyclopaedia, (1874)
20, 000
17, 000(?)
25, 000
25, 000
25, 000
25,000 to 30,000
30, 000
30, 000
30, 000
30, 000
EDINBURGH.
advocates' LIBRAUY.
Hassel
Ebert
Malchus.
British Review, (1827)
Bailly, (1833)
Meidinger
Haendel, (1827)
Chamber
Stark
Mr. de Nagy
Johnson's Cycloppedia, (1875) .
Appleton's Cycloptedia, (1874)
30, 000
50, 000
70, 000
About 80, 000
80, 000
100,000
120, 000
120, 000
1.50, 000
150, 000
300, 000
300, 000
1,600
1,600
* The author of the New Pocket Companion for Oxford, published in that city by Cook, in 1802, thus
expresses himself concerning this library : " It contains more books than any other library in Europe
except the Vatican." We quote this statement because it is probably the original source of the error
of more than one celebrated statistician and geographer, whose opinion has been slavishly followed by
the compilers of abridgments and statistical tables.
756
Fiiblic Libraries in the United States.
ComiHirative (able of the principal estimates made of the number of volumes, etc. — Coucluded.
EDIXBUEGH.
UXIVEIISITY LIBRARY.
Xiimber of vol- j
umes. I
Xumber of dis-
Number of MSS. i sertatious, fugi-
j five publica-
I tions, etc.
Bailly, (li?;!:3) ■ About 50,000
Hassel i ."iO, 000
Malcbns > 50,000
Tilleuiive ; 50,000
Convcr.sations-Lexikou '• 50,000
Brltisb Rfiview, (1827) ' 50,000
Ebert ! 50, 000 -
Haendel | SO. 000 -
Huot i se.ooo-
Meidinger ; | 60, 000
Stark ! 70,000
Chamber 70, 000
Mr.deNagy ! 70,000
Johnsou's Cyclopaedia, (1875) ! 130,000
Appleton's Cyclopedia, (1874) I 130, OOQ
Some
ST. PETERSBURG.
IMPERIAL LIBRARY.
80, 000 to 300, 000
240, 000
300, 000
300, 000
300, 000
300, 00(1
300, 000
300, 000
300, 000
300, COO
1, 100, 000
1, 100, 000
Stein
Hassel
Cannabich
11,000
11,000
12, 000
12, 000
13, 000
Scbnabel
Bulletin, (1828)
Stein (18"^5)
Appleton's Cyclopajdia, (1874)
Di-sbearteued by this surprising disparity of opiuion, we have more than once beeu
iipou the point of abandoning so difficult a subject ; but regretting the considerable
amount of time spent in these investigations, we exerted ourselves to complete them,
We even tried to go back to the source of these different estimates ; and we hope we
have found it in the causes indicated in the paper already mentioned.
What was true of the population of states iu the second half of the last century,
is still true of this portion of comparative statistics. Only approximate data exist
concerning even the best known libraries ; the most contradictory estimates are made
as to the richness of all the others. National writers sometimes repeat, without any
criticism whatever, the extravagant verbal or written estimates of an unscrupulous
librarian, who thinks he adds to the fame of the collection intrusted to his charge by
exaggerating the number of volumes it contains ; sometimes they repeat traditional
estimates which have descended from father to son, nearly always the most erroneous ;
sometimes, actuated by excessive conceit, and relying upon approximate calculations
Library Reports and Statistics. 1^1
which they have themselves made upon erroneous bases, they boldly tax with ignorance
or incorrectness the careful writer who, after having examined all concerning the same
library which has been written by his other learned compatriots, or by enlightened
strangers who have visited the collection, ventures to express an opinion different
from their own. There are only too many scholars who, unacquainfed with the varied
information which the preparation of statistics demands, accustomed to accept as cor"
rect the erroneous estimates which fill all the geographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias,
statistical tables, and many and mauy a work which passes for a classic, do not hesi-
tate to reject as erroneous differing valuations which are official estimates, obtained by
means of special request, or in many other ways, the results of long and wearisome
investigations obtained by some statisticians or travelers as capable as they are con-
scientious.
One of the principal causes of this astonishing disparity of opinion is undoubtedly
the different manner of calculating the literary wealth of the same library. One
author will count only the printed books ; another adds to these the number of manu-
scripts ; a third reduces to a certain number of volumes the dissertations, pamphlets,
and fugitive pieces which are preserved separately in pasteboards or bound into volumes,
which the first entirely excluded from his estimate ; a fourth adds in the same way a
certain number of volumes for engravings, maps, and plans, which, not forming part
of any work, could not be included among the printed books ; a fifth, looking upon all
the dissertations, pamphlets, and fugitive pieces as so many volumes, thinks he should
add their number to that of the printed books contained in the library ; by which
means he greatly increases the aggregate of volumes ; finally, there will be still
another, who subtracts from the total number of volumes all duplicates, i. e., which
belong to works already counted in the mass of printed books. These different
methods of calculation, and some others that it would be too tedious to mention here,
should not be confounded with those previously considered, which are the princi-
pal source of the errors propagated by worthy travelers and scholars, but which the
negligence or even ignorance of some geographers does not hesitate to reproduce iu
their works.
Almost the same thing has happened concerning the wealth of libraries wliich haa
taken place in the case of the population of certain large cities of Asia and Africa,^
where the census returns made now or the criticisms of competent judges have re-
duced the millions of inhabitants to a few hundred thousand. The catalogues of some
libraries, also, which have recently been prepared, or examinations of the collections
made by travelers familiar with statistics or by the librarians themselves, have
treated, as they deserved, these gross estimates and absurd exaggerations (which,
however, still disfigure justly celebrated works) in reducing by one-third, one-half, or
even nine-tenths the number of volumes it was generally agreed to assign them.
Before the revolution nearly everybody in France estimated at 300,000 or even
500,000 volumes the Biblioth^que du Roi. A judicious bibliographer, the late M. Bar-
bier, had reduced it to 200,000 volumes, (in the Aunuaire administratif et statistique du
departement de La Seine for the year XIII, 1805.) But already the learned librarian at
that very time, M. Van Praet, having in 1791 counted one by one the volumes then
embraced iu the collection, had fouud only 152,868, of which 23,243 were of folio,
41,373 of quarto, and 88,252 of octavo and smaller sizes.
The author of an able article on the library of the city of Lyons not long since re-
duced to 90,000 volumes the 106,000, 110,000, and 120,000 that for several years some
people have been pleased and still choose to accord it.
We had always heard that the St. Mark Library at Venice had 150,000 volumes.
We thought we approached the truth in placing the figure at 90,000 in 1822 in the
Statistique du Portugal ; but on returning to Venice in the same year, we were assured
by tbe learned librarian, the Abb^ Bettio, that it did not then count more than 65,000
volu/nes and 5,000 manuscripts. It is not without a feeling of surprise that we see
758 Fuhlic Libraries in the United States.
statisticians still assigning it in 1-332 a number of volumes more than double that
■which it possesses.
The ordinary estimates agreed in placing the number of volumes in the private
library of George III, given by George IV to the British Museum, at 150,000 and even
200,000 ; an examination has just reduced this number to 65,000 volumes.
Mr. Schubert, professor at the University of Konigsberg, who has made long investi-
gations of this subject, and who has visited the principal libraries of Europe in the
capacity both of a learned man and a distinguished statistician, assured us in 1824, at
the time of his visit to Paris, (citing as authority Mr. Eeuss, the principal librarian at
Gottingen,) that this magnificent establishment, generally agreed to contain 300,000
volumes, really counted few beyond 200,000.
What shall we say of the ridiculous, not to say absurd, exaggerations found in de-
servedly noted works about the number of volumes of the Vatican Library at Rome
and the Bodleian Library at Oxford ?
What should one think of the geographical and statistical knowledge of a learned
naturalist who, in the eighth volume of the Precis de Malte-Brun, published in 1829,
says, page 611, that " the Bodleian Library, with the exception of that at the Vatican,
contains more books than any other in Europe ;" and who, in 1832, page 78 of the fourth
volume of the second edition of the same work, repeats that " the Bodleian Library,
with the exception of that at the Vatican, and the Biblioth^que du Roi, at Paris, con-
tains more books than any other in Europe."
As early as the year 1822, in our Statistical essay on the kingdom of Portugal, guided
by the asbistance of a learned bibliographer, we corrected these exaggerations in esti-
mating the first library at only 60,000 printed books and 60,000 (?) manuscripts ; and
in assigning to the three united libraries (Bodleian, Radclif, and Christ College) be-
longing to the University of Oxford only 400,000 volumes and 30,000 manuscripts. We
were gratified to see this last estimate adopted by M. de Malchus, although the learned
statistician, always so scrupulous about his quotations, forgot to mention the source
whence he obtained his estimate, widely different as it was from all which had pre-
viously been made of the number of volumes in the celebrated Bodleian Library. The
researches we have since undertaken, and the facts we have been able to gather, have
proved to us that we were not far from the truth. Notwithstanding the imposing
name of Ebert, who in 1823 allowed it 300,000 printed volumes and 25,000 manuscripts ;
notwithstanding the 400,000 printed volumes and the 25,000 to 30,000 manuscripts that
were assigned it in 1827, by the anonymous writer of the able article on the principal
libraries of Europe, reproduced in the British Review of the same year, we continue to
accord to the Bodleian Library only about 200,000 volumes and 25,000 manuscripts. In
support of our view we cite the authority of the learned H«ndel, who, in 1827, gave it
only 180,000 printed volumes and 17,000 manuscripts, and the Quarterly Review, which,
in 1826, placed the number at 200,000. We will add, that M. de Nagy — a distinguished
mathematician, a member of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and librarian
of Count Caroly — who, as a savant, visited all the principal libraries of Southern Ger-
many, of France, of the United Kingdom, and of the United States, accords it only
about this number, in a note on this subject with which he has been pleased to favor us.
Witbiu the past two years the statistics of a hundred or more of the
priucipal Earopeau libraries have been published in this country in two
different works, each generally regarded and consulted as a standard
authority. A comparison of these statistics proves that the startling
differences shown by M. Balbi forty years ago have not entirely disap-
peared. The following are examples, the names of the libraries and the
number of volumes in each as given by both being shown :
Library Reports and Statistics. 759
Augsburg, City Library 100,000 150,000
Cambridge, Uuiversity Library 250,000 400,000
Frankfort, City Library 100,000 150,000
Freiburg, Uuiversity Library 170, 000 250, 000
■Gotha, Ducal Library 150,000 240,000
Hamburg, City Library 200, 000 300, 000
Leipzig, City Library 100,000 170,000
Leipzig, Uuiversity Library 200,000 350,000
Munich, Koyal Library 400,000 900,000
That is to say, in reporting the statistics of nine libraries, these two
authorities do not agree within 1,240,000 volumes.
Taking as the basis a list of public libraries in the United States re-
ported as numbering 10,000 volumes or more in 1875, the following table
has been prepared showing the number of volumes each contained at
the several periods named, gathered from the best available sources.
It is not to be supposed that the statistics of any period are complete,
though it may be reasonably claimed that those for the year 1875 are
nearly so. So little was known respecting public libraries in the United
States a quarter of a century ago, that the Secretary of State was com-
pelled to answer an inquiry by a committee of the British Parliament
for information respecting them, as follows :
Department of State,
Washington, July 18, 1850.
I regret to be obliged to inform you that soon after the receipt of Mr. Crampton's
note (soliciting " certain authentic information with regard to public libraries in the
United States") an attempt was made to obtain the particular information desired
but without success ; and that, with every disposition to do so, the Department finds
that it has no means of gratifying the wishes of Her Majesty's government in this re-
spect.
J. M. CLAYTON.
It is probable that one of the reasons of the attempt to gather the
statistics of public libraries in the United States census of 1850 was the
discovery of our inability to answer the inquiry referred to above. In
the census of 1860, and again in that of 1870, the statistics of public
libraries were included and published in the returns. Respecting the
value of these statistics. General F. A. Walker, Superintendent of the
Kintb Census, remarks :^
The statistics of libraries have never been very creditable to the census of the
United States. Such improvement as was practicable with the machinery provided
for the collection of these statistics has been effected at the ninth census, and the re-
sults will be found in the table following in comparison with the published results of
1860 ; but no great amount of complacency will be experienced upon a critical exam-
ination of the figures. The fact is, the machinery of the census under existing pro-
visions of law, defective as it is in many particulars, is less adapted to work out correct
results in this matter of the statistics of libraries than in any other use to which it is
applied.
In 1860, there were returned, of all kinds, 27,730 libraries, containing 13,316,379 vol-
' Ninth Census of the United States : Population and Social Statistics, p. 472.
760 Public Libraries in the United States.
umes. Of these, 8,149 were returned as private libraries, containiug in the aggregate
4,766,235 volumes, but for some reason, inexplicable at this date, 8,140 of these libraries,
containing 4,711,635 volumes, were incorporated in the published table with public libra-
ries, while the nine remaining private libraries, containing 54,600 volumes, were incor-
porated in the libraries of schools and colleges ; as appears by notes to the table follow-
ing, verified by reference to pages 502 and 505 of the volume on Mortality and Miscel-
laneous Statistics for the Eighth Census.
Except ia 1849-50 by Jewett, in 1857-58 by Rliees, and in 1868-69
by Winsor,' no systematic attempt to localize, classify, and combine the
statistics of all our public libraries was made until 1870, in which year
the Bureau of Education adopted a plan which has been steadily pur-
sued to the present time. Not all the libraries reported at any period
named are included, because some, though still existing, do not yet
number 10,000 volumes, and others have ceased to exist as distinct
libraries.
The statistics for 1836 have been adopted from the American Almanac
for the year 1837, article Public Libraries.
For the statistics of the year 1846, recourse was had to a paper read
before the Statistical Society of London in 1846 by Edward Edwards,
of the British Museum, and published in volume XI of the Statistical
Journal.
For the year 1849, the statistics gathered by the late Prof. C. 0.
Jewett, of the Smithsonian Institution, and published in 1851, have
been used.^
For the year 1856, statistics are presented from two sources, Triib-
ner's Bibliographical Guide to American Literature, published at Lon-
don in 1859, and the American Almanac ; for 1857-58, Rhees's Manual
of American Libraries, published by J. B. Lippincott & Co., Phila-
delphia, 1859.
An article by A. R. Spoftbrd, Librarian of Congress, in the National
Almanac for 1864, furnished statistics for the year 1863. The data for
these returns were procured by Mr. Spofiford, as far as practicable, by
correspondence with the officers of libraries, though of course at that
time it was impracticable to obtain reports from many of the Southern
States.
It should also be remarked that the statistics of college libraries pub-
lished in the National Almanac did not include students' libraries,
which are contained in the reports for 1875, and therefore the com-
parison between the two dates must be made with some allowance as
to that class of libraries.
In 1868-69, Justin Winsor, superintendent of the Boston Public Li-
brary, collected valuable statistics respecting the public libraries of this
country and Europe, which were published in the seventeenth annual
report of the Boston Public Library, and of which use has been made.
The statistics for the year 1874 are taken from a table in the new
'Notices of Public Libraries, etc., Smithsonian Reports, Washington, 1851.
Library Uei^orts and Statistics. 761
edition of Appletou's Cyclopsedia, which professes to include all public
libraries numbering 25,000 volumes or more, and no others. This ac-
counts for the high average shown for each library under that year.
The figures in the next to the last column, 1875, are copied from the
statistics published in the Chronique du journal g6n6ral de I'imprimerie
et de la librairie, Paris, February 5, 1876, and are said to include " the
principal public libraries of the United States," and purport to have
been gathered by a " statistician of Xew York." These statistics are
amusing from their insufficiency and inaccuracy, but it is painful to
reflect that they have been put forth where their sufficiency and accu-
racy will probably not be often questioned.
762 Public Libraries in the United States.
Table showing the size, at different times, of Ameincan public libraries
Name of library.
Auiencau
Alniauac.
Edwards,
Alabama . .
California ,
Delaware
Dist. of ColumLia
Florida . .
Georcia
. Montgomory
.Oakland
Sacramento
San Francisco . . .
San Francisco . . .
San Francisco . . .
San Francisco . . .
San Francisco . . .
San Francisco . . .
Santa Clara
Vallejo
. Hartford
Hartford
Hartford
Hartford
Hartford
Middletown
Middletown
New Haven
New Haven
Waterbury
.Dover
"Wilmington
.Georgetown
"Washington
"Washington
"Washington
"Washington
"Washington
"Washington
"Washington
Washington
"Washington
"Washington
"Washington
.Talfahassee
.Athens
Atlanta
Macon
..Chicago ,
Chicago
Chicago
Evanston ,
Springfield
Urbana
. .Crawfordsville...
Greencastle
Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Notre Dame
Vincennes
..Des Moines
State
University of California
State
Law
Mechanics' Institute
Mercantile
Odd Fellows
Pacific
St. Ignatius College
Santa Clara College
Vallejo
Historical Society
State
Trinity College
Watkinson Reference
Young Men's Institute
Berkeley Divinity School
"W esleyan University
Yale College
Young Men's Institute ,
Silas Bronson
State ,
Institute
Georgetown College ,
Attorney-General's Office
City, (Y.M.C.A.)
Congress ,
Department of State
Department of "War
Gonzaga College
House of Representatives ,
Howard University ,
Patent Office
Surgeon-General's Office
United States Senate
State
University of Georgia
State
Mercer University
Baptist Union Theological Seminary
Public
Univeisity
Northwestern University
State
Industrial University
"Wabash College
Tudiana Asbury University
Public
State
University
Diocesan
State
1855
1853
1854
1859
1855
1851
1856
1825
1854
1834
1858
1838
1855
1833
1700
1826
1870
1832
1857
1791
1853
1811
1802
1769
1832
1858
1789
3,000
25, 500
12, 000
7,949
11, 000
34,500
28, 000
13, 000
Library Reports and Statistics.
ivhich, in 1874-75, numbered each 10,000 volumes or more.
763
Jewett.
Trubner.
American „,
,, Rhees.
Almanac. 1
Spofford.
"Winsor.
Appleton.
Chronique.
This report.
1849.
1856. 1 1857-58.
1863.
1868-09.
1874.
1875.
1876.
14 000
13, 600
37, 000
12, 50(
24 10-
11, 500
34, 000
2,000
10, 200
17, 000
38, 000
26 000
5,000
20, 000
26 8Si
1
12 00'.
ii,oui;
10, oou
12, 00(1
16, 000
12, 000
15, 000
8,000
8,000
6,000
12, 000
3,000
12, 000
9,000
13 000
f\ nnn
44, 500
26, 000
24, 000
10, 000
13 linn
11,611
14, 373
19, 238
24, 000
16 000
11 123 11 800
13, 000
63, 500
12, 350
66, 000
7,769
17, 000
50, 000
25, 500
100, 000
26 000
50, 481 i 60, 000
66, 000
10, 000
114, 200
3, 800 8. 000
10, 000
13, 000
30, 000
20, 000
4,000
5,000
26, 000
7,589
26, 100
28. 000
36, 000
26, 000
31, 000
32, 26t
1
12 000
5,000
5,350
60, 000
20, 000
11 000
13, 000
63, 000
a26, 000
3,500
10, 000
82, 775
18, 000
12, 000
230, 000
15 000
50, 000
175, 000
261, 000
300, 000
17 000
29, 000
13, 000
10, 000
125, 000
10, 700
23, OOd
40, 001'
25, OOU
10, 000
27, 600
20, 000
12, 000
15, 000
48, IOC'
16,00'
33,00.
42, OOi .
10, 60('
10, 4e-,
10, 401.
17, OOu
10,641
10, 000
12, 000
14. OCO
7,000
12, 000 14, 000
50, 000
25, 000
6,000
8, 856
13, 788
25, 000
38, 000
21, 000
!
2,000
10, 267
6,500
16, 000
6,000
5,500
11. 200
18, 000
12, 000
"'1
1
1
3,000
5,500
1
40, 000
2,030
4,000
26, 000
I
■4,000
6,100
6 400 7 411
2,700
4, Olio
9,959
1
7,000
8,700
20, 000
2,500
14, 000
4,881
25, 000
25, 000
12, 500 !
1
12, 000 1
i
1,000
1, C70 i
1
11, 000 i
a Including 12,000 volumes in Copyright Library.
764
Public Libraries in the United States.
Talle
the size, at different times, of Ametican public lihraries which,
Kame oC library.
A.nierican
Almanac.
Kansas Topeka
Kentucky Danville
Frankforti ...
Lexington
Lexington ...
Louisville ...
Louisiana Baton Eouge .
New Orleans.
New Orleans.
New Orleans.
Maine Augusta
Bangor
Bangor
Brunswick...
Portland
Water ville...
Maryland Annapolis . . .
Annapolis . . .
Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore
Hagerstown . .
"Woodstock ..
Masa-'chusetts .. ..Amherst
Andover
Boston
Boston
Boston
Boston
Boston
Boston
Boston
Boston
Boston
Boston
Brookline. .
Cambridge .
Concord . . .
Fall Eiver .
Fitcbburg .
Haverhill . .
Lawrence . .
Lowell
Lowell
State
Theological Seminary
State
Kentucky University
Library Association
Public
State University
Libraire de la Famille
Louisiana State
Public School and Lyceum ,
State
Mechanics' Association
Theological Seminary
Bo wdoin College
Institute and Public
Colby University
Naval Academy
Louisiana State
Archiepiscopal
Loyola College
Macyland Historical Society
Maryland Institute
Mercantile
Odd Fellows'
Peabody Institute
St. Mary's Theological Seminary
College of St. James
"Woodstock College
Amherst College
Theological Seminary
American Acad'y Arts and Sciences.
Athenaium
Congregational
General Theological
Handel and Haydn Society
Library Society
Loring'.s Private Circulating
Massachusetts Historical Society . . .
Mercantile
N. E. Historic-Genealogical Society.
Public
Social Law
Society of Natural History
State
Public
Harvard University
Public
Public
Public
Public
Public
City
Middlesex Mechanics' Association . .
1857
1853
1821
1865
1835
1871
1860
187-2
1813
1844
1833
1828
1820
1802
1867
1813
1845
1626
4,400
4,000
12, 000
6,000
10, 000
1853
1844
1847
1839
1840
1857
1791
1842
1831 10,550
1807 13, 000
1780 I
1807 j 29,100
1853 i
1815
1794 10,000
1791
1820
1845
1852
1804
1831
1826
1857
1638
1851
1860
1859
1874
1872
1844
1825
47,500 j
Lihrari/ Reports and Statistics.
765
in 1874-75, numbered each 10,000 volumes or more — Continued.
Jewett.
Trilbuer.
American
Aliuauac.
Rbees. j
Spofford.
Winsor.
Appleton.
Chronique. ['
rhis report.
1849.
1856.
1857-58. :
1863.
1868-69. !
1874.
1875.
1876.
1
7,000
2, 000 ,
10,000 1
22, 000
11,000 '
10 500
1
10,000
8 "SOD
; !
30 000
14 000
14, 000
12, 000
14, 000
i
12 934
16, 000
i
30, 000
50, 000
■
1, 000
i
1
15 000
!
1
j
25, 000
9,000 1
14, 020
10, 000
7,600
2,000
10, 200
26, 520
8, 550
16, 000
7,500
20, 000
14,000 1
12,000
12, 000
26, 000
21, 832
10 000
.. . 1
1
16 000
9 000
12,500 ;
--
30, 030
28, 000
31,000
11,000
25, 000
13, 737
10,300
^ 28, 460 !
7,000
29, 370
13, 000
15, 700
15, 000
24 750
16, 662
35, 000
35 800
15, 644
8, 464 :
8,834 ;
10, 000
14,100
17, 676
15, 000
19, 100
...
20, 000
40, 000
40, 000
10, 000
:::: :::::..
19, 600
17, 400
11,000
14, 068
12, 564
21, 500
16, 770
.. ..
17, 000
16. 000
19, 000
13, 000
15, 000
16, 433
9,000
13, 500
22, 072
27, 300
26, 000
21,126
31, 032
3,541
19, 835
34, 588
56, 000
57, 458
12 000
15, 000
10, 000
5,200
13, 000
8,970
10, 000
15, 000
3,500
11,000
18, 000
13 700
14, 540
23, 749
9,050
20, 500
21,259
20, 000
26. 649
10, 000
70, 000
4,050
21, 000
25, 000
10, 000
80, 000
24, 286
29, 000
29, 000
32, 800
38, 533
20, 249
34, 000
8,000
16, 000
50, 000
100, 000
8,000
103, 000
200, 000
10.5, 000
12, 000
40, 000
11,669
12, 150
1.3, 900
7,700
9,859
14, 395
13, 000
16, 075
500
70, 000
5,600
6,000
21, 000
j 19, 000
18, .500
19, 555
25, 000
7 000
16, 000
21, 000
10, 000
23 000
20, 000
21, 500
1,500
.
12, 337
110, 563
153, 000
260, 500
183, 000
10,000
299 869
3,000
13,000
3,500
4,200
10, 400
21, 000
12, 000
29, 000
j 10, 000
118,000
5, 584
j 5, 633
7,500
10, 000
7,400
35, 000
32, 000
37, 000
16, 669
80, 200
89, 000
101,250
112,478
2,500
140, 000
200, 000
150, 000
227, 650
10,601
12 754
11,000
1, 288
1,800
11, 000
6,630
20 000
7,492
11, 785
13, 821
17, 539
5,386
12, 782
766 Public Libraries in the United States.
Table showing the size, at different times, of American public libraries which,
Massachusetts . .
Micliigan.
Mississippi .
Missouri ...
Nebraska
2Tew Hampshire.
New Jersey ,
.Lynn
Medford
New Bedford
Newburyport . . .
Newton
Newton
Northampton . . .
Peabody
Pittsfield
Salem
Salem
Springfield
Taunton
Wellesley
"Williamatown . .
"Worcester
Worcester
Worcester
. Ann Arbor
Detroit
Detroit
Lansing
.Minneapolis
St. Paul
.Jackson
. Columbia
Jefferson City...
St. Louis
St. Louis
St. Louis ,
St. Louis
.Lincoln ,
.Concord
Hanover
Manchester
Portsmouth
. Madison
Newark
New Brunswick.
New Brunswick.
Princeton
Princeton
Red Bank
Trenton
.Albany
Albany
Auburn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Name of library.
Public
Tufts College
Public
Public
Public
Theological Institution
Public
Peabody Institute
Berkshire Athenaeum . .
Essex Institute
City Libraty Association
Public
Wellesley College
Williams College
American Antiquarian Society
College of the Holy Cross
Public
University of Michigan
Public
Toung Men's Society
State
University of Minnestoa
State
State
University of Missouri
State
College of the Christian Brothers .
Public School
St. Louis Mercantile ,
University of St. Louis
State
State
Dartmouth College
City
Athenaeum
Drew Theological Seminary
Library Association
Rutgers College
Theological Seminary Ref. Church..
College of New Jersey
Theological Seminary Pres. Church
Shrewsbury Model School
State
State..
Toung Men's Association
Theological Seminary
Brooklyn Heights Female Seminary.
Eastern District School
Hawkins' (Private Circulating)
Long Island Historical Society
Mercan tile
a St
P
1862
1854
1853
1854
1870
1826
1860
1853
1871
1810
1848
1857
1866
1875
1793
1812
1843
1859
1841
1865
1833
1828
1840
1833
I860
1865
1846
1829
1856
1818
1770
1854
1817
1867
1847
1770
1784
1750
1821
1873
1796
1818
1833
18-n
1835
1848
1863
1857
American
Alman:
6,200
12,000
7,500
11,000
7,000
7,500
13, 000
16, 500
6,000
9,000
12, 500
7,000
12, 000
5,000
Library Reports and Statistics.
161
in 1874-75, numbered each 10,000 volumes or more — Continued.
Jewett.
Triibner.
American
Almanac.
Khees.
Spofford.
"Winsor.
Appleton. Chronique.
j
This report.
1849.
1856.
1857-58.
1863.
1868-69.
1874. 1875.
1876.
10, 672
14, 000
19, 808
3,700
3,300
12, 000
8,493
10, 325
3,000
16, 000
10, 500
11,544
21, 000
13, 000
1,800
11, 000
5,000
13, 300
3,300
13, 455
30, 000
23, 000
13, 261
31 000
16,218
10, 088
13, 00ft
10, 474
16, 505
18,000
20, 000
30, 655
36, 790
12, 726
10,000
27, .500
5,500
6,000
12, 125
1,340
12. 000
10, 500
f 11,000
i 2,522
12. 750
4, 272
12. 800
20, 000
15, 161
30, 000
36, 000
26. 488
7,995
30, 000
10, 559
11,915
21, 430
6,500
18, 355
15, 970
26, 000
5,260
8,400
8,700
10, 076
32, 861
12, 000
50, 000
18 000
55, 000
60, 497
4 220
6,500
17, 000
14, 000
21, 000
16, 000
15, 500
10, 000
25, 000
33, 500
30, 000
25, 000
34, 609
5,000
6,000
8,000
28, 400
1,815
3,500
7,000
12, 790
39, 886
10,000
10 000
4 400
7,000
40, 000
40, 000
3,000
5,300
5,000
2,825
4,637
7,000
16, 000
1 200
3,500
15, 078
13 OOO
4,637
33, 097
4,299
12, 700
14, 800
23, 000
800
7,000
33, 714
5,314
8,252
15, 000
16, 000
42, 000
25, 000
42, 013
13, 580
1.5,395
25 000
10, 200
12, 000
13,133
4 700
5,540
22, 100
13 500
21 '900
31, 900
15, 679
50, 000
52 550
13, 100
15, 300
17, 527
11, 607
7,284
8,684
10,000
10, 875
3 000
7 000 11.000
15, 500
22 OOO
8,000
12,000
7,000
19, 800
11,000
12, 000
10, 000
19,822
14,000
10,614
26 000
16 000
12, 400
18.000
28, 500
25, 000
41 500
9,000
.
26, 779
10, 749
5 000
7,787
53,500
8,060
6,000
20 OOO
23, 274
64, 296
76.000
11, 021
93, 000
85, 000
13,000
95, 000
4 500
6,740
6,000
13 000
10, 000
10, OOO
10 000
17,000
26, 000
26, 500
48, 000
11,400
17, 835
22, 000
39,050
50, 257
768
Public Libraries in the United States.
Table showivg the size, at different times, of American iniblic libraries which,
Kame of library.
NewTork Brooklyn | St. Francis College.
!Xortli Carolina.
Brooklyn
Buffalo . . .
Buffalo . . .
Clinton ...
Ford ham .
Youth 's Free
Grosvenor
Young Men's Association.
Hamilton College
St. John's College
Geneva I Hohart College
Hamilton ! Madison University,
Ithaca ,
Ithaca
New York. ..
New York...
New York...
New York. ..
New York. ..
New York...
New York. ..
New York. ..
New York...
New York...
New York . . .
New York...
New York...
New York . . .
New York. ..
New York...
New York. ..
New York...
Rochester —
Rochester
Rochester
Schenectady .
Syracuse
Syracuse
Troy
West Point ..
.Chapel Hill..
Raleigh
Trinity
-Cincinnati . ..
Cincinnati . ..
Cincinnati
Cincinnati
Cincinnati
Cleveland.
Columbus.
Dayton
Delaware .
Gambler . ,
Cornell
Cornell University
American Geographical Society
American Institute
Apprentices'
Astor
College of St. Francis Xavier
College of the City of New York. . .
Columbia College
Cooper Union
Eclectic, (Private Circulating)
Gen. Theol. Sem. Prot. Episc. Ch
Law Institute
Manhattan College
Mercantile
New York Historical Society
New York Hospital
N^w York Society
Union Theological Seminary
Young Men's Christian Association.
Athenasum and Mechanics' Asso'n..
Theological Seminary
University
Union College
Central
University
Young Men's Association
Military Academy
University of North Carolina
State...
Trinity College
Lane Theological Seminary
Mount St. Mary"s Seminary
American
Almanac.
Public
St. Xavier College
Young Men's Mercantile
Public
State
Public School
Ohio "Wesleyan University .
Kenyon College
1824
1859
1835
1812
1840
1824
1820
1866
1868
1852
1833
1820
184!
1847
1850
1754
1858
1869
1820
1828
1863
1820
1804
1796
1754
1836
1852
1829
1851
1850
1795
1856
1871
1834
1812
1795
1831
1849
1829
1849
1828
1854
1867
1840
1835
1868
1817
1854
1845
1856
1865
1,970
1,600
I 10, 800
11, 400
10, GOO
25,000 I
12, 000
5,000
25, 000 I 30, 000
16,000
14,270 I 13,000
4, 8C0
10, 000
.
3, 700
10, 500
I
1
1
1
j
5,000
\
2,300
8,750
Lihrarfj Beports and Statistics.
7G9
in l"<r4-75, numbered each 10,000 volumes or more — Coutinned.
Jewett.
Tiiibner.
American
AiniaDac.
Rhees. '
Spofford.
Wiusor.
Appleron.
Cbronique.
This report.
1840.
1856.
1857-58.
1863.
1868-69.
1874. 1
1875.
187G.
i
j
j
13, 970
10, 000
1"< 000
3,028 '
5, 000 !
1
10,000
23, 000
1,000
15, 000
20,000
27, 500
6,500
10, 300
9,331
10, 140 1
12,090 1
10. 778 1
9, 521 '
11,400
27, 597
22, 000
15, 000
13, 000
13, 000
10, 000
39, 000
10, 000
10, 500
12, 090
8,700
7,457
9,500 j
13, 000
6, 429 '
7,000
.. ..
!
1
40, OOU
2 4.50 '
6,000
7,500
19, 026
80, 000
10, 000 .
50, 000
160, 000
14 000
19, 000
120, 000
42, 740
138, 000
.50, 000
148, 000
53 000
20 000
15-T 44C
21 000
6, 000 ;
18, 000
1
20, 600
33, 590
12 740
18, 000
14, .500
14, 335
5, COO
25, 000
30, 000
30, 300
10, 000
11, 963
12, 903
8.000
14, 000
4 424
20, 000
13,000
1
31, 674
51, 000
25, 000
6,000
40, 000
24, 000
2, 293
6.524
5,500
5.200
16, 362
64, 027
25, 000
104, 513
148, 000
40, 000
131, 000
17, 000
6,000
35, 000
17, 000
CO, 000
10, 000
65, 000
50, 000
20, 000
28, 000
57, 000
6 1, 000
32, 500
18, OOO
10, OCO
10,552
11,000
19, 000
5,500
5,200
17, OOU
10, 000
14, 526
10, 000
10, 000
7, 370
13,300
10 000
4 000
5,260
16, 330
9,405
16, 392
9,501
6,693
14, 652
20, 128
18, 178
21, 554
6,700
21 4''4
15 000
25, 000
P5 000
13, 700
3,000
40 OCO
10,900
12, 000
10, 000
10, 500
10, 500
4,000
13,000
6,200
17, 541
15 100
25,000
17, 276
21, 700
21, 588
60, 000
33, 958
71 405
«; finn
8,000
17, 000
17, 000
36, 193
10, 000
30, 206
12, 500
31, 000
35, 500
33, 175
10, 000
36,100
12, 500
16, 000
18, 123
26, 300
10, 000
1 39, 000
40 TOO
2,780
7,550
3,100
9,800
12, 500
9,800
12, 040
13, 900
£0, 705
!
49 E
770
Fublic Libraries in the United States.
Table showing the size, at different times, of American public libraries which ,
Obio Granville
Hudson
Marietta
Obeilin
PenDsylvania Allegheny City
Carlisle
Easton
Gettysburgh. ..
Gettysburgh . . .
Harleysville . . .
Hairisburgh . . .
Haverfuid
Lancaster .
Lancaster
Latrobe
Meadville
Meadville —
Philadelphia .
Philadelphia .
Philadelphia .
Philadelphia.
Philadelphia.
Philadelphia .
Philadelphia.
Philadelphia .
Philadelphia.
Philadelphia .
Philadelphia.
Philadelphia.
Philadelphia.
Philadelphia.
Philadelphia.
Pittsburgh...
Khode Island "N^ewport
Newport
Providence ..
Providence ..
South Carolina. ...Charleston...
Columbia
Columbia
Due West
Tennessee Columbia
Nashville . . . .
Nashville
Texas Galveston . ..
Tyler
yermont Burlington . . .
Miudlebury ..
Moutpelier . .
Virginia Alexandria .
Ashland
Name of library.
Denison University
"Western Reserve College
Marietta College ■
Oberlin College
Western Theological Sem'y, (Pres'n)
Dickinson College
Lafayette College
Pennsylvania College
Theological Seminary, (Lutheran)...
Cassel's, (Circulating)
State
Haverfiird College
Franklin and Marshall College \
Theological Seminar}-, (Reformed)...
St. Vincent's College
Allegheny College
Theological School
Academy of Natural Sciences
American Philosophical Society
Apprentices' Library Company
Athenaeum
Brotherhead's, (Private Circulating)
College of Physicians
Franklin Institute
German Society
Historical Society of Pennsylvania. .
Library Company and Loganian
Mercantile
Pennsylvania Hospital
Southwark
University of Pennsylvania
Wagner Free Institute
Mercantile
People's
Redwood Library and AtheniEum.. .
Athenaium
Brown University
Library Society
Theological Seminary
University of South Carolina . . •.
Erskine College
Athenseuni
State
University of Nashville
Free
Bowdon Literary Society
University of Vermont
Middlebury College
State
Theol. Sem. Prot. Episc. Church ....
Randolph Macon College
h
American
Almanac.
Edwards.
1836.
1846.
1831
3,000
1827
1,900
6,247
1835
1834
1827
4,000
6,000
1783
8,500
11,200
lc32
5,000
1832
1826
7,003
7,000
1835
1816
1833
1836
1853
\
3
1825
1846
1820
8,000
8,000
1845
1812
9,000
1743
10, 000
15, 000
1820
14, 000
1814
5,000
1861
1789
1824
1817
5 000
1824
1731
44, 000
55, 000
6,000
1763
8,000
1831
1755
2,000
5,000
1835
1847
1870
1730
5,000
1836
12, 185
1768
11, 600
20, 000
1748
15, 000
15, 000
1829
1,800
1805
10, 000
15, 000
1839
1852
1854
1785
5,700
10, 000
1871
1871
1800
8,400
9,200
1800
5,430
7,054
1825
1823
3,030
1834
Library Pieports and Statistics.
771
in 1874-75, numbered each 10,000 volumes or more — Continued.
Jewett.
^ ... American ^.
SpofFoid. i Winsor.
1
Appletou.
Cbronique.
This report.
1849.
1856.
1857-58.
1863.
1868-09.
1874.
1875.
1876.
3,000
7,634
4,950
8,451
15. 130
4,000
6,000
20, 396
4,500
9,000
10, 000
6,437
11,838
15,143
6,908
9,000
21, 138
5,000
10, 067
10, 000
8,000
15, 000
3,600
12, 400
8,100
14 000
8,603
10, 000
26, 700
10, 000
26, 000
4,000
5,000
14 000
15 OOO
15, 500
31, 000
.=5, 402
21, 100
6 373
9,000
19 550
8 500
10, 200
11 000
10, 000
10, 175
10, 000
38, 000
39,000
30, 000
30, 500
11, 450
7,000
6 000
9,500
6,000
11 50O
6,300
10 OOO
13 000
8 000
9,600
8,000
9,250
6,350
25, 000
20, 000
16, 226
13, 000
10, 500
5, 300
12, 308
12, 000
16, 595
15,000
17, 700
20, 000
21, 580
25, 600
30, OOO
50, 000 *
20, 000
11,700
15, 900
20, 000
14, 500
20, 000
21, 000
10, 000
20, 000
20, 000
35 000
4, 300
6,962
8,000
4,250
64, 900
16, 500
11,000
8,237
7,950
7,000
2,700
16, 000
7,341
16,000
1,728
16, OOO
60. 000
80, 000
25, 000
11,000
101, 000
105, 000
95, 000
104,000
12, 232
16, 400
47, 000
125, 668
10, 000
12 500
10,015
9, 250
5,100
25, 000
25, 573
15 OOO
1,188
9,100
4,225
11,250
13, 000
18, 289
13, 012
14 79»
4,000
7,052
22, 602
36, 500
20, 000
16, 800
25, 000
12, 022
26, 846
31, 000
20, 000
16, 000
28, 000
20 634
15, 204
20, 804
42, 900
21,260
30, 566
38, 000
34, 500
42, 000
34, 492
31, 600
34, 000
45, OOCV
20. 000
14, 000
15,000
18, 884
28, 250
4,754
16, 600
21, 800
18, 400
22, 000
30, 000
12 50O
3,500
5,500
3,500
13, 300
18, 159
8,000
12, 000
20, OCO
10, 000
10 OOO
9,456
10, 207
12, 250
13, 650
13, 000
8,500
12, 457
5,770
7,100
7,500
6, -OO
10, OJO
16 021
8,417
15 500
3,500
11, 165
13,883
14,600
4,995
5,300
7,000
8,000
6,0t0
10,000
772 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
Table showiiir/ the size, at different times, of American inihlic libraries which,
Name of library.
Amencaii
Almanac.
Virginia .
.Charlottesville...
Emory
Hamptlen Sidney
Lexington
Eichmond
Salem
.Madison
Madison
Milwaukee ,
University of Virginia
Emory and Henrj- College
Union Tlieological Seminary
"Washington and Lee University.
State
Eoanoke College
State
State Historical Society
Young Men's Association
Number of volumes reported at each period
Number of librai ies reported at each period
Avtrage size of libraries, in volumes, at each period.
3,200
1,500
580,201
57
10, 179
910,762
70
13, 010
Library Reports and Statistics.
in 1874-75, numlered each 10,000 volumes or more — Coucluded.
Jewett.
Triibner.
American
Almanac.
Rhees.
Spofford.
"Winsor.
Appleton.
Chronique.
This report.
1849.
1856.
1857-58.
1803.
1868-69.
1874.
1875.
1876.
18 378
21, 300
9,750
4, 650
5,200
17, 500
25, 000
8,470
4,000
0,200
30, 000
16, 507
4,413
6,700
13, 000
2,500
7,000
4,000
4,000
30, OCO
36, 000
40 000
8,030
13,580
10, 000
4 997
16 000
14 000
20, 000
30, 000
25, 000
35 000
17, 000
25, 000
28, 000
STI, 000
33, 347
1 000
10, 566
15, 000
1, 629, 315
1, 012, 147
970, 943
2, 722, 394
2, 296, 607 2, 200, 346
3, 607, 700
2,182,542
6, 984, 882
154
10, 580
66
15, 335
70
13, 870
201
13,546
96 82
23,714 26,833
71
50,812
53
41, 180
266
26, 259
774 Public Libraries in the United States.
LIBRARIES IN 1776, 1800, AND 1876.
Iq trying to show the growth of American libraries it became iieces-
-sary to fix on some date as a starting point, and for several good rea-
sons the year 1776 was chosen. The difficulty of finding out the num-
ber of public libraries and their extent at a date so far in the past was
great ; indeed it seemed insurmountable. The most patient and earnest
investigation, aided by the generous cooperation of many gentlemen
interested in the subject, has brought together the facts embodied in
the following table. It is not claimed to be perfect, but the data, gath-
ered from sources deemed reliable, may be trusted so far as they go?
and therefore deserve preservation. The same remarks apply to the
vstatistics for the year 1800, which date it seemed fit also to include.
As many of the libraries of those early periods still live and continue
to flourish, it is well that their present extent should be shown here •
where the original library is perpetuated i n an active successor, the
fact, if known, is also stated. The names of several libraries are
giveu which are known to have existed as early as the beginning of the
century, but it has so far been impracticable to obtain reliable informa.
tion as to their extent at that time. Choosing that estimates which
mi^ht be wide of the truth should not be perpetuated, the spaces for
number of volumes have in these cases been left blank, in the hope that
they may one day be properly tilled.
Librari/ Reports and Statistics.
lib
1
1 =
Centre School.
Fiirniinftton Library.
Su.spendcd.
Young Men's Institute.
Defunct.
Nearly extinct.
Wilmingtou Institute.
Institute and public library.
Library deposited willi St. John's
College in 1789.
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Deposited with the Massachusetts
Historical Societj-.
Deposited in the Boston Public Li-
braiy.
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776
Public Libraries in the United States.
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Library Reports and Statistics.
Ill
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ti^ CJ «^ o -v C! o L-: c^ ^ o
S" ""*" § ^" «" 12 '^*" '^" "^"^ '^ ^
tj o m
Four Monthly Meetings of Friends . ..
Library Company of Philadelpbia. ...
Loganian Library
Pennsylvania IIospi.tal
University of Pennsylvania
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778 Public Libraries in the United States.
GROWTH OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES BY PERIODS.
It is to be regretted that in presenting a view of the growth of Amer-
ican libraries in the last century by periods of twenty-five years each, it
is impracticable to show how many volumes were contained in all the
libraries at the end of each period. As that cannot be done, the follow-
ing tables are arranged to show, first, the number of libraries established
in each period, and, second, the number of volumes contained in 1875 in
all the libraries formed in each period.
It should be observed that, owing to the failure of many libraries to
report the date when they were formed, the sum of all the libraries on
the following tables is not equal to the whole number of libraries (3,082)
from which reports were received in 1875; and of course the same is
true of the number of volumes reported. This manner of stating it in-
troduces one other slight element of uncertainty that cannot be avoided.
The few public libraries which have become extinct get no credit for
the number of volumes they contained. It is conjectured, from the
known fiicts respecting the wonderful increase of public libraries in the
United States within the last quarter of a century, that the larger num-
ber, if not all, of the libraries which did not return the date of their
organization should be assigned to that period ; but it has been thought
best, for the sake of accuracy, to omit them from the tables altogether.
Notwithstanding these imperfections, however, the tables will be
found an interesting study, and will convince any one Df the remarkable
strides America has made in the last twenty-five years in developing
this means of general culture.
It appears that between 1775 and 1800 there were established 30
libraries, which now number in all 212,171 volumes; between 1800 and
1825 there were formed 179 libraries, now numbering altogether 2,056,113
volumes ; between 1825 and 1850 there were founded 551 libraries, now
containing an aggregate of 2,807,218 volumes; and between 1850 and
1875 there were instituted 2,240 libraries, which now number a total of
5,481,008 volumes.
It is believed that no further sumraarv of these tables is needed.
Library Reimrts and Statistics.
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Public Libraries in the United States.
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781
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: : ^ : : : : : =^ : ; : - ' "
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'82
Public Libraries in the United States.
6
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43, 410
21, 832
69, 910
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Library Reports and Statistics.
783
ils
18
iliiiisi ;|
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13, 500
95, OOO
40, 000
30, 500
4,045
35, 000
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407
14,317
3,300
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1, li9
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7,750
1,250
5,000
1^"
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784
Piihlic Libraries in the United States.
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Library Beports and Statistics.
785
o o o
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ira" cT cc" -T c"
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786
Piihlic Libraries in the United States.
o c o
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Lihrarij Beports and Statistics.
787
;? 3 2 g ? 2 i:
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Texas
Vorinont
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^
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788
Fublic Libraries in the United States.
. I
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§ § s
c) — r- —
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Library Reports and Statistics.
789
45, 903
70, 290
?f
7,384
30, 094
2,200
10, 000
2J, 900
4,500
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5,000
20, 009
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37,018
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550
3, 100
9, 300
13, 400
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2, 900
6,400
134,910
4, 900
48, :i59
5,500
38, 068
8,000
12, 636
11,100
2, 394
H, 000
500
4,5^0
23, 000
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790
Public Libraries in the United States.
1
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Llhrat'ij Reports and Statistics.
791
550
27, 200
10, 100
92, 950
no ncn
t-
1 t
^
i
21,982
97, 934
49, HOC
10, 853
49, 344
54, 780
0, 959
23, 475
80, 087
4, 480
>r:
1
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980
4, 780
30, 450
7,094
42, 400
3,000
500
400
5, 850
400
s j
: I Id ^ :« :^ :«c-^ ; ;«« ; : . ;
x 1
384
300
2, 323
392
37,921
700
11,044
21,318
4,017
900
300
2,011
'i. '
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i^^r,^ i;;:-- :g!=^ i<^' : i :- i i" i
z
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34,017
0,571
20, 504
0,070
800
4,500
3, 000
570
o
1 i : i;^ :S :2 ;2J"'"" : i i"" : '^ : :
1 1 : 1 1 : : i '« i i : i
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5,750
5,400
22, 009
27, 958
110,890
2, 500
31,013
9, 035
102,958
8,070
22, 505
15,517
1,100
13, 404
11,410
5,000
24, 557
1,475
li
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792 Public Libraries in the United States.
LIBRARIES GRADED ACCORDING TO NUMBER OF VOLUMES.
The followiog table, compiled from the general table at the end of
this volume, shows by States, in sixteen classes, the number of public
libraries iu the United States^ numbering 500 volumes or more, ar-
ranged according to the number of volumes in each. There are 2,958
such libraries, with an aggregate of 12,039,724 volumes. Besides these,
there are 724 libraries, mainly formed within a very recent period,
numbering from 300 to 500 volumes each, and containing altogether
237,240 volumes.
It may be remarked in explanation of a slight ditference in respect to
the number of libraries each of which numbers 10,000 volumes or more,
between the following table and the comparative table in an earlier part
of this chapter, that while iu the following table the libraries of stu-
dents' societies in colleges are kept distinct from the college libraries
proper, in the former they were necessarily combined with the college
libraries for the purpose of uniformity in comparison. For this reason,
the number of libraries of the class named is slightly larger in the
former table.
Library Reports and Statistics.
795
•H r- -r o
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^M3f4M,:5ssasasas
794
PuhUc Lihraries in the United States.
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Library Beports and Statistics.
795
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Public Libraries in the United States.
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Library Beports and Statistics. 797
CLASSIFIED TABLE OP PUBLIC I,IBRARi:pS.
The classification adopted in the following table, though not in all
respects satisfactory, is the best that much study has suggested, lie-
specting some of the classes, a few words of explanation are necessary.
Academy and school libraries. — This class comprises those of all
schools — except colleges and professional schools — including seminaries
and institutes for the higher education of women, business colleges,
normal schools, academies, and high schools, but not of common or dis-
trict schools, save in a few instances, which do not materially modify
the figures.
Society libraries. — This class includes only the libraries belonging to
students' societies in colleges.
Scientific. — In this class are grouped the libraries of schools of science,
including colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts, and of scientific
societies.
Public. — Juto this class are brought all libraries open to the public
without charge or for a nominal fee only.
Social libraries.— These include athenseuras, young men's associations
and institutes, and subscription libraries generally.
Asylums and reformatories. — The libraries of this class comprise those
of all asylums, hospitals, workhouses, reform schools, and prisons.
Miscellaneous. — There are many libraries so individual in character
that it has seemed impracticable to assign them properly to any one of
sixteen classes, and they are, therefore, reluctantly classed as miscel-
laneous, though it must not be understood that this term always applies
to the contents of the collections. The number under this head might
have been considerably reduced by forming another class, including the
libraries of secret and benevolent societies and associations; but these
latter are so numerous and libraries so generally distributed among
them that it was thought such a classification would be little, if any,
more satisfactory and definite than the .one adopted.
For convenience the table is arranged by States as well as classes,
and includes all libraries numbering 300 volumes and upward. It ac-
counts for 3,682 libraries of all classes, which number in the aggregate
12,276,964 volumes, an average of about 3,334 volumes for each library.
Of the whole number of libraries included in the table, 742 of the circulat-
ing libraries in 1874-75 reported the average number of volumes yearly
taken out by readers, giving an aggregate of 8,879,869 volumes, nearly
12,000 volumes each.
As this table is itself a summary, no further explanation regarding it
seems necessary. The aim has been to insert no item that is not signifi-
cant, and, on the other hand, to omit none essential to the reader who
desires to ascertain the number, kind, and extent of our public libraries.
798
Public Libraries in the United States.
o o o
121 =
« in r^ -^ to
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8 ? § S 8
lo o o to in
m -v tS o' «"
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Lihranj Reports and Statistics.
99
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if S
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800
Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
TO C! X -T|
(it O O CN
n yS '■£ ci
§ :;
O rt — T »
-- — CI -o ts o 1- ..-: ■--: o rr ^-^ — =
rT ,-r c" o" o" o" t' if -c i?r oT of =r
(M .-I oi ^ St n a> ct o)
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Library Reports and Statistics.
801
550
27, 260
16, 100
203, 663
280, 931
5, 985
2, 131, 377
118,707
634, 939
28, 942
1,291,665
i
i
2"
136, 695
61,841
10, 853
134,298
24-', 1.56
6, 959
38, 975
183, 277
1
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51 E
802 Public Libraries in the United States.
LIBRARY FUNDS.
The followino- table is presented with reluctance. Stated brieiiy, 358
libraries report permanent funds, amounting to $G,10."),581 in the aggre-
gate; 1,364 report that they have no pertnanent lunds; and 1,960, con-
siderably more than one-half, do not report either way. The incomplete-
ness of the statement detracts greatly from its value and renders it
unsatisfactory 5 though, having been prei)ared from special returns and
from such printed reports as could be consulted with a feeling of con-
fidence, it may be relied on as substantially correct, so far as it goes.
It should be remarked that the value of lands and buildings, unless
yielding a revenue, is not included in the following statement.
If one chose he might with some reason conjecture, taking the follow-
ing table as a basis, that the permanent funds of American public libra-
ries aggregate about $12,000,000; he might be nearly correct, and it is
possible that he would be millions wide of the mark.
The truth is that in the present state of library reports there is hardly
a more difficult and thankless task than to undertake to prei)are an ac-
ceptable statement of the finances of public libraries. The i)rinted
reports of some afford clear and intelligii)le statements of their funds,
income, and expenditures; others may, perhaps, be comprehended by
their makers; while others can hardly be intelligible to anyone.
The above criticism is true in a less degree of the latest reports than
in respect to those of former years, and a reasonable liope is cherished
that the improvement will continue in future in a greater ratio than it
has been manifested in the past; for it must be remembered that an
immense multiplication of i)ublic libraries has taken place within a few
years, calling to the desk of the librarian many hundreds necessarily
unskilled in their duties, and it is ])erhaps to be wondered that so much
has been done so well, rather than that much has been ill done or entirely
neglected. As they gain experience librarians will, doubtless, realize
more fully the importance to themsehes and their libraries of keeping
more complete statistics.
Library Reports and Statistics.
803
1
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1
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805
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806
Public Libraries in the United States.
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Florida
Georgia
Idaho
yii
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Library Beports and Statistics.
807
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Public Libraries in the United States.
1
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Library Reports and Statistics.
809
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810 Public Libraries in the United States.
CLASSIFIED STATISTICS OF SIXTY-TWO LIBRARIES.
The following- table shows the number of volumes, the yearly circu-
lation, the yearly additions, the amount of permanent fund, the total
yearly income, the yearly expenditures for books, periodicals, and bind-
ing, and the yearly expenditures for salaries and incidentals of C2 libra-
ries, with the unavoidable exceptions arising from incomplete returns.
Ko report of the yearly use hy readers was made by 11 reference and 2
circulating libraries, which contain altogether 514,592 volumes.
The 62 libraries number in the aggregate 2,095,700 volumes. Tlie 49
libraries reporting the yearly circulation contain altogether 2,181,168
volumes, and there were taken out by readers in the year, 4,455,514
volumes, or more than 200 per cent. To GO libraries, numbering in the
aggregate 2,670,700 volumes, there were added in the year 154,924 vol-
umes, or nearly 6 per cent., while two of the libraries do not report the
increase, if any. Permanent funds are reported by 43 libraries, and
amount in the aggregate 'to $2,378,655; of the remaining libraries 15
report no permanent fund and four furnish no rei)ort. The total yearly
income reported by 61, from all sources, is $799,256; while one, though
not stating whether it has any income or not, evidently receives funds
from some source, having expended $4,278 within the year. The yearly
outlay for books, periodicals, and binding was reported by 56 libraries,
and amounted to a total of $278,318; of the six which did not report
this item, two had been established but little more than a year. The
aggregate amount paid on account of salaries and incidental expenses
by 58 libraries was $467,555; from four no report was received.
Library Reports and Statistics.
811
1
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a
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-loni puB sauBiBS
^9, 546
9,000
5, 400
1,000
5, 200
29, 340
2,000
31, 057
50
1,500
5,844
2,600
21, 994
1,200
3, 000
6,336
119, 800
1,466
2,700
2,545
15, 640
•Saipaiq pnB
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$4, 707
6,500
1,660
300
5,500
15, 000
5,000
32, 317
480
8,880
2,300
10, 669
1,000
400
412
21, 500
3.079
2,300
2, 522
?
113, 879
29, 000
4,800
1,000
14,0i0
15, 000
7,500
63, 616
600
2,500
15, 420
3,160
43,413
2,250
3,400
15, 000
6,758
141,300
4,500
5, 000
6,700
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III
10, 000
20, 000
257, 000
45, 000
250, 000
1,200
8,000
150, 000
12, 500
105, 000
10, 000
166, 775
1
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Vols.
1,8C0
3,000
1,000
100
1,700
15, 400
(iOO
11,331
275
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Vols.
80, 000
65, 940
30, 000
700
68, 000
5 »■ J
Ji ; i J
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24. 108
41,563
24, 000
10, 000
20, 000
300, 000
7,000
48, 100
15,000
15, 000
57, 458
34, 000
10.5, (,00
25, 000
12, 000
23, 000
21, 500
259, 869
13,000
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812
Public Libraries in the United States.
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813
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814 Public Libraries in the United States.
BENEFACTIONS TO PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
It was designed to present a tabular view of the betiet'actions to
public libraries, and strenuous efforts hav^e been made to gather the
necessary data tor that purpose; but as it is found impracticable on
account of its incompleteness to classify and tabulate proi)erly the
information received respecting the numerous gifts, it has been decided
to substitute ilie following summary, showing, by States, the amount of
the several benefactions, including gifts of money, land, and buildings,
prepared from the special returns received, and from such printed
reports as were found available for the purpose:
California, $l,02J,00l); Connecticut, $773,607; Delaware, $17,600;
District of Columbia, $25,000; Georgia, $63,500; Illinois, $2,614,050;
Indiana, $150,000; Iowa, $13,850 ; Kansas, $500; Louisiana, $15,000;
Maine, $135,950; Maryland, $1,426,500; Massachusetts, $2,903,406;
Minnesota, $15,300; Missouri, $194,637 ; Nebraska, $1,100; New Hamp-
shire, $58,379; New Jersey, $416,750; New York, $2,942,272; Ohio,
$197,500; Oregon, $250; Pennsylvania, $1,448,473; Rhode Island,
$294,781; South Carolina, $35,000; Tennessee, $450; Texas, $18,000;
Vermont, $74,308; Virginia, $26,000; Wisconsin, $6,500; total for the
United States, $14,920,657.
Information, much of which is doubtless reliable, though not in proper
form for use, respecting many gifts not included above, and the fact
that in a majority of instances where lands or buildings have been
given they have simply been so reported, unaccompanied by estimates
of their value, lead to the belief that it is not unsafe to estimate that
he sum above reported does not represent more than about one-half
the amount received by the public libraries of the United States from
the benefactions of individuals, or that the real amount is nearer
$30,000,000 than $15,000,000. And this does not include the books
contributed from time to time, the number of which, in the presentstate
of library statistics, it is simply useless to attempt to ascertain or
estimate. Comparatively few libraries have the time to make an
accurate return of such gifts covering the whole lifetime of their libra-
ries, and many are debarred from doing so by imperfection or loss of
records.
It is fairly estimated that, of the gifts of money, land, and buildings
above recorded, at least five-sixths have been received within the last
thirty-five years.
It must be remembered that the above figures rigorously exclude all
grants or other Government, State, or municipal aid, and include only
private benefactions.
LOSS AND WEAR OF BOOKS. IN CIRCULATION.
The following table has been prepared to show the losses sustained by
public libraries through the negligence, dishonesty, or other default of
Llhrary Bcports and Statistics. 815
borrowers, and througb tbe ordinary wear of books in circulation. The
statistics of twenty three libraries for different ])eriods varying from one
to eighteen years are presented. These libraries are conducted in the
most liberal spirit as regards affording facilities to borrowers ; manj^ of
them are free to all the inhabitants of the towns and cities in which they
are situated ; some of them are in small towns, others in large cities;
they reach all classes of population in city and country ; of all trades and
occupations, and all grades of culture and refinement.
The table shows that out of a total circulation of 0,475,346 volumes)
3,068 were lost through borrowers, and 9,089 were worn out, being a
total loss of 32,157 voUunes, or less than two-tenths of one per cent,, a
considerably smaller percentage than the loss of a like amount of paper
currency in circulation daring the same period. And it appears that
nearly three times as many books wear out in honorable service as are
lost through carelessness and dishonesty.
This seems to prove three things; first, that the borrowers from
American public libraries are decently honest ; second, that they appre-
ciate and treat, as they deserve, the books they read ; third, that the
administration of these twenty-thiee public libraries, at least, is effi-
cient and vigilant.
These things being true, it ai)pears that the managers of all public
libraries need not hesitate to open wide their doors and bid the public
enter. Fidelity to their trust does not require that the way of tbe reader
should be hedged about by illiberal restraints and requirements, but
is consistent with his most liberal treatment.
816
Public Libraries in the United States.
Loss and wear of books in circulation of tiientij-tliree libraries.
California
Connecticut
Delaware
Massachusetts -
Missouri .
Xew York
Ohio
Pennsylvania
San Francisco
Waterbury . . .
."Wilmington ..
Andover
Boston
Biookliue
Danvers
Fitchburg
Lawrence ...
Lynn
Xewbnryport
>'ewton
Nortliborongh
Pea body
Readinj;
Taunton
St. Louis
Albany
Buttalo
Xew York . . .
Cincinnati
Toledo
Il-ading
Xame of library.
Odd Fellows' Library Association
Silas Bronson Library
Wilmington Institute
Memorial Hall Library
Public Library
Public Library
Peabody Library
Town Library
Free Public Library
Free Public Library
Public Library
Free Library
Frei- Library
Peabody Institute
Public Library
Public Library
Mercantile Library
Young Men's Association
Young Men's Association
Appicniices' Library
Mercantile Library
Public Lil)rary
Public Library
219, 998
257, 737
53, 947
21,300
,600,283
419, 006
80, 018
167, 105
126, 463
334, 497
285, 278
238, (120
27,416
30,000
55,645 I
276, 700 i
2^3,098 j
35, 000 I
2!8,2i2 '
,651,690
56,256 I
63, 600 1
32,057 ;
3,431
228
105
40
54
511
146
4
1
260
78
85 275
153
18 1 377
, 662 2, 424
4 ; 34
4 41
7 31
6,475,346 3,008 9,
....
146
4
1
141
...
13
CLASSIFIED STATISTICS OF CIRCULATION.
There is a widespread desire to know the value of public^libraries as
expressed by the relative extent to which particular departments of lit-
erature are used by readers. "In what proportion are different kinds
of books taken from the libraries and read?" This question is the one
oftenest asked in one form or another, and the most correct answer that
can be given is, "No one knows." After statement of several of the
reasons why no general answer can be given, the results of certain in-
vestigations will be i)resented.
If all libraries contained only books on science, or history, or if all the
books were novels, the problem would be considerablj' simplified, as
also if only two or three well defined departments of literature existed,
for readers would be bound by a sort of " Hobson's choice ;" and it may
Librari/ Reports and Statistics. 817
be noted as particularly true now that readers often take what they can
get instead of what they would best like.
It is rare to find two libraries, unless they were arranged by the same
person, that present the same classification of books. Diversity of classi -
fication, arising usually from considerations of convenience, doubtless
well enough in itself, is fatal to any attempt at combining statistics
so that they will show truly the percentage of different kinds of books
read. The remoter question of the assignment of books to classes —
for what one librarian classes as Science, another may class as Theol-
ogy, and what he calls Science a third may call Philosophy — need not
be discussed here. There are difficulties enough in the case already.
The following classification has been adopted for the purpose of keep-
ing statistics of circulation in the Chicago Public Library, viz : History
and biography; voyages and travels; science and art; poetry and
drama; German, French, and Scandinavian literature; English prose
fiction and juveniles ; miscellaneous — seven in all.
The same classification was adopted for the Cincinnati Public
.Library.
The Mercantile Library of San Francisco is divided into 14 classes, viz :
Romance; juvenile; travels; biography; belles-lettres; science; history;
poetry; miscellaneous; Spanish; French; German; religion; periodicals.
The Mercantile Library of Baltimore enumerates 16 classes, viz : Art
and architecture; arts and sciences; biography; drama; essays; history;
medicine; natural history; philology; philosophy; poetry; politics; poly-
graphs; prose fiction ; theology; voyages and travels.
The Mercantile Library of New York is divided into 10 classes, viz :
Arts; biography; history, geography and travels; literature; mathe-
matics; medical sciences ; mental and moral science; natural sciences j
political science ; theology.
The classification of the popular department of the Boston Public
(Central) Library, for the purpose of keeping statistics of use, is as follows :
Sciences, arts, professions; American history and politics; foreign history
and politics ; poetry, drama, rhetoric, miscellaneous essays, etc. ; prose
fiction for adults; prose fiction for youths; biography; travels, voyages,
etc. ; collections, periodicals, etc. ; French, German, and Italian books —
ten in all.
The Indianapolis, Ind., Public Library has adopted the following class-
ification: Fiction ; German and French ; poetry and drama; science and
arts ; voyages and travel ; history and biography ; miscellaneous.
Sufficient examples have been given to show the hopelessness of any
effort to reconcile the statistics of circulation of different public libraries
unless greater uniformity of classification is found practicable by libra-
rians.
It may be remarked that so far as the classification is reported by the
smaller public libraries, equal differences appear. The same is true
of British Free Libraries, the reports of many of which have been exam-
ined.
12 E
818 Public Libraries in the United States.
But suppose that all the difficulties of classiflcatiouliad been overcome;
that all librarians had agreed to divide literature into the same classes,
and that substantial uniformity of assignment to the ditferent classes
had been secured. There is still another difficulty, by no means insig-
nificant, in the way of finding out what and how much jDeople read.
The volume has thus far been always used as the basis of library sta-
tistics— a library owns so many volumes, it circulates so many volumes.
iN'ow, the number of volumes of books read is no more a true and
definite criterion of the actual amount of reading in any department
of literature than is the number of potatoes of all sizes in a barrel the
measure of its weight. Popular books, those most read, appear oftenest
in new editions. The more popular an author, tho, more likely that one
may obtain his works, or auj' separate work, in about as many volumes
as one chooses. One library will have, say two editions, one in one
volume, the other in six volumes; a larger library may have a half
dozen editions of the same author, each comprising a different number
of volumes. For instance, there are at least 23 editions of Scott's novels
in the American niarket, in different styles, comprising 1, 4, G, 10, 12, 23,
25, 20, 48, and 50 volumes, respectively. Cooper's Leather-Stocking
Tales or his Sea Tales may be had in one or five volumes. Xine different
editions of Bulwer aftord choice of his complete works in 1, 22, 23, 24,
43, or 40 volumes. Dickens's works may be found in 0, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15,
17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 28, 29, 30, 34, 35, 55, 50, or 92 volumes. The Boston
Athenseum has Dickens's American Notes in 1 and 2 volumes, respect-
ively ; Bleak House in 1 and 4 ; David Copperfield in 1 and 3, etc. In
the Boston Public Library the reader will find Dickens's works in 53
volumes; he may get a copy of David Copperfield in 1 volume, or 2, or
4, as he chooses, and so on. When it is remembered that from 70 to 80
per cent, of all the books taken from public libraries comprise works of
fiction, it must be admitted that this matter of different editions consist-
ing of different numbers of volumes presents a practical difficulty of con-
siderable moment.
The fifteenth annual report of the Boston Public Library contains some
interesting statistics of the circulation in that year, prepared by Mr.
Winsor, then chairman of the examining committee. Speaking of the
relative popularity of different authors as exhibited by the returns, Mr.
Winsor said :
Of course, tbis returu must be taken cautiously, as showing tlie relative popularity
of the several authors. To be accurate, it should be certain that the library is supplied
•with copies of each relative to the demand ; and regard must also be had to the fact
whether an author's works are in one or two volumes, since the returu is by volumes
and not by books.
In many libraries the force supplied is only sufficient to attend to the
ordinary details of administration, though by the application of some
such ingenious device as that used by Mr. Poole in the Chicago Public
Library, the work of keeping the statistics of circulation woiTld consume
Lihrary Bcports and Statistics. 819
but little time. lu a letter on the subject of libiaiy statistics, Mr. Poole
writes :
What is needed is some uniforiu method of keeping statistics of circulation. I keep
seven items: 1. History and biographj^; 2. Voyages and travels; 3. Science and art;
4. Poetry and drama; 5. German, French, and Scandinavian literature; 6. English
prose fiction and juveniles ; 7. Miscellaneous. I have a box with seven compartments,
and, as a book goes out, a pea is dropped by the attendant into one of the compartments.
These peas are counted at night and recorded. If this or some other system could be
generally adopted, we could have some nuiform statistics of libraries. Cannot some
uniform system be initiated ? It must be very simple and the classes few, otherwise it
will not be adopted.
It may be remarked that though the classihcatiou of books as German
or French, etc., seems natural enough, and the statistics of use of such
books are interesting, they are not congruous with statistics whicli
divide literature into departments; e.g., to say only that 1,000 French
books have been circulated leaves the fact as to what proportion of
history, biography, etc., they comprise, unknown.
The following statistics are presented with much hesitation and must
be received with great caution.
The classification adopted in the first table is not regarded as a
model, and it is hoped that by comparison of views librarians will be
able to agree on one much better. In several instances the statement
has been made up from published reports of the libraries, and related
classes have been combined in order to preserve uniformity. It is
believed that the average percentage of fiction read is rather under-
stated than placed too high.
820
Piiblic Libraries in the United States.
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Lihranj Reports and Statistics.
821
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822 Public Libraries in the United States.
An exaaiination of tbe statistics referred to in the third note to the
foregoing table affords the following results, the figures being percent-
ages :
East Boston Branch: 1873, 1874. 1875
Prose fiction and juveniles 82 79 80.5
History 2 24- 2-h
Biography 1 l-f- ] -f-
Travels, voyages 3 3— 2-{-
Sonth Boston Branch :
Fiction and juveniles 78 78+ 78-1-
American history and biography 2-{- 2-\- 2-\-
Foreigu history and biography 2 2-|- 2-j-
Travels, voyages 3+ 3-f 3-(-
Eoxbury Branch :
Prose fiction and juveniles SO-f 8o-j-
History 1+ l-j-
Biography 2-f- 2
Travels 4-1- 3-)-
Brighton Branch, 1874-75 :
Fiction, 84 , biography, travel, and history, 7 ; others, 9.
Dorchester Branch, 1874-75 :
Fiction and juveniles, 83 -|-; history, 2-|-; biography, 2-\-; travels, 3-}-.
It is proper that reference should be made to the changes brought
about in the character of the circulation of the Boston Public Library
by means of the quarterly bulletins and the admirable class catalogues
prepared for readers bj' ]Mr. Winsor, particularly the Class-list of His-
tory, Biography, and Travel. The influence of the last named is thus
adverted to in the annual report of the library for the year 1874:
In August last, the long delayed consolidated Class-list of Books in History, Biog-
raphy and Travel, in the Lower Hall, was ready for the public. The new features in
popular cataloguing which it presented soon produced the results which were hoped
for. The notes appended to the principal cross references, and intended to assist read-
ers in the choice of books, had a very marked effect upon the character of the circula-
tion in the Lower Hall. As these notes were also intended to bring more prominently
before the class of readers which frequents that department the resources of the higher
classification of the Bates Hall, a considerable share of the increase of use of that hall
must be ascribed to the infiuence of these notes, though from statistics it is not easy to
indicate the proportions. In the Lower Hall, however, the figures of the circulation
can be brought to a demonstration. Although but eight months of the year are cov-
ered by its ett'ects, the returns of the entire year show an increase over last year of books
used in those departments of 75 per cent., while the additional uss of fiction is less than
3 per cent.
It has also resulted in reducing the percentage of fiction issued in the popular de-
partment (Lower Hall) of the Central Library to less than 72 per cent, of the entire
issues of that collection, which is several hundredths below the average maintained in
the past or ordinarily found in free public libraries. Taking the entire reading of the
Central Librarj^ the use of fiction is probably not far from 55 per cent, of the whole
issues.
In the report for 1875, the superiutendent, referring to the influence
of the bulletins and of the Class-list of History, Biography, and Travel,
remarks :
For the first four months tlie increase of use of the books in these classes over the
corresponding period of the previous year was about 16) per cent.; and not more than
Library Reports and Statistics.
823
2 or 3 pel- ceut. of this cau ba attributed to tlie increased circulation of that depart-
ment. For the next eight mouths of the year, that is, from September, 1874, to April,
1875, the relative effect was diminished, because the same catalogue was iu use the
previous year in corresponding months. With this disadvantage, the accumulative
gain in inciting readers to a better choice of books is shown by an inci'ease of 23 per
cent, in these classes of books, of which not more than 6 or 7 per cent, is due to the
general increase of reading. . . . The use of fiction and juveniles has been
reduced during the year in an unprecedented manner. Having been as high as 78 per
cent., it is now reduced to 69, and the gain has been entirely in the department of
history, biography, and travel.
The following, from the superintendent's monthly report for April,
1S7G, shows by months the gain in the use of books in the classes of
history, biography, and travel, resulting from the use of the class cata-
logue, and suggests to librarians a practical means of lessening the
demands of readers on the department of fictioji and increasing their
requisitions on what may be termed more useful classes of reading :
The relative increase by mouths of the whole circulation [reckoning by books for
home use returned] of the Lower Hall, and that of those alcoves in it devoted to his-
tory, biography, and travel, oyer the circulation of corresponding months last year, as
shown iu the following table, indicates the results of etforts to induce borrowtsrs to
read less fiction and more of other books, by giving them assistance in the choice of
books through the catalogue notes printed iu the new Catalogue for Books in the Classes
of History, Biography, and Travel :
Inf.rease in per cent.
1-5 >^
Of entii'e Lower Hall issues SI 7, Gl 9
Of those iu history, etc 73 100 lir, 183
Of entire Lower Hall issues I 4i B \ S 9
Of those in history, etc... I a-li 30 ! 16 31
Of entire Lower Hall issues I 25 j 22 j 30 37
Of those in history, etc 20 19 | 3n 50
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The Lower Hall Catalogue for History, Biography, and Travel, above referred to,
was issued iu the middle of August, 1873, so that the increase of uss of books iu those
departments since August, 1874, shows the gain by continued use, and not, as bef)re,
the gain over corresponding months when it was not iu use.
LIBRARY OF THE DEPART-AIENT OF THE INTERIOR.
The following tables, kindly furnished by lldv. J. G. Ames, librarian,
exhibit the quarterly circulation of the Library of the Interior Depart
ment for the year ending March 31, 1S7G. This library is free to all
employes of the Department, and the statistics of its use are of specia'.
interest as showing the kinds of books chosen by a particular class of
persons, namely, the clerks of the Department. It appears that llction
holds its relative place in circulation here as compared with other pub^
lie libraries; about 7G per cent, of the books taken out being of that
class.
Th-ese statistics have been prepared with great care, and are believed
to be correct.
'824
PuUk Libraries in the United States.
i
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Handy Andy.
Wluttier's Poems.
Fairy Tales.
Scintillations from Heine.
Beatrice.
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PuUic Libraries in the United States.
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€i28 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
SOME ANALYSES OF LIBRARY REPORTS.
Most people have a superstitious reg'ard for statements expressed by
€ombiuatious of Arabic numerals, and accept them with au unfaltering
faith; the array of imposing columns is rarely challenged, and still less
■often disturbed. Blank spaces in such columns, however, mar their sym-
metry and evoke criticism. One ingenious statistician recognizing this
fact, and himself disliking the appearance of these spaces, contrived,
it is said, to fill them, and probably few who read, and none who quote,
his figures, know the extent to which his ingenuity was exercised.
The making of a statistical table could not have been particularly dififl-
cult for him, but to one who appreciates the wide difference between
a reported fact and an estimate of what a fact might be, if reported —
in other words, the distinction between true and false statistics — the
task is anything but easy.
A notice of Ehees's Manual of Public Libraries, etc., published in 1861,
contains the following:
The information it embodies, though very valuable and full as regards many libra-
Ties, is very incomplete, as may be seen from the fact that, while it gives the names of
2,902 libraries of all sizes, it records the number of volumes in only 1,333 of them,
leaving the large proportion of 1,564 unreported. The failure to respond to circulars
of inquiry vras the cause of this deficiency.
Mr. Rhees labored under great difficulties, as ev^ery one must who
undertakes to explore a new field and gather statistics about anything ;
the difficulties had rather increased than diminished, when, in 1870,
the Bureau of Education began to publish reports of public libraries.
Rhees was able to get returns of the number of volumes from only 40
per cent, of the libraries then known to exist; in 1871 the Bureau of
Education published the number of volumes in nearly 97 per cent, of
the libraries that made reports, indicating a great increase of interest on
the part of librarians.
In 1871 a circular embracing 13 questions was sent to all known
public libraries, and answers were received from 180. A brief state-
ment of the results obtained with this small number of inquiries will
indicate in a general way the difficulties attending any' effort to present
satisfactory library statistics. The questions related only to the ordi-
nary affairs of a library, and it would seem that all of them might have
been easily answered by each of the libraries reporciug. Of the ISO
libraries, however, only three answered all the questions of the circular.
The result maybe summed as follows: Total number of questions asked,
2,310; number of the questions answered, 1,654; number of questions
not answered, 686; percentage of questions answered, 70.6; percentage
of the questions not answered, 29.4. The main difficulty is, then, not
in any disinclination on the part of librarians to furnish some sort of
statistics of their libraries, but rather in the quite general neglect or
inability to keep statistics which might enable them to give distinct in-
formation on some of the most important questions of library economy.
As, however, but a small part of our libraries furnished statistics for
Lihnuij Reports and Statistics. 829
publicrttiou in 1871, a fiutlier effort was made ia 1872 to collect the
statistics of public libraries. A schedule of questions was prepared, after
consultation with experienced librarians. This schedule embraced 71
questions — a larger number than any one library, perhaps, could be ex-
pected to answer — the evident design being to bring together in one
form the main questions applicable to the aff"airs of libraries belonging
to different classes and differing in management and purpose. Three
hundVed and six libraries responded more or less fully to this series of
questions. An analysis of the returns was carefully prepared, the .libra-
ries being, for the sake of convenience, divided into fourteen general
classes. Tlie whole number of questions to each class was, respectively,
as follows : To free public libraries, 5,112, of which 3,470 were answered ;
but as only 4,752 appeared to be applicable to that class, nearly 93 per
cent, of these were answered ; in the second class there were 6,235 ques-
tions, 5,865 of which are regarded as applicable, and of these 4,177, or
about 67 percent,, were answered ; of the third class there were 22 libra-
ries, the number of questions therefor being 1,562, of which 1,472 were
considered pertinent, and of these about 70 per cent, were answered ;
there were 29 libraries in the fourth class, and replies were received to
about 57 per cent, of the questions considered applicable ; in class five
were 5 libraries, the whole number of questions being 355, and 300 of
them applicable, of which number 232, or more than 77 per cent., were
answered; there were 15 of the sixth class; the whole number of ques-
tions therefor was 1,065, and of these 870 are supposed to apply to that
class, which forms a percentage of about 81 ; in the seventh class, mak-
ing but 5 libraries, 305 questions were considered to apply, and of these
a little more than 95 per cent, were answered ; in the eighth class were
3 libraries, which it was thought should have replied to 177 of the que-
ries, when in fact they replied to only a little more than 81 per cent. ;
of the whole number of questions considered to apply to the ninth class
792 were answered, or about 53 per cent. ; of 12 libraries belonging to
historical societies, (class ten,) 852 questions were asked, 792 of which
were thought to be pertinent, and of these about 53 i^er cent, were
answered ; of the libraries of class eleven 69 per cent, answered the
questions considered to be applicable; of the twelfth class 81 per cent,
replied to what were deemed the questions pertinent to that class ; of
the thirteenth class 60 per cent, answered. Besides these there were
7 libraries that could not be classified, and for the sake of accuracy it is
not thought best to present any analysis of them.
The following, selected from the elaborate analysis furnished by an
accomplished statistician, will show further results and illustrate the
nature of the work. It may be said that the whole number of questions
subjected to analysis was 32,206, and the i^roportion of omissions does
not vary materially from those presented below :
Question 3. — When was the library founclecl ?
This question is applicable to all public libraries. Of the 305 libraries reporting,
23, or about 7.5 per cent., failed to furnish this information.
830 Public Libraries in the United States.
Qnestion 6. — Amount of permanent fund ?
Of the 306 libraries reporting, 77, or 25.2 per cent., failed to answer this question ; 229,
or 74.8 per cent., having answered. Of the 229 libraries answering this question, 102,
or 44.5 per cent., had each a permanent fund, and 127, or 55.5 per cent., had no perma-
nent fund.
The aggregate amount of permanent fund of those answering was $2, 647,737, mak-
ing the average to each of the libraries answering this question $11,562 ; and the average
to each of the 102 libraries having a fund, $25,958.
Question 7. — Amount of annual income ?
Of the 306 libraries reporting, 93, or 30.4 per cent., failed to answer this question ; 213,
or 69.() per cent., answered. Of the 213 libraries answering, 89, or 41.8 per cent., replied
affirmatively, and 124, or 58.2 per cent., replied negatively.
The aggregate amount of income of those answering was §213,671, making the average
to each of the 213 libraries answering this question $1,003, and the average to each of
the 89 libraries answering affirmatively, $2,401.
Question 9.— Does the library receive State or municipal appropriations ?
Of the 306 libraries reporting, 105, or 34.3 per cent., failed to answer this question ;
201, or 65.7 per cent., answered. Of the 201 libraries answering, 72 replied affirma-
tively, and 129 negatively.
Question 10. — Amount received from donations ?
Of the 306 libraries reporting, 140, or 45| per cent., failed to answer this question ;
166, or 54i per cent., answered. Of the 166 libraries answering, 48, or 29 per cent., had
received donations; 118, or 71 per cent., had not. The aggregate amount of donations
reported was $46,869.
Question 11. — Number of volumes in library?
No library failed to answer this question ; and the aggregate number of volumes re-
ported by the 306 libraries was 3,998,663, making an average for each of 13,063 volumes.
Question 12. — Number of pamphlets in library ?
Of the 306 libraries reporting, 116, or 37.9 per cent., failed to answer this question ;
190, or 62.1 per cent., having answered. Of the 190 libraries answering this question,
143, or 75.26 per cent., had pamphlets, and 47, or 24.74 per cent., had no pamphlets.
The aggregate number of pamphlets in libraries of those answering was 907,9-52,
making the average to each of the 190 libraries answering this question, 4,763, and the
average to each of the 47 libraries having pamphlets, 6,353.
Question 18. — Increase of books in year by purchase ?
Of the 306 libraries reporting, 133, or about 43^ per cent., failed to answer, and 173 >
or about 56i per cent., answered. The aggregate additions to these libraries numbered
160,695 volumes.
Question 19. — Increase of pamphlets in the year by purchase ?
To this question, 248, or about 81 per cent., of the 306 libraries failed to respond ;
■while 58, or about 19 per cent., furnished replies, sliowing that they had acquired in
the period named, in the aggregate, 11,650 pamphlets.
Question 20. — Annual increase of books by donation.
This question was not answered by 154, or about 50^ per cent., and was answered by
152, or about 49| per cent., of the 306 libraries ; the latter proportion reporting, in the
aggregate, 32,838 volumes received by donation.
Question 21. — Number of pamphlets donated.
Of the 306 libraries, 219, or nearly 72 per cent., did not, and 87, or a little more than
28 per cent., did answer this question; of the libraries answering the question, 63 re-
ceived such donations, which numbered in the aggregate 42,123 pamphlets.
Question 38. — Average number of readers in the year.
Of the 306 libraries reporting, 171 libraries, or 56 per cent., failed to answer this
question, 135 libraries, or 44 per cent., having answered.
The aggregate number of readers in the year of those answering was 286,097, mak-
ing the average 2,119 to each of the libraries answering.
Librcuij Fieports and Statistics. 831
Question '3'J. — Number of subscribers '?
Of the 3U6 libraries reporting, 161, or 5:5 per cent., failed toaassver this question ; 14.'),
or 47 per cent., answered. Of the 145 libraries answering, 108, or 74 j)er cent., reported
subscribers, and 37, or 26 per cent., had no subscribers. The aggregate number of sub-
scribei's of those answering was 83,023, making the average to each of the libraries
having subscribers 573.
Question 41. — Annual subscription '?
Of the 306 libraries reporting, 167 libraries, or 55 per cent., failed to answer this
question ; 139, or 45 per cent., answered. Of the 139 libraries answering, 119, or H6 per
cent., described themselves as subscription libraries, and 20, or 14 per cent., required no
subscription.
The average subscription for each individual to the 119 libraries of this class answer-
ng was §3.55.
Question 46. — Average weekly circulation of books ?
Of the 300 libraries reporting, 119, or 39 per cent., failed to answer this question ;
187, or 61 per cent., answered. Of tlie 187 libraries answering, 180, or 96 per cent.,
■were lending libraries.
The aggregate weekly circulation of those answering was 123,817, making the aver-
age to each of the libraries answering this question 694, and the average to each of the
ISO circulating libraries 721 volumes.
Question 48. — Average weekly number of books used at library?
Of the 306 libraries reporting, 247, or 81 per cent., failed to answer this question ;
r>9, or 19 per cent., answered. Of the 59 libraries answering, 45, or 76 per cent., replied
that books were used at the library, and 14, or 24 per cent., replied that no books were
60 used.
The aggregate number of books per week of those answering was 24,472, making the
average to each of the 59 libraries answering this question 415, and the average to
«ach of the 45 libraries reporting books so used, 5,447.
Question iJ8. — Does the library invite readers and borrowers to nominate books for
l)nrcbase ?
Of the 306 libraries i-eporting, 87, or 28.4 per cent., failed to answer this question ;
219, or 71.6 per cent., answered. Of the 219 libraries answering, 190, or 83.6 per ceut.,
replied aftirmatively, and 29, or 13.2 per cent., replied negatively.
(Question 65. — Is the library subject to State or municipal taxation ?
Of the 306 libraries reporting, 45, or 14.7 per cent., failed to answer this question ;
231, or 85.3 per cent., answered. Of the 261 libraries answering, 21, or 8 per cent.,
replied aftirmatively, and 240, or 92 per cent., replied negatively.
(Jucstion 66. — Does the library own its building ?
Of the 306 libraries reporting, 92, or 30 per cent., failed to answer this question ; 214,
■or 70 per cent., answered. Of the 214 libraries answering, 75, or 35 per cent., replied in
■the atilirmative, and 139, or 65 per cent., replied in the negative.
Question 68. — Is the building fire-proof?
Of the 306 libraries reporting, 43, or 14 per cent., failed to answer this question ; 263,
•or 86 per cent., answered. Of the 263 libraries answering, 50, or 19 per cent., reported
.that their buildings were rire-proof ; 209, or 79.5 per cent., reported that their buildings
were not tire-proof; and 4, or 1.5 per cent., reported that their buildings were " nearly ''
iire-proof.
Question 70.— Annual cost of administration ?
Of the 306 libi'aries reporting, 97 libraries, or 31.7 per cent., failed to answer this
.question ; 209 libraries, or 68.3 per cent., answered. Of the 209 libraries answering,
191, or 91.4 per cent., reported tliis item, and 18 libraries, or 8.6 percent., reported that
there was no expenditure for administration. The total cost of administration of the
libraries reporting was s.'>30,294, the average for the 191 libraries severally reporting
.the annual cost being 82,776.
832
Public Libraries in. the United States.
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834
Ihibl'w Libraries in the United States.
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835
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836 Piihlic Libraries in the United States.
SUMMARY OF EXPENDITURES BY THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT FOR
LIBRARIES AND SUNDRY PUBLICATIONS, FROM 1800 TO 1874.
In presenting the foregoing statement, prepared in the Department
of the Treasury at the request of the Bureau of Education, through the
honorable Secretary of the Interior, but a single remark is necessary.
Captain Bayley, under whose immediate direction the statement was
made up, while -willing to vouch for its correctness so far as it goes,
notes the fact that it is necessarily incomplete, owing to the manner of
keeping the accounts in the earlier days of the Government. Many
books have been bought in all previous years for the different Depart-
ments of the Government which, for the want of a definite appropriation
for that specific purpose, have been charged to general objects; and
hence such expenditures cannot be made to appear in the statement. The
aggregate expenditure reported above for these objects is $3,320,497.70.
CHAPTER X^XXVIII.
PUBLIC LIBRARIES OF TEN PRINCIPAL CITIES.
BY SEVEllATj CONTRIBUTORS.
I.— PUBLIC LIBRARIES OF BALTIMORE.
BY G, L. SMITH.
PEABODY INSTITUTE OF THE CITY OF BALTIMORE.
The institute was founded in 1857, by George Peabody,then of London.
In that year be selected twenty-five prominent gentlemen of Baltimore
to be trustees of the institute and placed in their hands 8350,000; his
further gifts of money and. bonds increased the total endowment to
$1,400,000.
A lot of ground including two dwelling houses was purchased, for the
sum of §106,547.83, and the first wing, fronting on Mount Vernon Place,
was commenced in 1858. This wing, built of white marble, was com-
pleted in 1861, and cost, with furniture, $182,000.
In May, 1801, the building was ready for use, and the first librarian
of the institute. Rev. Dr. John Q. jNIorris, entered upon his duties.
The first books received were the works of John Adams, in ten vol-
umes, presented by Hon. Anthony Kennedy. This year was devoted
by the librarian to the preparation of an index of books to be purchased,
comprehending about fifty thousand volumes, to form the nucleus of a
library of reference. It was intended to embrace the best editions of
the standard authors and classics in all branches of knowledge, and
preference was to be given to the latest and . most critical of each.
Dictionaries, encyclopaidias, gazetteers, and the important works on
philology were to be procured at once, and made accessible to students.
For the first year the library grew but slowly; the work of preparing
for and planning the organization, studying library economy, furnishing
the apartments, and conferring with librarians in the centres of learn-
ing, occupied all the time of the librarian, so that during 1861 only one
hundred and thirteen volumes were collected. In 1862 the librarian
was aided by an assistant, and the work in the library was regularly
carried on. Dr. Morris visited Philadelphia, New York, and Boston,
and bought several large boxes of books. The yearly growth of the
library and the total expenses are shown in the tables following.
In October, 1866, the library was first formally opened to the public,
837
838
Public Libraries in the United States.
with a librarian and two assistants, and was kept open daily thereafter
librarian had three assistants, and since then has had five. The library
contains 57,458 volumes, and 8,298 unbound pamphlets, besides those
which are bound in classes and included in the count of volumes. One
hundred and twenty periodicals are regularly taken, of which thirty-
three are American, forty-six English, twenty-four French, sixteen
German, and one Italian. Besides these, the publications of learned
societies and works issued by literary clubs and associations in various
languages, amount to one hundred and sixty-six, making a total of two
hundred and eighty-six serials, costing $1,449.28 a year.
The following figures show the ratio between the number of readers
and the number of volumes used :
Tear.
Persons.
Volumes.
1871 .
2,951
3,018
2,381
17, 104
1872
21,148
24, 007
3-2, 944
]SI"ot much more than one-tenth of the reading here is of fiction.
The library is much used by students, and the teachers and pupils of
the various educational institutions of the city avail themselves of the
collection.
The following is a table showing the number of volumes read on dif-
ferent subjects during the past year:
Sul.ject.
Subject.
Volumes.
Ajiriculture 135
Anatomy and plijs'ology 434
Antiquities, mythology, etbiiology, folk-
lore .- 30C
Architecture 332
Astrcnomy Ill
Belles-lettres 4, 598
Bibliogiaphy 170
Bii g:apby _ 2, 003
Cbem ist ry 392
Education 244
Enginec ring and n ilitary 194
Fiction .3,399
Fine arts 3.i9
Geography ' 302
Geology, nil eialogy.paloontokigy . 352
Greek and Latin classics 1,265
Heraldry and genealogy 306
Hittory, uuivei s.il, etc 532
History, American 1, 137
History, English 731
History, European 756
Industrial arts I 145
Law I 1, 051
Manners, customs, costumes j 117
Mathematics : 285
Medicine | 135
Mental and moral science and logic j 497
Meteorology 100
Music 202
Xatural history 1, 738
Patent specifications 242
Periodicals, literary 4,728
Periodicals, scientific 1, 466
Philology 680
I'hysics and general science 410
Political economy and government 397
Social science 144
Theology 1,168
Voyages and travels 997
All other sulyocts 322
Total 32,944
Fithlic Lihrarics of Ten Pr'uiclpal Cities. 839
The library' is used entirely for reference, and is open, free to every-
body, during the winter from 9 a. m. till 10 p. m., and in the summer
from 9 a. m. till G p. m.
It has sets of United States, British, and French patents.
The bibliographical collection comprises about one-seventh of the
entire library'. Readers are requested to name books of which they
themselves have felt the need or desire.
There is an extensive card catalogue of the books, pamphlets, maps,
etc., arranged alphabetically, both according to subjects and authors,
but as yet no printed catalogue.
The library owns its own building, which is not fire-proof.
The chief librarian, at present Mr. P. 11. Uhler, is chosen by the
board of trustees, to whom and through the provost he is responsible.
For the annual cost of administration, etc., see the annexed table.
Liberal provision has been made siuce 18GG for supplying the public
with a yearly course of lectures. Distinguished men in every depart-
ment of literature, science, and art, have been engaged; and the in-
creased interest in subjects hitherto considered too abstruse for pop-
ular lectures shows what a means of general culture these discourses
have proved. The trustees have carried out Mr. Peabody's design as
nearly as possible in making the lectures almost free, $1.50 being all
that is charged for the entire course of over thirty lectures, or less than
5 cents for each lecture. The same may be said of the beneficial effects
of its Conservatory of Music. Symphony concerts were almost un-
known in Baltimore before the establishment of the Conservatory.
Although these concerts were at first unappreciated, the present
standard of popular taste demands the highest excellence in this de-
partment.
The Academy of Art is yet in an incipient state, though there are
many valua))le additions made to it every year.
For statistics in these departments see the table annexed.
840
Public Libraries in the United States.
SlaHsiics of Peabody Institute from 1861 to 1875.
Year.
Number of vol-
umes.
Amount paid for
books.
i
3
A
1
II
M
=
s
I
112
451
451
126
121
211
141
682
1,565
819
347
714
284
395
486
5
1
1
1
18G1
113
2,861
5,321
10, 547
12, 417
15, 819
22, 942
31, 075
37, 946
SO 75
3, 906 39
5,701 62
10, 518 97
5, 627 14
7, 086 40
21, 288 12
34, 844 17
27, 210 70
12, 067 11
14, 269 28
9, 503 92
10, 514 52
10, 318 49
7, 990 23 ■
#717 38
1,184
28
99
293
100
":
244
92
229
$2 30
56 14
85
14 25
• 10 24
2.-.
1 93
9 90
4 43
• 2 39
9 21
28
179 46
18C3
1864.
1865
1866
1867
476 06
113 20
47 50
135 58
411 90
1868
1869
476 54
177
692
211
160
154
188
158
46
78
7
58
17
308 93
41,358
46, 146
49, 393
52, 438
56, 292
57, 458
401 86
1871
157 87
1872
1873
1874
412 87
327 54
148 26
222 31
Year.
Total expenses
of library.
Expenses of con-
servatory of
music.
1
It
V
1868 '69
i537,
^66 72
)10 33
'85 31 1
549 70
>17 39
'65 08
?25 26
$958 08
6, 495 74
6, 593 94
4,510 17
5, 133 89
8, 494 68
10, 339 33
$3, 802 29
18G9 '70
. . i 25,
2, 422 10
1870 '71
..' 12,
4, 021 82
1871 'T2
..! 18,
2, 660 50
1872-'73 ... . .
.}■ 14,
3,016 40
1873 '74
..' 17,
2, 351 23
-■j 14,
2, 668 50
meecAjStile libeahy association.
In November, 1839, four or five clerks lield a cousultation on the possi-
bility of providing a place of evening resort, above the level of the oyster
room or theatre, in which clerks could have a more extensive range of
reading than their home libraries furnished.
The only public library at the time was the old Baltimore Library,
which did not meet the 'wants of this particular class. Accordingly
an association was incorporated January, 1842. Clerks could become
active members by paying an initiation fee of 82 and an annual sub-
scription of $3 in advance. Merchants and others could become honor-
ary members by the payment of $5 per annum ; but the right of suffrage
was extended only to clerks. Success beyond the most sanguine ex-
pectations was soon a.^sured. The plan of receiving special deposits of
books, on loan, was adopted for a short time, but finally abandoned in
1841, and the books returned to their owners.
rnhlic Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 841
The first course of lectures was begun December 1, 1840, on which
occasion Hon. John Quiucy Adams delivered a lecture on Society and
Civilization. This course, which proved to be a pecuniary success,
was followed by others; and the association has ever since used every
opportunity to provide lectures and readings of the highest merit for
the people of Baltimore. At its organization the association occupied
rooms on the corner of Baltimore and Holliday streets. After several
removals it finally took possession of its presort apartments in the
Athenaeum building, for which this and other associations had solicited
subscriptions from citizens of Baltimore, and which was formally dedi-
cated October 23, 1848.
The library is oi)en during the summer months from 9 a. m. to 10 p.
m., and during the winter from 10 a. m. to 10 p. m. In 1873 it was
opened on Sundays from 2 to 10 p. m., but the small attendance did not
justify this innovation, and in June its privileges were again restricted
to secular days. The use of the library is extended to the families of
the members; and being both a circulating and reference library, a
subscriber may take books home, or a clerk, who has no congenial
companions at his boarding house, may enjoy them in the comfort-
able reading rooms of the association. Though there are but 1,048 sub-
subscribers, the number of visitors during a year is from 15,000 to 20,000,
and the circulation of books about 35,000. Subscribers are allowed to
take one volume at a time or two of a set; and a e requested to name
any book they would like the library to obtain. It contains 31,032 vol-
umes, exclusive of 2,500 duplicates. Of these 400 volumes contain 0,000
pami)hlets bound in classes. Twelve hundred foreign and American
books and 500 pamphlets are added to the collection every year ; about
1,000 of the one and 150 of the other are purchased by the association,
and the rest are donations. Of the 31,032 volumes, GOO are in foreign
and 590 in modern European languages. There are 1,200 volumes on
scientific subjects; 75 per cent, of the books borrowed are English
prose fiction. The oldest book in the library was published in 1493.
The bibliographical collection is very small. It has a printed cata-
logue of a portion of the books and a manuscript catalogue of all,
arranged alphabetically, according to subjects and authors.
The library is exempt from taxation. Mr. John W. M. Lee is chief
librarian, and has three assistants. The annual cost of administration
is $2,400. Some attempts were made by this association to start classes
in French and German, but they proved unsuccessful.
The terms of membership are as follows: Perpetual membership,
transferable, $100; life membership, $50; annual honorary, $5 ; annual
proprietary, $5 ; annual employe, $3.
Following is a tabular statement showing what the association has
done since its foundation, as nearly as could be ascertained from the
records.
842 Piihlic Libraries in the United States.
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Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities.
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844 Public Libraries in the United States.
MARYLAND INSTITUTE FOR THE PROMOTION OF THE MECHANIC ARTS.
This is a name that has been applied to two different associations
which have existed in this city. The earlier was primarily due to the
exertions of John H. B. Latrobe, Fielding Lucas, jr., and others, who
called a meeting in 1825. This society was incorporated in 1826, and
continued with great success until February, 1835 ; when the building
occupied by the institute, called the Atheniienm, and situated on the
southwest corner of St. Paul and Lexington streets, was burned, and
the entire property of the old Maryland Institute was destroyed.
In November, 1847, a call was issued, sigued by Benjamiu S. Benson,
and 69 others, for a meeting of all persons favorable to forming a Me-
chanics' Institute. At this meeting, which was held December 1, 1817,
John H. B. Latrobe delivered an address explanatory of the purposes
of the meeting. Eighty names were then enrolled and a committee ap-
pointed to draught a form of constitution. The committee made a report
on the 22d of the same month, and the constitution submitted was
unanimously adopted. The first election of ofticers took place the 12th
of January, 1818, and the 19th of the same month the board met and
organized. Its first exhibition was held in Washington Hall in October,
1818, and met with great success, as did those of the two following years
held in the same place. After the first year of the formation of the in-
stitute, the managers made great efforts to procure a site for a building
adapted to their various wants. The enterprise of constructing the
building on the site of the Upper Centre Market owes much to the energy
of Benjamin S. Benson, to the citizens of Baltimore, {who, having at
heart the success of the institute subscribed liberally to stock in the
hall,) and to the mayor and city council of Baltimore, which latter
assented to the use of the site, and appropriated $15,001) for the enter-
prise.
The objects of the institute made it necessary to form a library, and
by donations and purchases the nucleus of the present library was
formed. When the institute moved from the old post-ofQce building
into the new one in 1851, the library, which then numbered abDut 2,500
volumes, was placed in the third story, but the inconveniences which
attended so elevated a position necessitated its removal to its present
location. At this time it was kept open from 4 to 6 and from 7 to 9
p. m., and the report states that there were 592 readers who used the
library'-.
The library was and is now supported almost entirely by subscriptions.
The price at first was |2 initiation fee, and 83 per annum for senior mem-
bers, and one-half of these sums for junior members; the latter class ulti-
mately including women. At present the fees are 85 per annum for
senior and $3 for junior members.
In January, 1853, the number of volumes had increased to 3,600; and
in 1856 there were 5,245, divided as follows : Science, art, mechanics,
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 845
and works of reference, 570 ; law and public docaraeuts, 1,800 ; and mis-
cellaneous books available for circulation, 2,875. The readers num-
bered about 1,0'JO ; and the number of volumes circulated during the
year was about 20,00y. In 1857, the late W. Prescott Smith became
chairman of the library committee, and under his direction ettbrts were
made to increase the library. Subscriptions of money and contributions
of books were solicited. Tlie result was that a cash fund of 85,000 was
raised, and 1,500 volumes and 050 pamphlets contributed. The number
of volumes had increased at the end of this year to 10,759. There are
at present about 17,000 volumes and 1,000 readers, with a weekly aver-
age issue of 850 books. The relative numbers of books read may bo
stated as follows : Fiction,!; history and biography, ^'^ ; science and
art, 2^ ; and the remainder miscellaneous.
The library is now open in summer from 9 a. m. to 8 p. m., and in win-
ter from 9 a. m. to 9 p. m. Members and their families have the privi-
lege of drawing one book at a time, and can keep the same two weeks.
The members are entitled, on payment of the fees, to the privileges of
the exhibitions and lectures, and by the payment of the small additional
fees to any of the schools of the institute. The library has a full set of
United States patents, and a very small bibliographical collection. It is
not subject to taxation, having been exempted from it by its act of incor-
poration. The librarian is chosen by the board of managers, and is
responsible to the library committee. The catalogue, which was printed "
many years ago, is alphabetical by subjects.
Exhibitions. — In 1851 the first exhibition was held in the present hall.
John P. Kennedy delivered the opening address. The exhibition was
very successful. It was visited by the President of the United States,
his Cabinet, and other distinguished persons. These annual exhibi-
tions continued to be successful for several years, and were largely de-
pended upon as a source of revenue from which to support the other
departments, but of late years the public interest in them has been on
the wane, and the receipts have come short of the expenditure.
Lectures. — Each winter since the inauguration of the institute a course
of lectures has bden provided for the membership, which has embraced
some of the most eminent names in the professional and scientific world.
This has always been one of the most attractive inducements to member-
ship, and the large crowds which have invariably attended attest the
interest of members.
In 1852, in honor of a liberal donation from Hon. Thomas Swann. it was
resolved to establish a Swann professorship of chemistry. This was
placed in charge of Campbell Mortit, who resigned before anything
practical could be accomplished. Dr. Suowden Piggott was then ap-
pointed, who formed a class of 63 students, to whom thirty-six lectures
were delivered, the price for the course being $1. Dr. Piggott resigned,
and Prof. Lewis H. Steiner was appointed to the chair. The course of
scholastic lectures was abandoned for some unknown reason, and a
846 Public Libraries in the United States.
popular course substituted. Dr. E. A. Aikiu was the next iucuinbeut.
Kotbitig new occurred under Lis rer/ime. Prof. Harry White, on the
retirement of Dr. Aikin, was next appointed, and inaugurated a school
of practical analytical chemistry. The department is now in charge of
Prof. "William P. Toney, under whose care it is making considerable
progress. The terms are $15 per quarter.
Boole keejjing. — A class in book-keeping and penmanship was estab-
lished in 185G, which at first was quite successful, but afterward fell into
a very languishing condition. It is at ])resent, however, very flourish,
lag. The school is in charge of. Prof. James R. Webster, and there are
130 pupils. Terms, $5 for a session of four months.
SCHOOL OF DESIGN.
This school .was first opened in the present building in 1851, witli
William Minifie as principal. There were 332 pupils. The school was
originally intended for the junior members of the institute, who were
admitted free. But it was ascertained that a great many of them came
out of idle curiosity, and were inclined to devote their time to mischief
rather than to study. This was shown by the fact that at the beginning
of the session of 1852 there were 1,109 applicants for seats. The whole
resources of the building were taxed to accommodate them, but they fell
off in their attendance so rapidly that at the end of the session there
^\ere only 300. In order to furnish better facilities for those who really
attended for study, it was determined to make the small charge of $1.50
in addition to that for membership. This had the desired effect, and
the next year there were 254 pupils.
In 1856 a day school was established for women and girls. There were
at first 03 pupils, and it has been very successful ever since. Many of
the graduates are earning good salaries by the practice of the art they
learned here. In 1857 the first Peabody premiums were distributed,
amounting to $500, which sum Mr. Peabody made arrangements to con-
tinue annually. The number of pui)ils at present is 450 in the night
school, and 75 in the day school.
A class for instruction in modeling in clay has recently been formed,
and promises to develop much talent.
This school has educated many trained artisans belonging to the poorer
classes of society, and therefore justly claims to be an important fac-
tor in social reform. Its graduates occupy honored and lucrative posi-
tions as engineers, architects, artists, etc., in this country and in Europe.
In addition to the principal, there are eleven assistants. The expense
of the school, after deducting the receipts for tuition, is about $1,500
yearly.
Membersliip of the Institute. — In 1851, there were 632 members; in
1852, there were 1,702; and the membership at present is about 2,500
Two thirds of this number are junior members.
Tuhlic Libraries of Ten Principid Cities. 847
THE LIBRARY COMPANY OF BALTIMORE.
lu December, 1795, some geutleraen of Baltimore Towu became im-
pressed with a sense of the benefits of a public library, and drew up a
plau for one wLich they submitted to several citizens. It was proposed
to make a stock company, and provided that every person regularly ad-
mitted to membership should be entitled to one $20 share. Every regu-
lar member was required to contribute $4 per auuum for each share he
possessed. The books and effects of the company constituted the joint
property, and any member was at liberty to transfer his share with the
restriction that, except in case of will or descent, the name of the person
in whose favor the transfer was made should be approved by the board
of directors. No person was allowed to subscribe for more than one
share, or acquire others save by inheritance; he was still entitled to
but one vote.
In a very few days 59 persons subscribed, aud a meeting was called
December, 1795, cf which JRight lie v. Dr, John Carroll was chairman.
The library was opened to the msmbars O^itober, 1795, at the house of
Mr. Williams, on Lemon street, and the company was incorporated by
act of the legislature dated January 20, 1797. In this way was estab-
lished the first public library of Baltimore. lu ISOO, it numbered about
•4,000 volumes, gradually increasing until it formed a fine collection
of the best works of the day and age, which, in the year 1855, was
merged and is still preserved in the collection of the Maryland His-
torical Society. Later there was a provision made in the constitution
for those who did not wish to become stockholders by which they could
enjoy the privileges of the library by the payment of 63.50 for six
months or $0 for a year. Through the co-operation of this company
with the Historical Society and the Mercantile Library Association, the
AtheuiTcum building was built and paid for. This edifice was dedicated
October 23, 1848, and accommodates the three above named libraries,
the two former now included in the Historical Society. The Library
Company adopted the circulating library i)lan. It contained at the
time of its transfer to the Historical Society about 8,000 volumes, not
including pamphlets or manuscripts, of which there were but few. The
last printed catalogue was issued in 1809, and there is now only a manu-
script catalogue, arranged alphabetically according to authors.
MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
In Januar3', 1844, eighteen or twenty gentlemen met in a room of the
old post-office building to organize a society for collecting the scattered
materials of the early history of Maryland, and for collateral objects.
The organization was completed at the first meeting, and a constitution
and by-laws adopted. At the next meeting John Spear Smith was
818 Public Libraries in the United States.
eleuteil president, John Van Lsar MoM.ilion, (the historian of Mary-
hind,) vice-president, and Stephen Callius, librarian.
The establishment of this society give a stirauhis to literary taste in
Baltimore which induced nearly all the gentlemen in professional and
mercantile life noted for cultivation to become members. In the spring
of 1848 the society moved into the AtheuiiMim building, which is held
for it in perpetuit}'^ by trustees, under a charter granted by the legisla-
ture of Maryland, December, 18-15. The old Baltimore Library Com-
pany and the Mercantile Library Association united with the Historical
Society in soliciting subscriptions from the public for the building, and
at its dedication, October 23, ISIS, it was all paid for. When the Bal-
timore Library Company became unable to sustain itself, in the year
1855, its collection of books and its interest in the Athenreum build-
ing were conveyed to the Historical Society, with the understanding
that the rights and privileges of the society were to be extended to
the members of the Baltimore Company. The collections in all depart-
ments had rapidly increased in number and value. After removing to
this building, the fine arts department was added, and a large gallery
built for the accommodation of pictures, and yearly exhibition of such
meritorious works as might be obtained from artists and collectors.
With the profits of these exhibitions a number of copies of masterpieces
of the Italian school were purchased. In L8G7 Mr. Peabody made the
society a gift of $20,000.
The library contains nearly 15,000 volumes of select books, 14G volumes
of pamphlets arranged in classes and. 700 not yet arranged, a great num-
ber of manuscripts, one of the most complete sets of United States
documents in existence, and by far the largest collection of Maryland
newspapers anywhere to be found.
The library was originally a circulating, but has gradually become a
reference library, and since the transfer of the Baltimore Library Com-
pany has been opened to the public from 10 a. m. to 2 p. m., the members
only being allowed to draw books. Not more than 50 books a year are
withdrawn.
There are about 200 members, and the annual subscription fee is $5
The average yearly number who use the library is about 1,000. The
collection includes a set of United States patents, a very small biblio-
graphical collection, and a manuscript catalogue arranged alphabetically
according to authors. It was exempted from taxation by the act of in-
corporation.
The library owns the building it occupies, employs one librarian, and
the total cost of administration is $1,500 per year.
GENERAL SOCIETY FOR AID OF MECHANICS, (ALLGEMEINER UNTER-
STtJTZUNGS-VEREIN FUR KRANKE ARBEITER.)
This society was formed in 1851, and the library received its first im-
petus about this time from a gift of a few hundred volumes by a society
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 849
of the same kiud which had recently been disbanded. It now contains
about 3,000 volumes of German literature and standard works. The
society consists of 1.000 members, who each pay twenty cents per year
toward the support of the library. The circulation is from 10,000 to
12,000 volumes a year.
MARYLAND STATE NORMAL SCHOOL LIBRARY.
This library was begun with the school itself in 1865, and, although
there are at present but 1,700 volumes, every book has been so judi-
ciously selected that teachers and pupils find on its shelves almost every
book of reference they need. The library is especially rich in works on
English literature and science.
MARYLAND ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.
Formed in 1863, the academy was incorporated in 1867, Philip T.
Tyson being chosen first president.
The library, based on a collection left by Evan T. EUicott, numbers
over 600 volumes. It is kept in the hall of the Academy of Sciences and
used by the members for reference. There is no regular appropriation
for increase. The present librarian is Mr. A. M. Smith.
LIBRARY COMPANY OF THE BALTIMORE BAR.
This library was formed in 1840 and incorporated in 1841. Judge
George W. Brown, of the city court, was its originator. The library is
supported by the subscriptions of its members. It is intended for the
exclusive use of members of the Baltimore bar, and books cannot be
taken from the library room except for use in court, and then only by
members or a judge of some court sitting in Baltimore.
When the constitution was first adopted, it was signed by QQ of the
most prominent members of the Baltimore bar, and at present there are
280 members.
The library numbers 7,000 volumes, exclusive of pamphlets; the
yearly increase is about 100 volumes. The leading law periodicals
of this country and Europe may be found in the reading room. Orig-
inally there was an admission fee of $20, and a yearly subscription fee
of $10. At present the only charge is a subscription fee of $15.
There is a printed catalogue of the library published in 1860, arranged
alphabetically according to authors.
The chief librarian is Mr. Daniel T. Chandler.
LIBRARY OF THE INDEPENDENT ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS.
The project of establishing a library in connection with the order
was first suggested by James L. Ridgely in 1836. In February, 1840,
a committee was appointed to visit each lodge and ascertain what it
would give in money or books. In December of that year enough ma-
54 E
850 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
terial having been collected to establisli the library on a permanent
basis, a standing committee was organized by the election of permanent
officers and the adoption of by-laws and rnles. Two librarians for each
week, who gave their time without compensation, were elected from the
committee. Gifts of books and money were made by lodges and mem-
bers and by many prominent citizens who had no connection with the
order. The library also "derived assistance from public lectures, con-
certs, etc., and in March, 1846, it was decided to secure a permanent
revenue by taxing each member 25 cents a year. The books are very
systematically arranged and thoroughly classified. The number of vol-
umes in English is 10,835, and in German 9,000. The number taken out
during the year is 15,753 — a weekly average of 302 volumes.
BALTIMORE NORMAL SCHOOL (COLORED.)
The library of this school was founded when the school was built in
1864, and was the result of contributions by citizens of Baltimore and
other places. It consists of 1,000 volumes, comprising standard works,
books of reference, juvenile literature, and English prose fiction.
The pupils of the school have free use of the library, and are allowed
to take out one book at a time, and to keep it one week. The additions
to the library are through private contributions.
LIBRARY AT THE FRIENDS' ELEMENTARY AND HIGH SCHOOL.
This library belongs to the Friends' Literary Association, which
meets every week in the lecture room of the school. Though the asso-
ciation is an old one and had a number of books previous to the for-
mation of the library, the latter was not founded until 1843. The object
of the society is to furnish suitable reading for the members of the con-
gregation, but of late years its privileges have been extended to the
pupils of the elementary and high school.
There are 2,800 volumes, to which the pupils have access on the pay-
ment of a small sum. A catalogue of the library was printed in 1849.
Mr. E. M. Lamb, principal of the school, is the librarian.
CITY LIBRARY.
By an ordinance passed 1874, it was enacted that hereafter a citj'
librarian should be appointed. The librarian is to take under his
charge and keeping all the books and documents of every description,
and the archives, records, papers, and proceedings of the corporation,
except those relating to titles of city property ; also all ordinances, res-
olutions, and proceedings of the city council, etc. ; also, all books,
papers, and memorials relating to Baltimore from its origin to the
present time. These books are for the use of the city officers, and can-
not be taken out except by them.
The library now numbers about five thousand volumes, among which
are many very old and valuable books.
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 851
OTHKR COLLECTIONS.
The following list embraces the other public or semi-public libraries
of Baltimore and vicinity which contain each 1,000 volumes or more.
Further statistics of these and of minor collections of similar character
may be found in the general table at the end of the volume. — Editors.
Archiepiscopal Library 10, 000
Baltimore Academy of the Visitation 4, 178
Baltimore College of Dental Surgery 1,000
Baltimore Female College 3, 875
Concordia Library 3,500
German-American Institnte 2, 000
House of Refuge 1,800
Loyola College 21,500
Public School Library „ 1,200
St. Joseph's Academy 1,000
St. Mary's Theological Seminary of St. Sulpice 15,000
Social Democratic Turners' Union 1,370
Young Men's Christian Association 1,600
Zion School 1,209
IL — PUBLIC LIBRAEIES OF BOSTON AND VICINITY.^
BY F. B. PERKINS,
Of the Boston Public Library.
This series of memoranda embodies such facts as circumstances per-
mitted the compiler to gather. Where the different accounts were
drawn up by the persons applied to for them, they are placed under
the names of such persons. In other cases, snch documents or data
as were furnished or indicated, or such as could be found, have been
used to the best advantage practicable. A few dates in chronological
order, as follows, may be convenient.
FOUNDATION DATES OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN BOSTON.
Massachusetts Historical Society 1791
Boston Library 1794
Social Law Library April 23, 1804
Boston Athenseum October 23, 1807
Mercantile Library March 11, 1820
State Library 1826
Boston Society of Natural History 1831
New England Historic-Genealogical Society 1845
Roxbury Athenseum 1848
Boston Public Library, (accepting vote of city) April 3, 1848
Congregational Library May 25, 1853
Odd Fellows' Library , 1854
General Theological Library April, 1860
Boston and Albany Railroad Library 1869
Boston Deaf-Mute Library July, 1872
^Sketches of Harvard College Library will be found on pp. 21-26 and 78-89. —
Editors.
852 Ihihlic Libraries in the United States.
The above order is followed in the arraiigemeut of the accounts of
these libraries, and those for which dates of origin were not at hand
are placed subsequently.
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
The society was founded in 1791 by a few gentlemen interested in
American history, and was incorporated in 1794. The beginning of the
library goes back to the foundation of the society. One of its objects,
as set forth in the first line of the constitution, was "the preservation
of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and records containing historical
facts." Active membership was limited to residents of the State and
to the number of thirty, though, at the time of its incorporation, this
number was increased to sixty. It has since been extended to one hun-
dred. Among the causes that led to its establishment were the dan-
gers that continually threatened the few libraries of the last century.
Jn the introductory address to the public, reference is made to the
court-house that was burned in Boston in 1747, when some of the public
records were destroyed, and to the college library of Cambridge that
shared the same fate in 1764, when large numbers of valuable books
and manuscripts were also destroyed. The address cited the instance
of Governor Hutchinson's house, plundered by an enraged mob in 1765,
when many of his books and papers were scattered and lost. Great
stress was laid on the risks that were continually run from tire and
other causes.
The present extent of the library is about 23,000 volumes and 45,000
pamphlets. The Dowse collection, which was given to the society by
the late Thomas Dowse in 1856, is included among the books. This
collection comprises nearly 5,000 volumes, beautifully bound and in the
best possible preservation. It contains many of the choicest works of
English literature. A catalogue of it was printed in 1856; and, a few
years later, one of the general library was published, in two volumes.
The books generally are of a historical character. A specialty is made
of local histories and works relating to the civil war. The circulation
of books, which is restricted to members, is small ; but the use of the
library as one of reference is large. Frequently persons come a long
distance to consult works which are on the shelves, and not easily found
elsewhere. The management of the society lies with a council, consist-
ing of the officers, ex otificiis, and a standing committee of five members,
of whom two go out of office each year. A librarian and assistant,
besides a janitor, are employed.
THE BOSTON LIBRARY.
This library, a proprietary one, sometimes confounded with the Bos-
ton Public Library, was first established by an association of gentle-
men, who were, in 1794, incorporated by act of the legislature. It is now
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 853
owned by ninety three shareholders, besides whom a few persons use it,
paying $5 a year. It is managed by a board of trustees, a secretary
and treasurer, together with a librarian and one assistant. It contains
25,000 volumes; its annual increase is small, being only about 500 vol-
umes a year; its contents are mainly for popular reading, and its circu-
lation during the year 1874 was 6,118 volumes. Its catalogue is in man-
uscript only, but is sufficient for the present needs of the library.
SOCIA.L LA.W LIBRARY.
BY FRANCIS WALES VAUGHN,
Librarian.
This is a library of law books for professional use. The first meeting
held by the proprietors in order to organize as a corporation took place
April 23, 1804, the call for the meeting being signed by Theophilus Par-
sons, Daniel Davis, John Phillips, Wm. Sullivan, Charles Jackson, and
Warren Dutton. An act of incorporation was obtained from the State
in 1814. The books were at first kept in the office of one or another
member of the bar, who acted as librarian. Subsequently they were
placed in a closet of the grand jury room in the court-house; then the
library grew to occupy the whole of this room ; and when the present
court house was built a room was set apart for it, in which it has since
remained. Its growth is in some measure indicated by the number of
volumes at different periods, viz: 1,473 in 1824; 4,077 in 1849; 8,269 in
1865; and about 13,000 in 1875. Many valuable books have been given
to the library, especially by Hon. Charles Jackson, Hon. Theron Met-
calf, and Hon. Richard Fletcher. Its corporate name is The Proprie-
tors of the Social Law Library, and it is managed by a board consist-
ing of a president, seven trustees, a treasurer, and a clerk. This board
appoints a librarian and controls the affairs of the library. The propri-
etors at large are such persons as were originally incorporated, and
others who may be admitted by the president and trustees as such,
paying for a share not less than $50. Annual subscribers may also
be admitted by the board. The proprietors pay $5 a year assessment ;
other persons admitted to use the library pay $8. All moneys re-
ceived by way of tax or excise from persons admitted to practice as at-
torneys in the Boston court of common pleas are to be paid over to the
library treasurer for its use. The State furnishes the library with its
public documents. The governor, lieutenant governor, members of
council, and members of the legislature during session, various United
States, State, and county judges, and other legal officers, may use the
library gratis, and so may lawyers whose practice is usually in the
other counties of the State.
854 Public Libraries in the United States.
THE BOSTON ATHEN^UM.
BY CHARLES A. CUTTER,
Li rarian.
Mr. Quincy, the historian of the Boston Athenaeum, (from whose work
almost the whole of this short memorandum is deris^ed,) dates its first
suggestion on October 23, 1805, when the members of the Anthology
Society voted " that a library of periodical publications be instituted for
the use of the society." In the following May it was decided to make
this library, which had meanwhile increased encouragingly, the basis
of a public reading room ; and such a reading room was accordingly
opened. Not long afterward arrangements were made to permit the
incorporation of the institution. On January 1, 1807, the trustees (The-
ophilus Parsons, John Davis, John Powell, William Emerson, J. T.
Kirkland, P. Thacher, A. M. Walter, W. S. Shaw, R. H. Gardiner, J. S.
Buckminster, O. Rich) issued an announcement that the rooms were
opened for use, in Joy's buildings. Congress street. The name used
in this paper was Anthology Reading Room and Library. In February
of the same year the trustees were incorporated as the Proprietors of
the Boston Athenaeum, and as such they organized April 7, 1807.
It is characteristic of what has always been and is still the purpose
of the Athenaeum, that in a " Memoir" of the Athenaeum which was cir-
culated in order to obtain subscription at this time, the reading room
was described as being " the first department" of the Athenaeum, and
the library as " the next branch." As was the case with many of our
ibraries dating from the first half of the century, several collateral de-
partments were added to the design ; in this instance a museum or cab-
inet of natural objects, curiosities, antiques, coins, etc. ; a " repository
of art," both industrial and aesthetic ; and a laboratory and observatory-
The premises first occupied by the Athenaeum were in Scollay's build-
ings, between Tremout and Court streets. In 1809 the trustees bought
a house in Tremont street, to which the collections were removed and
the rooms opened for use in July of that year. In 1809, a catalogue,
prepared by Rev. Joseph McKean, was printed, but not published, in-
terleaved copies being used in the library for nearly twenty years.
When John Quincy Adams went as minister to Russia he deposited
his own library in the Athenaeum for the use of the proprietors, thus
nearly doubling the size of the collection for the time, as his books were
about 5,450 in number, and those of the library about 5,750. In 1814
the library itself had increased to 8,209 volumes. In April, 1817, the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences deposited its books with the
Athenaeum, under the terms of an agreement between the two corpora-
tions providing for the proper separate accommodation and joint use
of the collections. In 1820 the number of books had increased to
12,647, and the whole, number available for the use of the proprietors
and subscribers was nearly 20,000. In 1822 Mr. James Perkins, who
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 855
had been one of the trustees and vice-president of the Athenoeura, gave
iti his own dwelling house and land in Pearl street, worth then not less
than 120,000; and in June of that year the collections of the institution
were remov^ed to its own newly acquired building. This gift is prop-
erly described by Mr. Qaincy as "timely, munificent, and decisive in
stamping it [the Athenaeum] with the character of a permanent public
institution."
In the summer of 182.3 two other collections of books were deposited
in the Athenieum on terms sonewhat similar to those in the case of the
Academy of Arts and Sciences, namely, the Library of King's Chapel
and the theological library belonging to the Boston Association of Min-
isters. In January, 1824, the Athenaeum Library consisted of 14,820
books.
In 182G Mr. Thomas II. Perkins and Mr. James Perkins, the brother
and son of Mr. James Perkins already mentioned, each offered the
Athenaeum $8,000 conditioned on the gift of an equal amount by other
citizens. This was raised, and the money was used in building a lecture
room, and in enlarging the collections of the library. During this year
the books of the Boston Medical Library, more than 2,000 in number,
were added to the Athenaeum Library; and the Boston Scientific Asso-
ciation, uniting with the Athenaeum, handed over to it a fund of over
$3,000, which, with other sums raised for the purpose, afforded the
means of placing its scientific department on a very creditable footing.
In November of that year a curious agreement was made between the
Athenaeum and the Rev. J. B. Felt, administrator of the estate of Mr.
W. S. Shaw, long the librarian of the Athenaeum. Mr. Shaw had for
many years been in the habit of buying books, coins, and other prop-
erty in such a way that it was impossible to tell whether it was done
with his own money or with that of the Athenaeum. Though a shrewd,
zealous, and successful collector, and thoroughly devoted to the Athe-
naeum, he was far from being a careful accountant, and so thoroughly
mixed up were the two properties at his death that Mr. Felt, as admin-
istrator, and the Athenaeum executed a formal release to each other; Mr.
Felt thus generously surrendering not only a large number of valuable
books, pamphlets, coins, and other articles whose precise ownership
might have been doubtful, but a considerable number to which he might
easily have proved a claim.
At the beginning of 1828 the number of volumes in the library was
21,945 ; and besides the use of the books on its own premises, their
circulation among the proprietors, first permitted in the year 1827,
amounted during 1829 to 4,000 volumes.
From this time forward the history of the Athenaeum has been little
more than a quiet and steady progress in extent and usefulness. In
1839 it began to be evident that the Pearl street neighborhood was be-
coming too exclusively a business one to be proper for the best success
of the Athenaeum, and after various difficulties and negotiations a site
856 Public Libraries in the United States.
in Beacon street was obtained, the present edifice erected, (costing"
about $200,000,) the library and other collections removed to it and
opened for use in the year 1849.
The extent of the library is now about 105,000 volumes, and its ex-
ecutive staff numbers about twelve persons. Its increase during 1875
was 3,729 volumes, and the extent of its use is estimated at 33,000
volumes a year. Its use is confined to those owning shares or admitted
under various agreements, or by votes of the trustees, so that it is-
strictly a proprietary library. It is, however, conducted in a liberal man-
ner, and with courtesy to all applicants. The real estate, library, and
fine art collections of the Athenseum are now estimated to be worth
about $400,000, and its other property, the income of which is used for
the current expenses, at about $250,000.
MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.
BY L. ANNIE BALDWIN,
Acting Librarian.
This library, the first of its class in the United States, was established
in pursuance of a vote taken hy a large assembly of merchants' clerks,
at the Commercial Coffee-House, March 11, 1820. The idea of calling^
this meeting was first suggested to the leaders in the enterprise by the
acknowledged father of mercantile libraries, William Wood, of Canan-
daigua, N. Y.
At the end of its first year the library contained 1,100 books, and th&
association numbered 220 members, besides many eminent and influ-
ential citizens as honorary members. During the next three years,.
the novelty of the enterprise having worn off, it barely maintained
itself. In 1824 new books could only be bought by selling the library
copy of Rees's Cyclopaedia to raise the money, and the association was^
only kept in existence by the constant personal exertions of the officers,,
who even did the janitor's work. In 1826 a special effort secured the
means of paying current expenses; but in L829 the number of mem-
bers fell to 81, and a dissolution was feared.
Up to 1831 the library was in Merchants' Hall, corner of Congress and
Water streets. In that year it was removed to 93 Washington street,
third floor. In 1832 came another low-water period; in 1833 cheaper
rooms were taken at 53 Washington street, where, in that year, the num-
ber of members fell to 60. In 1834 only $20 were laid out for books, and
an actual deficit was feared. During 1835, however, there was a healthy
reaction ; the beginning of a permanent fund was gathered, the number
of members was increased to 290, the current expenses paid (with a sur-
plus) from the assessment alone, an elocution class opened, and 320 vol-
umes added to the library.
In June, 1836, the collection of curiosities belonging to the association
was burned, together with a number of paintings, and the same fire
damaged many of their books. A little afterward the association re-
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 857
moved to Harding's Building, in School street, where it remained for
five years. During this time literary exercises were made part of the
regular work of the association, including debate, composition, and
declamation. In 1838 was delivered the first course of lectures in be
half of the association, by Mr. J. Silk Buckingham. This course of lec-
tures added many new members to the association. In 1843 courses of
public lectures became part of the regular work of the association, and
for a long time were a steady source of prosperity and income. Mr.
Elliot C. Cowdin, according to Mr. Charles H. Frothingham,^ was the
originator of this plan.
In 1844 Messrs. William Sturgis, Abbott Lawrence, and eight other
gentlemen of similar standing, gave $1,000 to the library for standard
books, and Daniel Webster shortly afterward gave $500 more. In 1845-
the association was incorporated, with power to hold not more than
$50,000 worth of property, and soon afterward $8,000 were promised by
eight eminent merchants toward a building fund. In 1848 there was-
another removal, to the corner of Bromfleld and Province streets, and
another in 1850, to Summer street. The reserved fund of the associa-
tion was increased during this year by several gifts, one of $2,000 being^
a bequest from Mr. John E. Thayer. From this time the history of the
association has been marked by some vicissitudes, but has been, on the
whole, encouraging. The establishment of the Public Library is not
believed to have seriously injured the prospects or usefulness of the
Mercantile Library, whose purposes and advantages are such as not to
be interfered with by those of the larger, though younger, institution.
The library is now lodged at 1179 Washington street. It contains about
21,500 volumes, and is accessible to all at $2 a year. Life member-
ships may' be secured by one payment of $50. The institution is man-
aged, like others of its class, by a board of directors. Its executive
staff consists of an acting librarian, a lady, and one assistant for evening
service.
STATE LIBRARY OF MASSACHUSETTS.
BY S. C. JACKSON.
Librarian.
On February 16, 1811, a tesolve was passed by the legislature of
Massachusetts to provide for exchanging sets of the statutes of the
State for those of all the other States. This arrangement was at once
successful, and an official history of the library, published in 1858, says :
"It led to that system of exchange which now exists between each indi-
vidual State and every other State in the Union. It led to the formation
of a legislative library in this State, and, sooner or later, in all the other
States."
iMr. Frotliinj^bam delivered an historical address at the semi-centennial celebratioa
of the association, March 11, 1870, from which nearly all the facts in the present out-
line sketch are taken.
858 Public Libraries in the United States.
The suggestioQ of a Statte library proper, iti natural consequence of
the rapid accutnalation of the books received by this exchauge system,
followed in 1826, when an act was passed "for establishing a library of
the general court, and providing for its safe keeping and management."
This act provided that the books and maps which were to form the
library were to be placed in the land office and in charge of the land
agent. A legislative joint standing committee was to be appointed every
year to have charge, buy books, and make negotiations; and $300 a year
for ten years were voted "to procure such books, maps and charts, works
of science and the arts, as may tend to illustrate the resources and means
of internal improvement of the commonwealth or of the United States."
This act was repeated in 1836, the appropriation being made annual
"without limit, but not increased. June 7, 1826, the library was reported
ready for the use of the general court. In 1827 an effort was made to
complete the sets of State laws, and was successful in most instances.
In 1844, on a suggestion from the legislative librarian of South Caro-
lina, the exchange system was applied to reports of judicial decisions ;
but preceding reports have had to be bought. In 1853 exchanges of
public documents of all kinds were permitted at the discretion of the trus-
tees of the library. In 1845 M. Vattemare's system of international ex-
change was adopted by law and was continued for eleven years. One
thousand two hundred and fifty-two volumes, many of them valuable,
were obtained by it; but the attendant cost, amounting to more than
#5,000, besides considerable sums for binding, has made the books pretty
expensive, and in 1855 the system was discontinued by resolve.
The original method of managing the library by yearly committees
was dropped in 1850, and three trustees, to be appointed for three years
by the governor and council, were substituted. In 1849 the library,
then containing 7,346 volumes, was transferred to the office and charge
of the secretary of the board of education. John W. Coffin, land agent,
who had acted as librarian for twenty-three years, was succeeded by
Dr. Barnas Sears, secretary, who remaini^d in charge for six years,
when he was succeeded by Joseph White, the present official librarian.
After various changes, fireproof premises were provided for the
library in 1855-'56, in an addition to the State house, built and fitted
ap for the purpose. The trifling annual grant of $300 was continued
for thirty years, down to 1856, although $2,050 were at different times
added for special purposes. In May, 1857, the annual grant was made
^2,000.
The library contains about 37,000 volumes, and increases by about
1,200 volumes a year, mostly by exchange. It consists almost entirely of
United States, State, and territorial statutes, legislative documents, law
reports, and political economy, social science, education, and scientific
works. Great care is required and exercised to maintain complete the
■different sets of public documents.
Among the works in the library, other than its chief material as
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 859
above, are sets of the general statutes and local and personal acts of
the Parliament of Great Britain, and the French Archives parleraen-
taires. There is a set of the large edition of Audubon's Ornithology
and a number of costly and valuable illustrated books of various kinds
among those procured through M. Vattemare.
The library staff consists of one librarian and three assistants. The
library is extensively used for consultation, but of the number of
volumes consulted annually no record is kept. Only books removed
from the premises are noted in the " charge book." The following rules
and regulations show distinctly who use the library, and for what and
how :
RULES AND REGULATIONS.
The library is open during the session of the legislature each day, without intermis-
sion, from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m., excepting Saturday p. m., when it is closed at 1 o'clock
for sweeping, dusting, etc.
All persons may use the library for consultation or reference.
Members of the legislature may enter any alcove, and consult or peruse any book at
their pleasure.
Members may take any of the miscellaneous books to their lodgings, and retain them
for a reasonable time.
The statutes, law reports, state papers, journals, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, etc ,
may be taken to any i>art of the State house, but are not to be removed from it, except
in special cases.
Any member wishing to have access to any or all parts of the library, can be fur-
nished with a key which will open every alcove, on application to one of the assist
ants, the key to be returned before leaving the library room.
Members taking books from the shelves are requested to be particularly careful to
return them to their proper places, or to leave them on the tables, to be replaced by the
attendants.
No book is to be taken by a member from the library room without its being charged
to him.
Books used at a hearing before a committee are to be charged to some member of the
committee, or of the legislature, and not to the counsel or parties in the case pending.
Any member having special occasion to nse the library in the evening, or at any
hour after it is closed, can have access to it through one of, the watchmen in charge of
the building.
BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY.
This collection contains about 10,000 books jind 3,500 pamphlets, and
its increase during 1874 numbered 1,397 volumns. It consists wholly of
works on natural history, and was established in 1831 by the early
members of the society. It is managed, under the direction of the
council of the society, by a librarian and two assistants. The extent of
its circulation during the last year was 835 books, taken by 109 persons,
and its use is confined to members of the society and to otiiers who may
receive permission.
860 Public Libraries in the United States.
NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY.
BY JOHN WARD DEAN,
Librarian.
The library of the society is mainly one of New England history,
biography, and genealogy, and dates back nearly to the origin of the
society in the autumn of 1844. Daring the first three years of the exist-
ence of the society circulars were annually sent to its members, stating
what material was especially desired for this library, and urging its
collection. The responses were remarkably general and liberal, and
the result was the establishment of the present library, which is now
accommodated in the society's fire-proof building, 18 Somerset street,
Boston. At the beginning of the year 1875 the library contained 12,337
bound volumes and 40,414 pami)hlets, and is believed to comprise the
best collection of local and family histories possessed by any institution
of its class in the United States. It is constantly resorted to for study
and consultation in its specialties, and steadily increases, mostly through
the sameliberality which has been its principal resource hitherto. Several
small funds, given by friends of the society, are invested and their pro-
ceeds used for library purposes. Such are the Bond fund, arising from
the sale of an edition of Bond's History and Genealogies of Water-
town, bequeathed by the author. Dr. Hecry Bond, of Philadelphia, in
1859 ; the Barstow fund of |1,000, given by John Barstow, esq., of
Providence, in the year 1860-63 ; the Cushman genealogical fund,
arising from the proceeds of an edition of the Cushman Genealogy, be-
queathed to the society in 1863 by Hon. H. W. Cushman, of Bernardston.
The actual cash proceeds of these funds, as reported in the treasurer's
account, January 1, 1875, (not including the Cushman fund, from which
no proceeds are reported,) were $1,585.01.
This collection is, of course, absolutely indispensable in the work of
this industrious and energetic society, which has with very small
means accomplished much. The twenty-nine volumes of its quarterly,
the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, are a well
known and extensive encyclopaedia of New England genealogy and
biography, and are alone a remarkable monument of persevering and
successful learning and labor. Besides this, however, and the gathering
of its library, the society has been influential in aiding or causing the
publication of a number of works in its chosen department.
In addition to its books and pamphlets, it contains a consider-
able collection of relics and curiosities illustrative of New England his-
tory, and some valuable manuscripts, prominent among which is the
Knox collection, consisting of about 14,000 manuscripts, and including
the military and other papers and the correspondence of our revolu-
tionary leader, Major-General Knox. This collection was given by the
general's descendant, Rear-Admiral Henry Knox Thatcher, himself a
member of the society.
The use of this library, though it is the property of the society, is lib-
erally allowed to all proper persons who may request it.
PUBLIC LIBRARY
Fuhlic Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 863
EOXBURY ATHEN^UM.
BY SARAH E. PITTS,
Librarian.
The Atlienseum was founded in 1848 by a number of gentlemen resid
ing in Eoxbury. The library now contains 8,700 volumes, and about the
same number of unbound pamphlets. Two hundred and thirty volumes
and 170 pamphlets were added during the year 1874, and 8,200 volumes
were borrowed from the library, which is used by shareholders (par
value of shares, $25) and by subscribers, who pay $4 a year. Each per-
son is entitled to three books at one time. The managing board con-
sists of a president, vice-president, treasurer, and nine trustees. The
librarian is the only person employed by them. The library cannot be
considered in a very progressive condition at present, owing, in part, to
the establishment of free libraries in this section of the city. A number
of the proprietors have expressed a decided preference for the private
library, liking the retirement and the freedom from the strict rules
which are necessary in the management of a large public library; but
whether that number will be large enough to carry on the library pros-
perously is at present undecided.
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY.
The city of Boston, on April 3, 1848, accepted an act passed by the
State legislature on March 12 preceding authorizing the city to estab-
lish and maintain a public library. Some efforts were made, but in vain,
to make the fine collections of the Athenaeum the basis of the proposed
public library. During 1849 several gentlemen presented books to the
city for such a library; in 1850 Mayor John P. Bigelow gave $1,000,
and Edward Everett gave his valuable collection of United States public
documents and other works, numbering more than 1,000 volumes. May
24, 1852, the first board of trustees was organized, Mr. Everett, presi-
dent. Several other sums were given for books; and, on October 1 of
the same year, Mr. Joshua Bates, of London, in consequence of having
read the preliminary report drawn by Mr. George Ticknor and Mr.
Everett, offered $50,000 for the use of the library, which gift was
accepted and funded. On October 12 the city legislation respecting the
library was begun by the passage of the first ordinance. The actual
opening of the library to use first took place in Masou street, not far
from the site of the present building, March 20, 1854, and on May 2
succeeding the library itself was open to readers and borrowers at the
same place.
The corner-stone of the present edifice was laid September 17, 1855 ;
in 1857 the eminent bibliographical scholar, Prof. C. C. Jewett, was
made superintendent; January 1, 1858, the library building was dedi-
cated, having cost, with the land, about $365,000. On September 17,
864 Public Libraries in the United States.
1858, the reading room in the present building was opened for use, and
December 20 the Lower Hall. A catalogue of the books in the Lower
Hall was published at the same time. The collection thus offered to the
public was somewhat more solid in average character than the present
Lower Hall library, which has become the distinctively popular or light
reading branch of the institution.
The Upper Hall, with about 74,000 volumes, was opened for use in
1861, the first volume of its catalogue (or index) being ready at the
time. The whole number of books in the library was now 97,386, and
the series of splendid gifts to the favorite institution, so characteristic
of the city of Boston, in money and books, had already become remark-
ably large. Mr. Bates, besides his noble present of $50,000, afterward
^ave one of equal value in books, which formed part of the library in the
Upper Hall when opened in 1861 ; and this hall, upon his death, in 1864,
was named after him. Bates Hall.
The sons of Dr. Bowditch, the famous raathematiciau, had presented
their father's library of 2,550 volumes, besides manuscripts. Rev.
"Theodore Parker's great and learned collection of 11,061 volumes had
been received under his will. Mr. George Ticknor had given more than
3,000 volumes, including a large number of Greek, Latin, and Italian
<ilassics. Besides these there had been added to the Bates fund a sum
of $10,000 by the will of Hon. Abbott Lawrence, $4,000 by that of Miss
Mary P. Townsend, and $20,000 by that of Hon. Jonathan Phillips, in
addition to $10,000 already given by him.
Similar additions continued from time to time to be made to the re-
sources of the library, the next of importance being the very curious
and valuable ancient Prince Library, bequeathed by its collector,
Kev. Thomas Prince, in 1758, to the deacons of the Old South Church.
This collection had suffered many dilapidations in various ways, one of
the worst being the unjustifiable procurement by three well known col-
lectors of books, not very many years ago, of three copies of the Bay
Psalm Book, worth then $300 or $400 each, and which would now be
worth probably $1,000 apiece, in exchange for a few volumes and a
little binding, to the total value of, perhaps, $40 or $50. The where-
abouts of these copies is still known, and it is to be hoped that they
may some time be recovered.
To bring down to date the account of the remarkable collection thus
fused with the library, must be added a reference to the Ticknor and
Barton collections. The first of these, of Spanish and Portuguese
books, bequeathed by Mr. Ticknor and. received after his death in 1871,
■contains nearly 4,000 volumes. With this Mr. Ticknor gave a fund of
$4,000, to be used for increasing it. The second is the very remarkable
libra! y gathered by Thomas Pennant Barton, of New York, which
includes the best Shaksperean collection in America, besides much ex-
oellent standard English literature, and a fine department of early
JFrench literature.
1' r i; L I C I. I U i: A K Y — B A T E S H A L I-
^3 E
FiibUc Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 8G7
la the year 1S6G the old " ledger system " of recording loaus of books
was given up, and the " slip system " substituted. In October the first
of the library series of Bulletins, now issued quarterly, showing the
most important accessions of the quarter, was published.
The death of Mr. Jewett took place in the beginning of 1868, and he
was succeeded by Mr. Winsor, the present superintendent. In Novem-
ber, 1870, the first of the existing branches, or popular local suburban
outposts of the library, was established at East Boston. These branches
are now six in number — at East Boston, South Boston, (dating from
1872.) Roxbury, (1873,) Charlestown, (1871,) Brighton, (1871,) and Dor-
chester, (1875.) Into the Roxbury, Charlestown, Brighton, and Dor-
chester branches have been gathered, or associated in some way, local
libraries already existing or provided for. Such were at Roxbury the
Fellowes Athenteum ; at Charlestown, the Public Library, already es-
tablished there; at Brighton, the Holton Library ; and at Dorchester,
a local circulating library established at the Lower Mills village. As
part of the arrangement for uniting this last collection with the Public
Library, a further ramification of the branch system has been tried, by
the establishment at the Lower Mills, not of a library but of a " branch
delivery," in charge of an agent who receives and attends to applica-
tions for books, to be supplied either at the Dorchester branch, or at
the Central Library in Boston.
The action of the Boston city council in respect to the library has
been constantly handsome. Its policy has been such as to permit the
library to be managed on library principles; and besides the liberal
regular appropriations annually made for its support, the special re-
quirements, always incident from time to time to the growth of such
an institution, have been promptly met. Such were, for instance, the
appropriation of $70,000 in 1872, to purchase the adjoining Richardson
estate, in order to provide for a future extension of the building, and
that of about $30,000 in 1873, to erect an addition to the edifice.
The whole number of books in the library is over 297,000. It was, on
July 1, 1875, exactly 280,709, distributed as follows :
In Bates Hall 176, 555
Lower Hall 34, 253
Newspaper room 2, 674
Duplicate room 9, 988
Total Central 223,470
East Boston 8, 617
South Boston 6, 778
Koxbury 9, 112
Charlestown 16, 854
Brighton 11,575
Dorchester ■ 4, 258
Jamaica Plain (intended) 45
Total branches 57,239
Grand total 280, 709
868 Public Libraries in the United States.
The following figures show the actual extent to which books are de-
livered, not including Bates Hall "within the rail," the patent room,
the reference department of Bates Hall, or the periodical room. With
these exceptions, the number of books issued has been as follows :
During June, 1875 56,368
During the library year, 1874-'75 758, 493
During the library year, 1873-74 6-25,442
From establishment to July 1,1875 6,150,226
These figures show an increase of 133,051 a year in circulation, and a
total daily book delivery during the last library year of more than 2,500
on each open day.
The organization of the library is briefly as follows :
The organic law of the institution is the city ordinance establishing
it. Three members of the common council of Boston are always mem-
bers of the board of trustees; and the trustees oversee and control
the library business, subject to the ordinance. The executive force in-
cludes—
1. The superintendent, whose special staff consists of a secretary, a
dispatch clerk, an auditor, (who keeps the accounts,) and a messenger.
2. Seven departments in the Central Library, to wit: Bates Hall, cir-
culating department, under a keeper with six assistants; Lower Hall,
circulating department, keeper and twenty-two assistants ; catalogue
department, assistant superintendent and fourteen assistants ; order-
ing and receiving department, clerk and three assistants ; shelf de-
partment, custodian and two assistants ; janitor's department, chief
janitor and two assistants ; bindery, foreman and eight assistants.
3. Six branches- already named, where are employed six librarians
and forty-one others in all.
The whole library working force thus includes 116 persons, of whom
more than two-thirds are women. They are subordinate, and report
respectively — the assistants to their heads of departments, these to
the superintendent, he to the board, and the board to the common
council. A code of bylaws and regulations supplements the ordinance,
and defines the duties and responsibilities of all.
The principal items of the library expenditures are as follows for the
year 1874-'75, but to these should be added the sum of about $30,000?
already mentioned, appropriated by the cit}^ for an addition to the
building; which is accounted for in the (city) public buildings depart-
ment, but does not appear in the library accounts :
Salaries $61,127 48
Books and periodicals 28, 080 55
Binding 8,080 84
Printing catalogues, (Central Library only) 3, 361 57
Printing catalogues, (with some other Dorchester expenses, new branch). . 2, 664 96
Other printing and stationery 4, 687 57
READING ROOM FOR PERIODICALS.
PiibJic Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 871
Fiirnituie, (mostly in new addition to building) $10,256 55
Fuel, (.$3,440.88,) gas, (§4,528.55) 7,959 43
Transportation, (daily to and from branches, etc.,) postage, etc 2, 288 18
Expense 4, 159 59
Total 132,676 72
To understand properly the apportionment of these heads of expend-
iture as a matter of library administration, something like the follow-
ing is necessary : Call the whole, in round numbers, $133,000 ; deduct
the extraordinary item for new furniture, say $10,000, and there remain
$123,000. Let the whole be considered under the three heads of 1. Books,
(and binding;) 2. Salaries; 3. Other expenses; and we have this divis-
ion of our total, viz :
Salaries $61,000
Books and binding 36,000
Other expenses 26, 000
Total 123,000
In this apportionment the salary account is unusually large, and the
book account, of course, proportionately small. This (at first sight un-
desirable) condition of things is, in great measure, due to two causes,
viz :
1. The extent and activity of the circulating or popular departments
of the library, requiring a large staff.
2. The very great fulness and thoroughness with which the cataloguing
is done. Investigation would show that all the individual items which
make up this large total yearly cost are scrutinized and economized
with complete system and thorough care.
The current business of the library, so far as relates to its books,
may be summarily considered under six heads, as follows :
1. Choosing ichat hools to get. — In the beginning, much of this selection
■was done by experts in the different departments of learning. At present,
it is found best to permit the procured accessions to be determined in
two ways: (1) by the judgment of the regular buying agents of the
library upon such new books as appear, and (2) by the calls of the
public for such books as are not already found in the library. The
choice of the agents is made under a few clear conditions, and sub-
ject to the return of any or all books furnished, if unacceptable. The
demands of customers are made upon regular blanks furnished by the
library. Books so asked for are furnished, of course, whenever to be
had, aud as soon as possible ; and notice of their being ready sent to the
suggester, except in the few cases where great cost or other sufficient
reasons may prevent.
2. Buying the hool\s. — This is done by a complete business system of
ordering, so arranged that preliminary search shows that the library
has not the book ; a short title slip catalogue shows what books have
been sent for, and when ; press copies of all orders are kept ; books
received are checked oft" on the invoices, and the invoices kept filed
872 Public Libraries in the United States.
in order of arrival; in short, the arrange ments are such as those of any"
accurate hook purchasing business.
3. Getting the bools reach/ to deliver. — Tiie books are first dealt with as-
merchandise, being collated, returned, if not perfect, stamped, marked,
and labeled, so as to identify them as the property of the library and
unfit them as much as may be for seeming to be the i^roperty of any one
else. They are then catalogued ; then " located," i. e., put in their proper
alcove, range, and shelf, and the mark of such location entered both on
the book itself (inside and outside both) and in the shelf list, (with the
title.)
4. Identifying the customer. — The guarantee system is not used in this-
library, a mere identification being thus far found sufScient. Any per.
son whatever, being decent, may use the books in the library. To take
them away, a brief process of registration and, sometimes, inquiry is
gone through with, resulting almost without excei)tion in issuing a card
bearing the applicant's name. This is shown whenever a book is taken
or returned, and stamped along with the slip for each book. And a
"registration slip" is filled out and i)ut into the alphabeted file as each
card is given out, headed, of course, with the same name as that on the
card. These registration slips form thus an alphabetical catalogue or
directory of the customers of the library. At present the whole number
of names in this directory is more than ninety thousand, of which about
two-thirds are still " alive," *. e., are of persons now using the library.
5. Delivering the hools. — This is done on a system which enables the
library to accomplish the maximum of work by causing each customer
to do a very little for himself. Instead, that is, of the ancient fashion,
by which the librarian recorded the. name of the book and fhe name of
the taker, it is the latter who makes the entries, always on the regular
and uniform library " charging slip," so that the library has left only the
stamping of the slip and the marking a brief date in the book. The slip
then represents the book and its taker until it comes back, and also as
long as it is preserved.
6. Getting the booTiS hack. — The good customer brings the books back
himself in good order, according to rule. For the bad customer, there
is a set of penalties and pursuits. After so many days a fine accrues;
after so many days more a larger penalty accrues, and, besides, a mes-
senger seeks out the delinquent. The contumacious are debarred the
use of the library until arrears are settled. Injury to books is punish-
able by fine or imprisonment under a special statute.
The machine thus organized and conducted works well. Perhaps one
single final statistic, to be appended to the total figures of circulation
above noted, will sufficiently attest this success ; it is the fact that, in so
large a city as Boston, only one book is being lost out of about every
9,000 delivered out, (the precise figures for the year 1874-75 are one out
of every 8,921,) or one-ninetieth of 1 per cent. Any mercantile busi-
ness of equal extent, showing as small a margin of bad debts as this,
would be thought pretty carefully managed.
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 873
CONGREGATIONAL LIBRARY.
BY HEV. I. P. lAXGWORTIIV,
Librarian.
The Congregatioual Library origiuated in a feeling among a few men
who thought it very desirable to gather and preserve, so as to have
available, the writings and various mementos of the first settlers of
this country. Prof. Bela B. Edwards, of Andover, published an able
article on this subject in the August number of the Bibliotheca Sacra,
1847. The first meeting in behalf of the object was at Andover, in the
winter of 1851, and the association was organized May 25, 1853. It had
a very small beginning; in its first ten years only about 3,600 volumes
and 8,000 pamphlets had been gathered, and these were of quite a mis-
cellaneous character. All funds collected were used, and are still, for
the purpose of building and for running expenses — not a dollar ever
having been appropriated with which to buy a book. Gifts of old books
and pamphlets have been more frequent, and in some instances quite
large, within the last twelve years, so that we now have nearly 23,000
volumes and about 95,000 pamphlets, including duplicates. The in-
crease for the last year has been 4,957 volumes and 10,074 pamphlets.
The prevailiog character of the books is religious — doctrinal, ecclesi-
astical, expository, practical, historical, experimental, controversial;
embracing everything that can be secured that has been published, of
all shades of belief and non-belief. Statistics, biographies, local his-
tories, and the like, are among our few specialties.
It is strictly a reference library, and no one is denied access to its
books. One dollar secures any person of proper character whose name
is entered upon the "visitors' book" all the privileges of the library
for life.
It is managed by a board of directors, appointed by members of ortho-
dox Congregational churches, who have paid a sum not less than $1.
The corporate name of the organization is The American Congrega-
tional Association.
The library is everywhere known as the Congregational Library.
The working force at present is a librarian and one assistant. Its
chief drawback is the want of a library fund for the purchase and
binding of books. It has now a very commodious fire-proof room in
connection with the Congregational House.
ODD fellows' library.
This library was founded in 1854, in consequence of an offer by Trcr
mont Lodge, one of the lodges meeting in the hall which then stood at
the corner of Chauncy and Essex streets, to give for such a purpose a
library of its own, on condition that the members at large of the order
would add a certain number of other books. This was done, and the
collection was put in order and opened for use to the members as the
874 Public Libraries in the United States.
property of the Odd Fellows who met in the hall.. In 1858 a committee
from the different lodges and encampments consulted upon the means
of improving the library, and in consequence a managing board of trus-
tees was appointed, one from each lodge and encampment. In Decem-
ber of the same year, after various means had been tried with moderate
success to increase the number of books, the library was opened again
for use with 44G volumes ; N. P. Burgess, librarian. In 1863 it was re-
moved to the new hall in Washington street, at which time its circula-
tion was about 1,450 volumes a year. In October of that year the
whole number of books was 1,081. According to their ability the dif-
ferent bodies owning the library have constantly responded to the nec-
essary calls made upon them for supporting and enlarging it. At the
end of 1872 the library was closed and inspected for weeding out used
up books which were replaced with new ones, and in June, 1873, it was
again opened in the present hall, corner of Tremont and Berkeley
streets. It has now grown to contain 2,754 volume^, and in 1874 it cir-
culated 7,624 volumes. It is open evenings, except Saturdays, Sundays,
and legal holidays; it may be used free hy all members of such lodges
or encampments as meet in the hall, including Mary Washington Lodge
of the Daughters of Rebekah. A. brief but clear and sensibly made
catalogue was issued in April, 1875.
THE GENERAL THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY.
BY KEV. LUTHER FARXIIAM.
In April, 1860, the General Theological Library was instituted in Boston
under the revised statutes of Massachusetts. Among those who took
an active part in forming the institution were Rev. Dr. Burroughs and
Mr. Farnham, Bishop Eastburn, Dr. George W, Blagden, the late J. Sulli-
van W^arren, esq.. Rev. Dr. Samuel K. Lothrop, Rev. Ezra S. Gannett,
D. D., John B. Kettell, esq., and others. By the rules of the institution,
a person who has given $1,000 or upward, ranks as a founder. On this
principle the late Rev. Dr. Charles Burroughs is the first founder of the
Theological Library, the late Ebenezer Dale, esq., of Boston, the second
founder, and the late Miss Arabella Rice, of Portsmouth, I^. H., the
third founder. More than any other. Dr. Burroughs was the founder of
the institution, for he was for several years the only surviving member of a
similar library that existed in Boston from about 1808 to 1815, but which
was not in active operation after the latter date. And if we include
the bequests of Dr. Burroughs to the Theological Library, he has given
to it more than three times as much as any other person, or about
$10,000. Another reason for the formation of the society was to promote
(Christian union, or, at least, a better understanding among religious
denominations.
The library, when organized and opened to the public, was almost
destitute of books and money. This was at No. 5 Tremont street, where
it remained for about two years. It was next lodged at 41 Tremont
street, in more spacious quarters, where it continued for nearly five
PuhUc Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 875
years. The growth of the library required it to seek more spacious ac-
commodatious at 'So. 12 West street, where it has been for nearly seven
years. The library has gained by gift and purchase nearly 1,000 vol-
umes, on the average, each year since it was opened; including the pri-
vate library of the late Dr. Burroughs, bequeathed to the institution, but
not yet received, as his widow has the use of it during her life. The es-
timated value of the library, now numbering more than 12,000 volumes,
is about $10,000. The permanent fund of the library is $8,000, and there
is a bequest of $5,000, not yet received, to be added to it.
In the j;ear 1874-'75, only 245 volumes were added to the collec-
tion, of which 173 were purchased and 74 given, the financial situa-
tion of the country being unfavorable to its growth. The character of
the library is theological, religious, and moral ; hence it is known as the
General Theological Library, and was formed for the purpose of collect-
ing the books used by clergymen, theological students, Sunday school
teachers, and readers of religious literature. The library is unsectarian
in character, being used by persons of all the religious denominations,
which are fairly represented in its management. Another object of the
society is to collect all pamphlets and periodicals on religion and tbe-
ology. The reading room belonging to the library receives nearly 100
different periodicals, representing twenty religious denominations.
The library may be used by members and annual su bscribers. The
former pay $50 once for all, or $5 a year ; the latter, if Sunday school
teachers, pay $2 a year 5 if clergymen or theological students, $3 a year ;
if of neither of these classes, $5 a year. These terms are for use of the
library, including the drawing of books. Members take usually two
books at a time ; if they live within ten miles they keep them a month ;
if beyond, two months. The distance to which books may be taken is
unlimited. The library extends hospitality to strangers who are neither
members nor subscribers. It was incorporated in 18G4, and is managed
by a board of fifteen directors, who are elected for three years and may
be re-elected.
Two persons are regularly employed in the library, the secretary,
who also fills the office of librarian, and an assistant librarian, who is
usually a woman.
Forty thousand volumes and periodicals have been consulted or
drawn from the library during the last year. Persons residing in forty-
six towns of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont drew
books during that time. In the past thirteen years, books have been
drawn by persons living in two hundred and twenty towns and villages
in six different States ; and persons from twenty-two other States, from
Canada, Great Britain, France, Africa, China, and Japan, have used
the library at the rooms.
BOSTON AND ALBANY RAILWAY LIBRARY.
This library, unique, it is believed, at least in the United States, was
established in the year 1869 by the Hon. Ginery Twichell, president of
876 Fuhlic Libraries in the United States.
the road, who gave several hundred dollars to start it. The board of
directors of the road vote an annual amount for its support and man-
agement. Its object, the supply of appropriate reading, free of all
charges, for those employed by the road, and the proposed scope of its
collections are thus stated in the documents of the library : " To have
within reach of officers and employes the best books on the railway sys-
tem and the industrial arts, and also as many on the sciences and in gen-
eral literature as shall be attainable." There are at present about 1 ,650
volumes, which are kept in quarters provided for the purpose in the
passenger station of the road in Boston, in charge of a librarian. The
circulation reaches about 400 a month. The library is open two hours
once a week, at fixed times, and there is a regular system by which
books can be sent for and returned by train, along the whole length of
the road. Those of the force who live in Boston are not so dependent
as the rest upon the library, as they have access to the Public Library
and other collections ; but by those not so advantageously situated, the
railroad library is well used and well appreciated, as its steadily in-
creasing circulation proves. The whole number of employes who might
u«e the library is about 250, and about two hundred are always using
it, who would, as they are situated, hardly be able to read anything at
all without it. A considerable number of statistical and scientific refer-
ence books and some rather costly ones constitute a "consulting depart-
ment," and must be used at the library, or taken away only under special
restrictions. Examination of the catalogue shows an uncommonly solid,
sensible, and useful collection of books, these strong characteristics being
plainly visible even in what there is of poetry and romance. Very prop-
erly there is a distinct abundance of railway literature of various kinds.
There can hardly be a doubt that the example set by this very interest-
ing library might be followed with great advantage by all our larger rail-
ways.
DEAF MUTE LIBEARY.
The Boston Deaf-Mute* Library Association was organized by Edwin
N. Bowes and associates, July, 1872. A hall was rented at 160 Wash-
ington street, and the same furnished by the kindness of friends of the
mutes and other liberal citizens of Boston. It was dedicated on the
1st of October, 1872. It was designed as a place where the mutes of
Boston and vicinity might meet for social enjoyment and mental im-
provement. A course of lectures and simple amusements was begun
and continued until the fire of JSTovember 9 and 10, 1872, when all the
property of the library was destroyed, amounting in value to $1,500. A
new hall was then procured at 280 Washington street, and through
the kindness of Messrs. Lee & Shepard, and other publishers and book-
sellers, a new library was formed, and the association soon recovered
from its losses. But few new books were procured during the last
year owing to lack of sufficient funds. The library numbers about 800
Public Libraries of Ten Princij)al Cities. 877
volumes ; the prevailing character of the books being the same as at
most libraries, consisting of religious works, novels, history, travels, etc.
Formerly" the rules would not admit of any but mutes being members,
but at the present time any person can have access to the library, with
the privilege of drawing books, on the payment of $1.
The act of incorporation provides that the name shall be The Boston
Deaf-Mute Association, and that the board of ofiicers shall consist of
four hearing trustees and five directors, president, and vice-president.
At present only the librarian receives a salary. The number of books
taken out the past year was about 500 volumes.
POST LIBRARY, FORT WARREN, BOSTON HARBOR.
This library numbers 1,450 volumes, and was in great part accumu-
lated during the war, for the use of the prisoners confined in the fort.
Additions have been made from time to time for the use of the troops
stationed at the post, andMhe library is freely used by all who reside on
the island, soldiers and laborers alike.
BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY.
This library numbers about 10,000 books and manuscripts, of respect-
able value, selected for the purposes of the institution, (which is a Ro-
man Catholic college, conducted by Jesuit clergymen,) and is accommo-
dated in the various departments of the college as found convenient for
use. It is intended soon to place the whole in one commodious room
adapted to library purposes.
LIBRARY OF THE PERKINS INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND.
This is a small collection, mostly of reference or text books, printed
in raised letters, for the use of the blind. It was founded at the estab-
lishment of the institution by the late Dr. S. G. Howe. One of the
teachers acts as librarian, and the use of the books is confined to the
pupils and employes. A few books in raised letters have been pro-
cured by the Public Library, which books may be considered avail-
able, to some extent, as a branch of that library at the institution.
OTHER COLLECTIONS.
The following list embraces other public or semi-public libraries in
Boston possessing each 1,000 volumes or more. Further statistics of
these, as well as of minor collections of similar character, will be found
in the general table at the end of the volume. — Editors.
Volumes.
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. (For a notice of this library see
Chapter VII, p. 187, Scientific Libraries) ; 16,000
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 6,000
Boston University :
School of Theology 4,000
School of Law 1,600
School of Medicine : 1,500
878 Public Libraries in the United States.
Volumes.
Commonwealth Circulating Library 1,800
Cousumptives' Home 1,237
Gannett Institute 4,200
Girls' High School - 2,000
Handel and Haydn Society ll,G6i>
Latin Grammar School 5, 000
Lindsley's Circulating Library 3,000
Liscom's Circulating Library 1,000
Loring's Select Library 10, 000
Lunatic Hospital 1,200
Massachusetts General Hospital, Tread well Library 3,542
Massachusetts Horticultural Society 2, 800
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2, SCO
Massachusetts State Prison 3, 200
Mechanic Apprentices' Library 4, 500
Medical Library Association of Boston 2, 50O
Merrill's Library 4, 000
Mrs. S. H. Hayes's Family and Day School 1,500
Naval Library and Institute 4,500
New Church Library 2,000
Public Institutions on Deer Island 2, 000
Roxbury Society for Medical Improvement 1, 500
Seamen's Friend Society 1,000
Young Men's Christian Association 4,785
Young Men's Christian Union 3, 635
Young Women's Christian Association 1,000
HI.— PUBLIC LIBRARIES OF BROOKLYN.
BY S. B. XOYES,
Librarian of the Mercantile Library.
THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.
I be Mercautile Library of Brooklyn owed its origin in 1857 to a pop-
ular movement on the part of the business and professional classes of
the community, based on the conviction, to quote the words of one of the
chief benefactors of the library, " that the great public requirement of
the city, of the first importance in the order of time," was a great public
library of circulation and reference, comprehensive in its scope and pop-
ular in its administration. The word " mercantile" has had no signifi-
cance as implying any limitation in its organization and work. To build
up a great collection of the best books in all the various departments of
science and literature, past and present, has been the constant aim of its
managers.
The initial steps in organization were takeu in 1857, at a public meet-
ing.
December 17, 1857, a constitution was adopted, and in March, 1859,
the act of incorporation was secured.
The library was opened to the public in May, 1858, with 7,000 volumes
on the shelves, increased during the same year to 11,400 volumes. Dur-
PuUlc Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 879
iug the first ten years the association occupied rooms in the Atbenneum
building, the library growing slowly but steadily.
In 1861 Mrs. Maria Cary, widow of William H. Gary, gave 85,000 to
the library, in the form of a trust, the principal to remain intact, the
interest to be expended in the purchase of books in the departments of
history, science, and industrial and ornamental art. Another lady. Miss
Caroline Thurston, gave to the library, in 1865, the sum of -f 100 to form
the nucleus of a permanent general book fund.
For several years prior to 1861 the want of a building of its own had
been keenly felt, and in April of that year the newly elected board
of directors subscribed among themselves the sum of $7,000 as the
basis of a building fund, and an executive committee was appointed
to devise a.plan of action. The appeal to the public met with a gener-
ous response, and before the end of the year the sum subscribed reached
$105,000, and the site of the present building was secured. The charter
of the institution was amended at this time in several particulars, one
section providing for the government of the association by a board of
fifteen directors, (instead of fourteen as heretofore,) one-third of them
to be elected annually, to hold office for three years. Another section
vested the control and management of the trust funds and property of
the association in a board of nine trustees, members of the association,
possessing the power of filling all vacancies in their own body ; it being
the duty of the said trustees to pay over the income derived from the
property of the association to the treasurer of the association. Of the
board of trustees the president and treasurer of the association are ex
officiis members.
The high prices which prevailed at the close of the war occasioned
some delay in building, but in the latter part of 1867 the corner-stone of
the present building was laid, and the edifice was completed in the fol-
lowing year. It is 75 feet wide on Montague street and 92 feet deep.
Exclusive of the basement, it is three stories high, the main portion of
the first story being occupied by the reading room, the library covering
an equal area with the reading room and taking in the second and third
stories. The total cost of the library building was $159,000; and the
total of the building fund subscriptions having amounted to $169,000,
the balance, amounting to $10,000, was funded. The number of indi-
vidual subscribers to the building fund was within 250, the largest sin-
gle subscriptions being one of $12,500, one of $10,000, two of $5,000, and
two of $2,000. There were sixty-two individual subscribers to the book
fund of $50,000, one of whom subscribed $20,000. The next highest
subscription was $2,000. Most of those who subscribed to the book
fund had also subscribed to the building fund.
Fortunately for the library and for those who were to be the recipients
of its benefits, the immediate ability to add largely to the number of
books was ami)ly secured to it. The generous offer of Mr. S. B. Chit-
tenden to subscribe the sum of $20,000, if $30,000 additional could be
880 Piihlic Libraries in the United States.
raised, the whole sum to be devoted to the purchase of books, was
proQiptly responded to by other friends of the association, so that the
whole amount was secured within the period of two months; thus lift-
ing the library, at the very opening of its new career, from a condition
of incompleteness to a comparative fulness of resource. The fruit of
this wise and provident generosity is shown in the rapid growth of the
library during the six j'ears following.
The library on the day of opening, January 18, 1869, had upon its
shelves 20,994 volumes.
The annual additions to the library since 1869 (exclusive of pamphlets
and unbound numbers of serials) have been as follows:
Volumes.
18f)9-'70 4,589
1870-71 5,534
1871-'72 10,126
1872-'73 3,641
1873-'74 3,411
1874-'75 2,364
The present classification of the library, in detail, as reported March
25, 1875, is subjoined as follows :
History, topography, voyages, and travels 7,503
Theology and ecclesiastical history 3, 700
Science and industrial arts 3, 481
Biography 4, 256
Natural history 1, 171
Fine arts 1,382
Collective works, eucyclopicdias, etc 1,379
Philosophy, education, language, etc 1, 762
Political, social, and economic sciences 2, 449
Poetry, the drama, essays, etc 4,017
Fiction 9,696
Works in foreign languages not elsewhere classitied 1, 806
Periodicals 4, 792
Miscellaneous, including duplicates 2,853
Total number of volumes 50, 257
All but a small portion of this sum of $50,000 has now been expended,
and the library will shortly be entirely dependent upon the current re-
ceipts from membership and the income, about $4,000 a year, derived
from property belonging to the association. It is, therefore, felt to be of
vital necessity that the general book fund of the library should be very
largely increased, if the demands'of the future are to be adequately met.
A new and pretty full catalogue of the library is now printing, ar-
ranged by authors, titles, subjects, and classes.
Annual circulation ofboolcs, 1869-74.
Volumes.
1869 61,5»2
1870 96,457
1871 111.710
1872 121,313
1873 116,169
1874 119,308
PiibJlc Libraries of Ten Prhidpal Cities. 881
Member ship.
The total meinbersbip stood on the 20th of March, 1875, as follows:
Permaueut members by the payment of $500 160
Life members by the payment of $100 515
Life members by tlie payment of $50 50
Annual members by the paj"meut of $5 2, 'i'i'l
Total 3,057
Ejctra siib.scriptions of $;> 173
The total receipts from the meaibership, iucliulhig- initiation fees, an-
nual dues, fines, extra subscriptions, etc., amounted during- the year
1874-75 to 813,013.00.
Terms of subscription to the library and reading rooms.
Any person may become a subscriber upon the following terms, which
entitle the subscriber to the use of the library and reading rooms, and
also to attendance upon the classes at reduced rates, viz :
For clerks, students, journeymen mechanics and apprentices, and for
ladies, first year, $1 initiation fee, and $1 per annum, payable quarterlj^
if desired; thereafter, $5 per annum, payable quarterly if desired; for
merchants and professional men, and all other persons, $5 per annum,
payable in advance.
Any person may become a life member by the payment of $100. A
permanent membership is created by the payment of $500.
THE LONG ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
An account of the library of this society will be found in Chapter XIII,
p. 353, of this report.
LIBRARY OF THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.
The library of the Young Men's Christian Association dates from the
organization of the association itself, in November, 1853. The library
numbers about 8,01)0 volumes. The first catalogue was issued in 1861 ;
another catalogue was issued in 1872. The average circulation of books
is about 40,000 per annum.
YOUTHS' FREE LIBRARY OF THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE.
This library has, under its present name and its original name of the
Apprentices' Library, been in existence over half a century, having been
established in 1823. The number of volumes in the library is about
10,000. In 1873 the number of persons using the library was 2,000, and
the circulation was about 40,000 volumes. In 1874 there was some
falling off in these two particulars. The income of the library is reported
as " barely sufiBcient to keep the library from decay and to supply a few
new books yearly," but, as one of the departments of the Brooklyn In-
stitute, it is entitled to rooms in the institute building, rent free, and to
one-half of the net income from the building by rent or otherwise.
56 B
882 FahVic Libraries in the United States.
HAMILTON LITERARY ASSOCIATION.
This association was organized in 1830 and incorporated in 1842. Tbe
association has limited itself to the special purpose of a debating society,
but has collected 1,000 volumes for the use of its members.
BROOKLYN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, EASTERN DISTRICT.
The Brooklyn Library Association of the Eastern District was organ-
ized in January, ISGo, and incorporated April 3, 1805. The present
number of volumes is 10,000. Three hundred and fifty volumes were
added during 1874-'75. The circulation of books is about 17,000 per
annum. The terms of subscription are $1 for the first year and $3 sub-
sequently.
HAWKINS'S CIRCULATING LIBRARY.
This library was established in 1848, with about 400 volumes, by the
father of the present proprietor. It now numbers about 17,000 vol-
umes, English and German, composed entirely of fiction. Circulation
for the past five years : 1870, 21,210 5 1871, 21,963 ; 1872, 22,876; 1873,
23,933 ; 1874, 25,310.
OTHER COLLECTIONS.
Other libraries in Brooklyn numbering each more than 1,000 volumes
which are more or less accessible to the public are the following, further
statistics of which will be found in the general table at the end of the
volume. — Editors.
Tolumes.
Brooklyn Collegiate anil Polytechnic Institute 3, 000
Brooklyn Heigbts Female Seminary 10,000
Brooklyn Law Library ., 5, 325
CarroU Park Scbool 1,500
House of the Good Shepherd 1,080
Packer Collegiate Institute 3, 5e0
St. Francis College 13,970
Union for Christian Work 1 , 500
IV.— LIBRAKIES IX CHARLESTON AXD IX THE SOUTHERX
STATES.
BY- ARTHUR MAZYCK,
Librarian of the Charleston Library Societ)/, Charleston, S. O.
In order to understand the present condition of the libraries in the
Southern States, and the causes which have led to their number being
so small and their existence so feeble, compared with those in other
parts of the United States, we must go back somewhat and see what
was their state previous to the war which has so materially altered the
conditions of society throughout the whole country, and especially in
these States.
We may remark that the conditions were not then especially favor-
able to the growth of these institutions. Several of the States were
PuhUc LWrarks of Ten Principal Cities. 883
new and had not reached sufficient maturity for the development of
literary culture, while in the older States the peculiarly conservative
nature of societ}^ tended rather to refinement and cultivation among the
upper classes than to the dissemination of education among the people
generally. The country was agricultural and mostly in the hands of
large proprietors, who, with the members of the learned professions and
wealthj' merchants, formed the leading class in all, or nearly all, of
the communities. The middle class, or tradespeople, formed but a
small and uninfiuential i)art of the population, and the laboring class
consisted almost entirely of negro slaves. It followed naturall3% from
this state of things, that the need of public libraries, open to all, was
little, if at all, felt. There was no lack of the means of culture, for the
private collections of books were numerous and valuable. The standard
of education among the better classes was high. Most men acquired, in
the course of their collegiate studies, a knowledge of literature and taste
for books, which afterward led them, by the purchase not only of cur-
rent literature, but in many cases, also, of rare and valuable works,
(handed down from father to son, and added to in each generation,) to
form libraries complete and well selected, and not unfrequently number-
ing from 5,000 to 10,000 volumes.
The colleges and public schools were generally well supplied with
libraries for the use of their students, and atibrded the latter ample
means for pursuing their studies beyond the range of ordinary text
books, and for forming habits of reading and study.
In addition to the private collections and those of the schools, there
existed in most of the cities literary or librar3' societies, owning many
thousand volumes, which might be ranked under the head of public
libraries, inasmuch as they belonged to corporations or societies which
were open, under certain restrictions, to all persons in the community;
but they were not in any sense free libraries, being supported for the
most part entirely by the subscriptions of their own members, apd used
only by such members. Being under the direction of their own officers,
and independent of State or municipal control, they do not perhaps
occupy as conspicuous a position in the statistics of the country as their
importance would warrant ; but we shall find as we go on that they
comprise the largest part of the present available libraries in the South.
Thus it happens that, in co'.nmunities where it is a well established
fact that a high state of culture and even considerable learning have
always existed, the reports show but a small number of public libraries,
and those not generally extensive or V3ry valuable.
It may be interesting to note here some particulars concerning pri-
vate libraries and the fate which has befallen them. The loss of books
caused by the late war is irreparable. Thousands of volumes in every
department of literature, a large proportion of which can never be re-
placed, were destroyed, as well as much material, in the shape of corre-
spondence, deeds, pamphlets on local topics, etc., which would have
884 Public Libraries in the United States.
proved iu valuable to the historian. DuriDg the march of Sherman's
army through Georgia and the Carolinas, it is a well known fact that
hundreds of private dwellings were burned to the ground with every-
thing in them ; and where this was not done, the recklessness of the
soldiers and the unrestrained license of the negroes destroyed what
fire had left. Nor was this confined to the route of the main army.
Wherever the United States obtained a foothold, the property was
turned over to the negroes, without an effort, save in- rare instances,
to preserve any part of it. The writer couki speak from actual knowl-
edge of many cases of this kind, but one will be sufticieut for illustra-
tion.
On a plantation near the coast of South Carolina there was a library
of 6,000 to 8,000 volumes of the rarest and most valuable kind. The
owner, a wealthy planter, had used all the eflbrts that a cultivated taste
and abundant means could suggest to enrich his collection from every
source, as well iu Europe as in this country. It was miscellaneous in
character, abounding more in elegant and unique editions, ancient man-
uscripts, and handsomely illustrated works than in any one branch -of
literature, but was specially rich in books relating to the early history
of America. The plantation being somewhat remote from the scene
of military operations, and transportation being difficult, it was not
thought necessary to remove the books, and they remained in safety
until some time iu 18G4, when a United States gunboat went up the river
on which the plantation was situated, and the officers, landing, gave it into
the possession of the negroes. There followed a scene of the most wanton
destruction ; the house was ransacked, and every article of value or
ornament destroyed or carried off. The books shared the fate of every-
thing else; hundreds of volumes were torn to pieces and thrown out of
doors. Eye-witnesses have assured me that they saw the plates of
Audubon used for kindling fires ; and recently, plates from the Boydell
Shakspere, and Hogarth were found stopping the cracks of a negro
house. About a hundred volumes were found scattered through the
house ; and after the war about two hundred more, many of them in
broken sets, were sent on by a gentleman of one of the northern
cities, who said he had been a passenger on board the gunboat, and had
succeeded in saving them. Thus perished a collection which it had
taken years of careful search and large sums of money to bring together,
and which contained much that can never be replaced. As already
stated, the above is not a solitary instance. Numerous cases, almost
exactly similar, occurred throughout all the States, and a little investi-
gation would show deplorable losses of this character, which would
startle those whose attention has not been called to this subject.
CHARLESTON LIBRARY SOCIETY.
We come now to the library societies of the South, and will take as
our first example the Charleston Library Society, which is the oldest,
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 885
and which staiiils probably in the front rank of such associations. A
sketch of its history will give us an idea of the general character of
such institutions in the Southeru States, and will serve to show how
the^^ partook, to a certain extent, of the nature of private collections
rather than of what are usually considered public libraries.
As the preface to a catalogue of the books, published in" 1826, informs
us —
The Charlestou Library Society owes its origiii to seventeen young gentlemen who,
in the year 1743, associated for the purpose of raising a small fund to "collect such new
pamphlets" and magazines as should occasionally be published in Great Britain. They
advanced and remitted to London ten pounds sterling as a fund to purchase such
pamphlets as had appeared during the current year, acting at first under a mere verbal
agreement and without a name. Before the close of the year their views became more
extensive, and, on the 28th December, rules for the organization of the society were
ratified and signed, when they assumed the name of a Library Society, and made
arrangements for the acquisition of books as well as of pamphlets.
Their rules lie before us, engrossed in beautiful penmanship, in a
vellum covered volume, yellow with age, and their preamble is worthy of
insertion here as showing the desire for learning which animated the
men of that day, and which should be impressed upon us, whose oppor-
tunities for acquiring information are so vastly extended:
As the miud of Man has a pleasure in contemplating Nature, and of making Discov-
eries, so it is happily disposed to a desire of Communicating its Knowledge and At-
tainments to Others, aud of having Intelligence of what passes in distant parts of the
Universe.
To those, undoubtedly, We owe the Inventions and Improvements daily made in
Art, Sciences, Commerce, Agriculture, and Mechanism : which are constantly Observed
to flourish in every part of the World, in proportion to the Opportunities it has of
knowing what passes elsewhere.
The great disadvantage this Place labours under for want of such regular Intelli-
gence is but too heavily felt, and. therefore, Every person ought to Contribute with
all his power to the remedy of it. It is with this design that the Library Society have,
this Twenty-Eighth of December, Anno One Thousand Seven hundred and forty-Eight,
Agreed to and subscribed the following Rules.
From this small beginning the society steadily advanced, drawing
into the list of its members the most cultivated and wealthy residents
of the community, and making, by degrees, rich additions to its vol-
umes. We may mention, by the way, that at a meeting held on the 1st
of April, 1719, we find Mr. William Strahau, of London, elected book-
seller to the society. Any reader will recognize the name as that of a
prominent English publishing house at this day.
We find on the list of presidents the names of such men as Charles
Piuckney, Gabriel Manigault, his excellency Hon. Will. Henry Lyttle-
ton, the Hon. Will. Bull, Lord Charles Gr. Montague, Gen. Charles
C. Piuckney, Ralph Izard, Stephen Elliott, and others more or less dis-
tinguished in thehistory of Carolina for ability aud learning.
The advance, however, while steady, was not rapid, and consisted
rather in the value of the particular sets of books purchased than in
the number of volumes of general and current literature added. Most
886 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
of the members, as already stated, were men of means, and the library
was used by them not so much for circulating" books among readers
generally, as a place of deposit for such works as were too large oy ex-
pensive to be owned by single individuals. Hence, we find on its shelves
many treasures for the lover of books — five editions of the English
classics ; huge folios of the Fathers ; rare old pamphlets on the history
of this country ; works like the famous Antiquities of Piranesi ; the
splendid Description de I'Egypte; a second folio of Shakspere, and a
host of others which our space does not permit us to refer to more
particularly.
This easy and gradual advance continued until the breaking out of the
late war, when, of course, all progress ceased; and it being found in
1863 that the books were no longer safe in Charleston, the greater part
were removed to Columbia, where they were deposited in the university
buildings, then used as a hospital. Here they fortunately escaped de-
struction.
Meantime the building of the society was broken into on the evacua-
tion of Charleston, and the books left in it, comprising all the fiction
and other light literature, as well as a considerable number of law
and miscellaneous books, were destroyed or carried off. The General
Government then took possession of the building and used it as a cus-
tom house for several months.
In January, 18G6, the society was re-organized by those members who
had re-assembled in Charleston, and it was determinexl to bring back
the books and re-o[)en the library. This was accomplished after sur-
mounting many difficulties and obstacles, for the funds of the society
were entirely exhausted. The officers of the Government had not only
paid nothing for the use of the building, but had allowed it to fall into
an almost ruinous condition, and the members were utterly impover-
ished ; many of them unable to meet even their annual dues, and none
of them in a condition to make any extra subscription to the society.
By persistent effort, however, and the exercise of strict economy, the
debts of the society were gradually paid otf, subscriptions to reviews
and magazines were renewed, a few books purchased, and some new
and active members introduced, so that by the beginning of the year
1871 the affairs of the society began to wear a hopeful aspect.
In the mean time the Apprentices' Library Society, an association of
somewhat later date, was re-organized, and efforts were made to com-
bine the two societies. The Apprentices' Library Society had attained
some growth before the war, and was of a more popular character than
the older society. The building and all the books were destroyed by
fire in 1861, but a small fund remained, and the few surviving members
exerted all their efforts, with considerable success, to revive the society.
In October, 1874, the two societies were amalgamated under the name
and charter of the Charleston Library Society, and at present the pros-
pects of that society are extremely good. The number of readers has
largely increased, new books are constantly purchased, and it is hoped
FhU'lc Libraries of Ten Princiiml Cities. 887
withiu a short time to catalogue aud arrange tliem so as to display to
the best advantage these really valuable stores.^
We have been thus particular in describing this society because we
believe it to be a fair example of similar associations throughout the
South. A correspondence with the principal libraries develops the fact
that most of them have followed the same course. Those established
before the war, well sustained up to that period, but not greatly ex-
tended, were, of course, much reduced, and in some cases altogether de-
stroyed. They have since revived with more or less vigor, and generally
with a view to greater popularity. Many new ones have been started,
and have, as a rule, proved successful. The scope of this paper does
not permit us to give the history of each of the library societies and
public libraries; but we select a sufficient number of instances of vari-
ous kinds to give, we hope, a fair general idea of their condition and
prospects.
We begin with the history of the Georgia Historical Society, at Savan^
uah, Ga., which ranks among the most useful and active. The librarian
writes:
Before the war little was done by our society toward iucreasiujj the library, but since
1865 the number of books has been nearly doubled; aud in 1871 the second article of
the constitution was amended by adding the words, " aud to create a library for the
use of its members." The number of volumes in the library is now over 9,000, aud the
increase during the past year was 728 volumes. ... No jiersons are allowed to
draw books except members of the society and their families and the female teachers
in the city schools. Our rooms are open to visitors, aud persons desiring to consult
books of reference are allowed to do so. We have a reading room, where the loading
papers of the country are kept on file, and we take a large number of American and
foreign periodicals.
The library is soon to be moved into a new building, constructed for
it by a wealthy family of Savannah at a cost of about $50,000. It is
to be wished that more such acts of generosity and public spirit could be
recorded throughout the country.
The Galveston Free Library, of Galveston, Tex., presents a most grat-
ifying report. The Chamber of Commerce of Galveston, which founded
the library under the name of the Galveston Mercantile Library, find-
ing the demand for books greater than their funds would supply, offered
to give the library to the city on condition that it should be sustained
and made free to the people. The offer was accepted, and the ordinance
was passed in March, 1874, accepting the offer and providing for the
permanent support of the library by an appropriation of $250 per month,
and by such regulations as afford the amplest facilities for the rapid in-
crease of the number of books and their free use by all residents of
Galveston over twelve years of age.
1 A new Catalogue of the Books and Pamphlets belonging to the Charleston Library
Society, Charleston, 1876, compiled by Mr. Mazyck, has been received. It forms an
octavo volume of .372 pages, and is arranged alphabetically by authors, subjects, and
titles, with imprints. — Editors.
888 PuhUc Libraries in the United States.
The bulletin and reports of this library show an admirable selection.
Some of the departments, such as local history, for instance, are made
particularly complete ; but there is also a sufficient supply of general
literature to meet the wants of all classes of readers. The collection
numbers between 8,000 and 9,000 volumes.
In the published account of the twenty-second annual meeting of
the Petersburg Library Association, Petersburg, Va., March 4, 1875,
the report of the board of managers gives the following figures :
Number of volumes January 1, 1861 5, 0"22
Number at the close of tbe war 2, 389
Number lost and destroyed duriuj^ tbe war '2,906
Number now in library 3,519
Number bought the present year 91
Periodicals taken 10
Newspapers taken 8
The report gives some hope of an improved condition of affairs, and
makes an earnest ap[)eal to the citizens for aid.
The librarian of the Library Association of Little Eock^ Ark., writes:
The Library Association of Little Eock M'as organized in November, 1867. It is for
the exclusive use of members of the association. Tbe present membership is about
one hundred and fifty, and tbe condition and prospects better than they have ever been
befoi'e ; the number of books, 1,000; annual increase, 250. . . . Our principal
readers are of the middle and upper classes. We have to regret a lack of taste for
reading in the lower classes throughout, and among the young men of tbe upper and
middle classes. Scarcely any of our clerks and younger men of business, or even of
the professions, show any inclination to patronize a public library.
The Young Men's Library of Atlanta, Ga., exhibits perhaps the most
rapid advance that we have yet noticed. The librarian informs us that
the library and reading room were established in August, 1867, with
twenty or thirty members, and an " armful of books." They have now
fully six hundred and tifty members and over 4,500 volumes, and addi-
tions are, made almost weekly by purchase or donation. Their col-
lections considerably exceed their expenses, so that they have now some
$3,500 invested as the nucleus of a building fund. Their j)reseut rooms
are spacious and well ventilated. The circulation in 1874 was nearly
15,000 volumes, and the librarian expects a considerable increase dur-
ing the present year.
STATE Ll BE ARIES.
Our attention is next directed to the State libraries, thatistosay^
those at the capitals of each State, and supported by legislative grants.
These are in general used merely for the deposit of official documents
and publications, and are for the use only of members of the legisla-
ture and State officials; but in some cases they are more extended and
are made of real service to the people.
The Virginia State Library, at Richmond, Va., receives a handsome
grant of from three to five thousand dollars per annum; contains about
35,000 volumes, largely made up of general literature, and is open, under
what restrictions we are not precisely informed, to all citizens.
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 889
The Mississippi State Library, at Jackson, Miss., is most admirably
sustained. Its largest department is law, and we tbink it may justly
claim to be the best law library in the Southern States ; but there is
also a fair proportion of other literature. We learn that the number of
volumes of law is 9,000; of general literature, i e., theology, history,
biography, poetry, and the drama, etc., 3,000; miscellaneous, including
public documents, about ■AjOOO ; pamphlets, (various,) 3,500. It has a
yearly State grant of 6o,000, which is under the control of the gov-
ernor and the judges of the supreme court. It is expected that 2,000
volumes will be added during the year 1875-70. The library is open to
the bar and to citizens generally. With such advantages this library
bids fair to become one of the most important in the Southern States,
and we cannot too highly commend the wise policy of the Mississippi
State government in thus liberally supi)lying one of the greatest needs
of the people and furui>shiug them with the best possible means of im-
provement.
It would be well if the legislatures of all the Southern States would turn
their attention to this matter, and according to their means anxl oppor-
tunities follow the example of Virginia and Mississippi. Even if the
collections were not made so general, it would be of incalculable service
to have in each State a library where particular kinds of information
could certainly be obtained.
COLLEGE LIBRARIES.
The libraries of educational institutions do not properly belong to the
subject of this paper, and we have not extended our inquiries far in,
that direction. Most of the universities and colleges are provided with
libraries for the use of their students, which, of course, have followed
the fortunes of the institution to which they are attached. Many of
these are carefully gathered collections, and some of them rank very
high. The Library ol the University of Virginia was the largest and
best in the South, and that of the South Carolina College^ was, in pro-
portion to the size of the college, not far behind it. The former, we
believe, is still well sustained, while the latter has shared the fate of the
college, and is not only poorly supported, but, we are informed, many of
the books have been lost or stolen.
It is much to be desired that these college libraries should be opened
to the public. If the citizens of towns in which colleges are situated
were allowed the use of the libraries under certain restrictions, and
perhaps on payment of some fee, it would most likely prove a mutual
benefit. The students do not need the use of a very great number of
volumes at any one time, and many books lie on the shelves unused
' The name of this institution was changed, in 1865, to the University of South Car-
olina, and the library numbered according to the last returns 28,250 volumes, including
a students' society library of 1,250 volumes. A brief sketch of the library will be
found on pages 121, 122, of this report.— Editors.
890 FuUic Libraries in the United States.
which might be turned to valuable service iu the community. On the
other hand, the citizens, having their interest and attention drawn to
the institution, would be prompted to give it a more liberal support.
CONCLUSION.
But we have digressed somewhat from the strict limits of our subject,
and must return to say with regret that, notwithstanding the occasional
instances of favorable progress that we have been able to note above, a
view of the condition of public libraries in the Southern States presents
after all but a barren prospect. In proportion to the population their
number is exceedingly small ; they are poorly supported ; are conducted
on no general or fixed system, and are confined usuall^^ to the large
cities, while the smaller communities in these States are, for the most
part, absolutely destitute of this most necessary means of education and
refinement.
The greatest number of volumes in any one library is 35,000, which is
small when compared with many libraries in the northern and western
cities. Of course a list of the contents of the libraries in the South
would not include all the books which are read by the people, for be-
sides the books purchased by private individuals, the number of which
is still considerable, notwithstanding their reduced means, there are all
through the country book clubs and private circulating libraries which
supply a large number of readers; but we have to repeat that the num-
ber of public libraries is far, very far, short of what it should be and
what the needs of the people demand. We do not believe that this
state of things arises from any lack of interest ou the part of the peo-
ple, for we have already seen that among some classes, at least, the de-
sire for education is very strong, and it is easy to show how much the
need of facilities for obtaining it is felt. The difficulty is chiefly finan-
cial. There are very few persons in the Southern States whose wealth
is sufficient to enable them to do anything toward the endowment of
public institutions; and while we could record here some noble in-
stances of public spirit, we regret to find that it does not generally exist
among the present possessors of wealth, and the majority of the mem-
bers of library societies are really unable to do more than pay a very
small annual subscription.
Unfortunately, the present political condition of most of the States
precludes the possibility of any help from State or municipal sources.
An appropriation which should take little from the public treasury
would do incalculable benefit in this direction ; but while much politi-
cal capital is made out of grand schemes for education in general, no
serious effort is made to carry out those schemes; and even where funds
are actually appropriated bj^ State or city, there is sometimes little left
for their proper object after they have passed through the hands of
three or four officials. But the need exists and is deeply felt — how deeply
PuUlc Libraries in Ten Princiiml Cities. 891
it is difficult to appreciate without personal observation, though every
statement we have made tends to show it.
We have seen a people fond of literary culture, amply supplied with
books in their homes and in their colleges, having almost every volume
swept away at a blow, and at the same time losing the means to re-
place their lost books, and even to keep up with the publications of the
day. We have seen earnest men trying to gather up the fragments and
organize associations to continue the work; and, unfortunately, we have
seen how little after all has really been accomplished, owing, it can only
be supposed, to the absence of systematic and combined effort among
themselves and a little aid and encouragement from without. There
is no time and no place where well sustained public libraries are not
valuable, and indeed necessary to the education and refinement of the
people; but in the cities and towns of the Southern States at present
the need is such that we are scarcely speaking too strongly when we
say that upon its supply will depend whether the people of thes^ States
rise again to their former position in the country or sink into a condi-
tion of dependency on the more enlightened communities.
Young men are now compelled to leave school and go into business
long before their education is completed. Many of tliem are accus-
tomed to associate a liigh intellectual culture with their social stand-
ing, and, being unable to attain this, they must necessarily set for
themselves a lower standarcl ; besides, we know that it is utterly im-
possible for men to rise very high in any department without thorough
education. The mind naturally narrows itself to its surroundings, and
we cau never expect to have great statesmen or professional men, or
even large minded and enlightened merchants, until we give our men the
opportunities which their own resources do not permit them to enjoy.
But the higher classes are not, perhaps, the greatest sufferers. The re-
finements of their homes, at any rate, serve as a check to keep them from
going down altogether; but for those who are without such restraining
influences, everything tends to lower their condition as regards literary
improvement. Every news-stand is filled with dime novels and il-
lustrated papers of the most vicious character. These are constantly
thrown in the way of the people, young and old, and cannot fail to have
a most pernicious eflect, sooner or later, on the public morals.
There is also another class which now forms a considerable part of
the readers of most of the southern cities. Besides those persons who
are traveling for business purposes, there are every winter thousands of
people from the Northern States who come to the South seeking a more
genial climate. They are temporarily without employment, and time
hangs heavily on their hands wh.Mi deprived of books for amusement or
instruction. Being generally but a short time in any one place, they
are not disposed to purchase books to leave behind or be burdened with
on their journeys, and consequently they depend on the public reading
rooms. As these people are generally well off, they can afford to pay
892 Public Libraries in the United States.
for the privilege of reailiag-, aud thas do somsthing toward the support
of the library which they use.
Our experience does not enable us to say much on the subject of free
libraries, but we are disposed to think that the payment of a small fee,
or rather monthly or annual subscription, is not a disadvantageous
regulation. It carries with it a certain accountability, and tends to make
people value more highly library privileges. This we think is especially
the case where persons are required to become members of a society-
Each feels a personal interest in the success of the enterprise, and is apt
to use efforts to induce others to feel a similar interest. To meet the
wants of those who are entirely without the means of subscribing, some
way might be devised to enable them to obtain books through mem-
bers. A very good plan exists at present in the Charleston Library
Society, and perhaps in some other libraries. No person under twenty-
one years of age can become a member, but each regular member is
entitlecl to the privilege of recommending a certain number of minors,
for whose proper conduct in the use of the library he is responsible.
By this means its benefits are widely extended at a small cost to indi.
viduals, and the society is protected in its property by the liability of
its members for injury done either by themselves 'or by the minors in-
troduced by them.
The working regulations of libraries, however, are of comparativ^ely
small importance, and can easily be arranged according to the circum-
stances of each. The vital matter is to establish these institutions and
put them once on a firm footing, and we are convinced their success
would follow as a certainty. How this is to be done it does not lie in
our province to suggest, further than the few observations we have
made on special cases, and indeed it would require very careful study
of the subject to determine upon a plan which would meet all the re-
quirements. At present we fear that our only hope is through the
efforts of individuals in forming and keeping up literary societies and
extending their benefits as widely as possible, and those efforts should
meet with the warmest support and encouragement from the Govern-
ment as well as the people; and no means or opportunity should be
overlooked to impress upon our people the immense value and importance
of these institutions to them, and the duty that rests on every citizen
to use his utmost abilities to encourage aud aid them.
Ptibl'iG. Libraries of Ten. Fr'mclpal Cities. 893
v.— PUBLIC LIBRARIES OF CHICAGO.
BY ^VILLIAM r. POOLE,
Librarian of the Chicago Puolic Library.
CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The Chicago HLstorical Society was organized in April, 1856, and at
the time of the great fire of October, 1871, had what was supposed to be
a fire-proof building, which had cost 8t>U,0aD, and a valuable collection
of historical books and pamphlets. On the 19 tk of Xovember, 1868,
the new building was dedicated with appropriate exercises. From the
address delivered on the occasion by Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, it appears
that the society had then 15,412 bound volumes, 72,104 pamphlets, 1,738
files of newspapers, 4,689 manuscripts, 1,200 maps and charts, 380 cabi-
net collections, and 4,682 miscellaneous objects, including prints. Up to
the time of the fire constant additions were made, and it was then the
most valuable historical collection in the Northwest. Dr. William Barry,
the eificient secretary and librarian, was the person to whom the largest
share of credit was due in collecting these materials. In this work he
had the active co-operation and pecuniary assistance of the officers and
members, among whom were William H. Brown, William B. Ogden,
John Y. Scammon, Luther Haven, George Manierre, and others. The
library was especially strong in the documents and sessional papers of
the several States, in works relating to the Indian tribes, the early French
explorations, the Jesuit missionary enterprises, and in books and j)am-
phlets illustrating the history of the West. The building and all its con-
tents were consumed in the great fire ; not a book, pamj)hlet, or paper
being saved.
Mr. Scammon, with the aid of a few of its members, began soon after
to make the nucleus of a new collection, and friends from abroad sent in
donations. These were temporarily stored in a block on Wabash avenue,
when the second great fire of July 14, 1874, swept/Over that part of the
city, and the collection was again wholly consumed. The society has
maintained its organization, and is again preparing to resume active
operations. It has trust funds which will soon be available for restor-
ing its collection. Its library now numbers only 300 volumes.
YOUNG men's association LIBRARY.
In January, 1841, when Chicago had less than 5,000 inhabitants, the
Young Men's Association Library was organized, and for thirty years,
till it was destroyed in the great fire of 1871, was the chief library of
circulation in the city, and maintained, also, a reading room for news-
papers and periodicals. Its growth was slow, and by no means com-
mensurate with the growth of the city. In 1865, when its last catalogue
was printed, it had nominally 9,210 volumes, but of these a careful ex-
amination of the shelves and the register of circulation showed that
2,121 volumes were missing and lost. The average increase in the num-
ber of books for several years had been about 600 volumes. The aver-
age daily circulation in 1865 -was 177 volumes. It had a membership of
894 PuUk Lihrarles In the United States.
1,659 persons, of whom 157 were life members, 16 honorary members, 134
lady members, and 1,352 annual paying members. The rules prescribed
the payment of an initiation fee of $2 and an annual tax of $3. A consid-
erable income was also derived from the profits of an annual course of pub-
lic lectures. The latest official statistics we have found are those of 18(35.
From that time to 1871 the library was considerably increased, and had,
at the date last named about 18,000 volumes; among them was a set of
the British patent reports, which had been given by the British govern-
ment, numbering about 2,000 bound volumes, the only set in the West.
Nothing was saved from the library in the great fire, and no attempt
has since been made to re-organize the association and re-establish the
library.
CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBKAUY;
This library had its origin in the sympathy felt for Chicago in Eng-
land after the great fire of 1871. In addition to the money subscription
which was opened in England, a number of English gentlemen — among
whom, perhaps, Mr. Thomas Hughes (author of Tom Brown at Oxford)
took the leading part — started a subscription of books to supply the
losses sustained by Chicago in the destruction of her libraries. An
appeal was made to authors, societies, and public institutions to give
their books, and about 7,000 volumes were thus contributed. The Brit-
ish Museum presented all its own publications. The master of the rolls
gave the Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and the Calendar
of State" Papers. The University of Oxford gave the publications of
the Oxford University Press, about 250 volumes elegantly bound. Her
Majesty the Queen presented The Early Years of the Prince Consort,
inscribed with her own autograph.; and many of the living authors of
England sent in their books to the committee in London. In the case
of authors deceased, as Lord Macaulay and Dr. Arnold, of Kugby, the
relatives donated their books. The inscription on the book-plate in the
volume presented by Her Majesty is as follows : " Presented to the city
of Chicago, towards the formation of a free library, after the great fire of
1871, as a mark of English sympathy, by Her Majesty the Queen Vic-
toria." An autograph inscription is also made on the fly-leaf.
There was then no library organized in Chicago that could receive
these books. An application was made to the general assembly of the
State for a general public library act which would allow the city ta
establish such a library and support it by public taxation. Such an act
was passed by the State legislature March 7, 1873. A reading room
was immediately started in the city building, on the corner of Adams and
La Salle streets, and the books which had been donated in England and
elsewhere were here stored. A librarian was appointed, who entered
upon his duties January 1, 1874. Temporary rooms were secured, on the
corner of Wabash avenue and Madison street, which were occupied
March 16, 1874, and the library was opened for circulation on the 1st of
May, with 17,355 volumes, of which about 13,000 were adapted for gen-
Puhlic Lihraries of Ten Frbicipal Cities. 895
eral circulation. The official year closed with the same month of Maj\
In the last week of that month the average number of volumes issued
daily was 437.
The number of volumes in the library at the date of the next annual
report, May 31, 1S75, was 39,236, of which 20,122 volumes had been
added during the year by purchase and 969 by gift. The amount
expended for books was $28,410.63. The number of registered book
borrowers was 23,284, of whom 14,657 were males and 8,627 were females.
Book borrowers are required to deposit a certificate, signed by a respon-
sible party, stating that the guarantor will be responsible for the return
of the books and the payment of fines incurred. The total number of
books issued for home reading was 403,356, or a daily average of 1,322.
The number of serials kept on file in the reading room was 368 ; of these,
288 were periodicals and 80 newspapers. The whole working force of
the library included 26 persons. The amount paid for salaries was
$15,545. The reading room is kept open on Sundays as on secular days-
The average number of readers on Sunday was 560, against 423 reported
the j)revious year. The entire running expenses were about $25,000 a
year. The library is supported wholly by public taxation, the State
law allowing a tax of one-fifth of a mill on the dollar valuation to be
laid for this purpose. On the present valuation of the city, this would
give an annual income of about $60,000. The city council, however,
has the authority to order a levy for a less amount, if it sees fit. The
library now numbers 48,100 volumes, and is situated on the corner of
Dearborn and Lake streets.
OTHER COLLECTIONS.
A list is here appended of the other public or semi-public libraries in
Chicago, which number each more than 1,000 volumes. Further statis-
tics of these and minor collections may be found in the general table at
the end of this volume. — Editors.
Volumes.
Academy of Sciences 1,500
Allen's Academy 2, .500
Baptist Union Theological Seminary ^ 15, 000
Chicago College of Pharmacy 2, 500-
Chicago Theological Seminary ' 5, 500
Chicago Tnrngemeinde 1,500
Chicago Univei'sity IS, 000
Cobb's Library 9,126
Law Institute 7,000
Presbyterian Theological Seminary of the Northwest ^ 8,000
St. Ignatius College 9,000
Seminary of the Sacred Heart 2, 758
Union Catholic Library Association 1,972
West-Side Library 6,000
Young Men's Christian Association 2,670-
1 A notice of the library will be found in the chapter on Theological Libraries^
Chapter IV, p. 143.
2 Ibid., p. 144.
896 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
THE NEWBERRY LEGACY TO CHICAGrO.
The largest legacy made for a public library in this country has
recent!}^ fallen to the benefit of the citizens of Chicago by the death of
Miss Julia Newberry, the last surviving daughter of the late Walter L.
IS'ewberry, of Chicago. She died at Rome, Italy, April 4, 1876. The
value of the Newberry estate is now estimated by the trustees to be
$4,000,000. One-half of the estate is to descend to the heirs of the tes-
tator's brothers and sisters, and the other half is to be devoted to the
foundation and support of a free public library, to be situated in the
North Division of Chicago.
Mr. Newberry died on the 6th of November, 1868, leaving his whole
estate to two trustees, Mark Skinner and E. W. Blatchford, as executors
and trustees, with full powers to administer the same, and to appoint
their successors. After providing for the widow, his two unmarried
daughters, and other relatives, his executors were required to pay to his
two daughters, or to the survivor of them, annually, the net income of the
estate. After the death of his daughters, if they married and had issue
the estate was to be divided among such issue. The elder daughter,
Mary, died two years ago, unmarried. The younger daughter, Julia,
also unmarried, died, as stated above, in April, 1876. This contingency
was provided for in the testator's will as follows :
Iq case of the death of both of my said daughters, without leaviug lawful issue, then
immediately after the decease of my wife, if she survives my said daughters, but if not,
then immediately after the decease of the last surviving one of ray said daughters, my
said trustees shall divide my estate into two equal shares, my said trustees being the
sole judges of the equality and correctness of such division, and shall at once proceed
to distribute one of such shares among the lawful surviving descendants of my own
brothers and sisters, such descendants taking ^jer stirpes and not per capita.
The other share of my estate shall be applied by my said trustees, as soon as the
same can conveniently be done, to the foundingof a free public library, to be located in
that portion of the city of Chicago now known as the " North Division." And I do hereby
authorize and empower my said trustees to establish such library, on such foundation,
under such rules and regulations for the government thereof, appropriate such portion
of the property set apart for such library to the erection of proper buildings and fur-
nishiug the same, and such portion to the purchase and procurement of books, maps
charts, and all such other articles and things as they may deem proper and appropriate
for a library, and such other portion to constitute a permanent fuud, the income of
which shall be applicable to the purpose of extending and increasing such library ;
hereby fully empowering my said trustees to take such action in regard to such library
as they may judge fit and best, having in view the growth, preservation, permanence,
and general usefulness of such library.
The widow, in lieu of the provisions made for her in the will, elected
to take her right of dower, and hence her interests in the estate are
secured and fixed, whether the ultimate purposes of the will be carried
out soon, or be postponed till her death. It is understood to be the
wish of the trustees, the widow, and the testator's relatives that the
foundation of the library should be commenced as early as possible.
Of the estate, nearly a million dollars are in available funds, and the
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 897
remainder is in real estate in the city and suburbs of Chicago which is
rapidly appreciating- in value. The trustees have expressed the opinion
that in ten years the estate will be worth ten millions. Judge Skinner
two years ago, being about to make a visit to Europe, resigned his
trusteeship, and Mr. William H. Bradlej' was appointed his successor.
Judge Skinner, however, still resides in Chicago, and the trustees will
have the benefit of his large business experience and his literary cul-
ture in the organization of the library. The confidence which the tes-
tator felt in him is expressed in the following clause in the will :
la consequence of an acquaintance and friendship now subsisting for thirty years
between myself and my said trustee, Mark Sliinner, I have such confidence in his
judgment, that, whilst I do not anticipate that any conflict of opinion will arise ia
regard to the management of my estate, it is my wish that so long as he remains trus-
tee of my estate, his opinion in regard to the conduct and management of the same
may prevail in ca3es where diffdrences of judgment may occur.
It is too early now to predict, much less to state with any accuracy,
the precise form in which this noble gift to Chicago will be adminis-
tered. It will be seen that it is not a gift to the city as a corporation,
and that the city government has no part or function in its administra-
tion. The whole management is in the hands of two trustees, with full
powers to appoint their successors. Two more estimable and trust-
worthy citizens could not be named than the present trustees. The
testator provided that no bonds should be required of his original ap-
pointees, and he left it with them to decide whether bonds should be
required of their successors. It is probable that, with so large a foun-
dation, the library will be independent and form no union with any ex-
isting institutions. It is probable, also, that the trustees will aim to
make it the largest and most complete reference library in the country.
Such a library, adapted to the higher wants of scholars, is greatly needed
as a national as well as a local institution. The Astor Library, from its
want of means, has not been able to supply this desideratum. Up to
the time of the death of Mr. William B. Astor the library, in buildings^
books, and invested funds, had only about $750,000 expended upon it..
The legacy of Mr. Astor ajided $249,000 to its resources. The Newberry
Library will start with at least double that sum ; and if its organiza-
tion be delayed, with a much larger foundation. A whole square^,
bounded by Eush, Ontario, Ohio, and Pine streets, the Newberrj^
homestead before the great fire of 1871, is now vacant for the erection
of the library building. The functions of a large reference library would
not interfere with, but, on the other hand, would supplement, those of
the Chicago Public Library supported by city taxation, which are mainly
to supply the citizens with books for circulation. The Chicago Histori-
cal Society, which lost its building and collections in the great fire of
1871, has funds for rebuilding, and a field of usefulness independent of
that of the Newberry Library. No one library, however large its re-
sources, can meet the many sided wants of a metropolitan community
with a population of half a million.
57 E
898 FuhUc Llhraries in the United States.
Mr. iSTewberry, formerly a resident of Detroit, came to Cliicago when
the city had less than ten thousand inhabitants. He brought with him
money which he judiciously invested in land, which has increased enor-
mously in value, and much of it is still unimproved, though within
the city limits. His business habits were singularly exact and me-
thodical. He never contracted any debts nor allowed any incumbrance
on his property. While he educated and supported his family in a style
befitting his wealth, in his personal conduct he was saving and unosten-
tatious. He made his investments and managed his business with con-
stant reference to the theory of probabilities. To the attorney who drew
his will, he stated the estimate he had made of the probability that
one-half of his estate would go eventually to the foundation of a library.
There were forty chances in a hundred, he said, of this event occurring.
He had considered the health of his daughters, the probability of their
marrying, having issue, etc. For several years before his death he was
the president of the Chicago Historical Society, and he took considera-
ble interest in the institution. It was an occasion of surprise to the
members that the society received no legacy in his will. He died ou
th ' ocean while on a voyage to Europe.
yi.— PUBLIC LIBRAEIES OF CINCIXXATI.
BY ^V. H, TENABLE.
Many of the original settlers of Cincinnati were persons of education
and refinement. They had acquired mental habits, the exercise of which
was necessary to their contentment. Hence, their intellectual enterprise
kept a more even pace with their material prosperity than is usual in
pioneer towns. Schools and churches were established as soon as was
practicable. An association for literary and scientific improvement was
organized at an early date, under the presidency of the accomplished
Josiah Meigs. A newspaper. The Western Spy, was issued in Cincin-
nati, in 1799, and a few years later pamphlets and books began to ap-
pear from the local printing-offices, prognosticating that activity of the
press which has since made the city famous for the magnitude of its
publishing business.
It is not surprising that a community which fostered the school, the
lyceum, and the press regarded reading as the foundation of culture,
and considered the collection of books for popular use an essential part
of public duty. To the founders of Cincinnati belongs the credit of
having instituted the first public library within the Northwestern Ter-
ritory.
THE CINCINNATI LIBRARY
went into operation March 6, 1802, thirteen years after the town was
bagun, and two years before the formation of the famous "Coon Skin"
Library at Ames, Athens County, Ohio, for which priority of origin has
been mistakenly claimed.
Public Libraries of Ten Princlpd Cities. 899
The Cincinuati Library grew out of a popular movement, which, ac-
cording to the New England method, took direction through, the free
action of a citizens' meeting, held at Mr. Yeatman's tavern, the usual
place of assembly for public transactions. This was in February, 1802.
A committee, consisting of Jacob Burnet, Martin Baum, and Lewis Kerr,
was appointed to draw up and circulate a paper soliciting subscriptions
for the purpose of establishing a library. The original copy of this
paper is now in the possession of Robert Clarke, esq., the well known
publisher. The list of subscribers to the library fund comprised twenty-
five names, representing thirty-four shares of stock valued at $10 each,
or a total of $340 — no inconsiderable sum to be raised in a frontier
colony three-quarters of a century ago. It is interesting to note that
the subscription list is headed by the name of the veteran Arthur St.
Clair, first governor of the IS^orth western Territory, and of Ohio.
The library went into operation, with Lewis Kerr as librarian, but of
its subsequent history no records have been found. It probably merged
into the
CINCINNATI CIRCULATING LIBRARY.
In the autumn of 1808, some of the leading citizens of Cincinnati pe-
titioned the legislature of Ohio for a law to incorporate a public library.
The petition was not granted at the time, but in 1811 it was revived,
and, chiefly through the instrumentality of Judge Turner, a charter was
obtained. A library society was organized, and, after much delay —
occasioned, no doubt, by the breaking out of the war of 1812 — a collec-
tion of about 300 volumes was ready for use, April 16, 1814. A pur-
chase of 250 volumes more was made, at Philadelphia, in the summer of
1815, and also a purchase of 100 volumes, on credit, of the Miami
University, at Oxford, Ohio, between which institution and Cincinnati
a relation of mutual sympathy and interest was fostered for many years.
Later in 1815, a member of the board of library trustees " visited the
eastern cities," with discretionary power to buy books for the library,
and procured about 400 volumes.
From a printed catalogue of the circulating library, dated 1816, we
learn that it then contained nearly 1,400 volumes, at an estimated value
of about $3,000. It was kept in the old Cincinnati College building,
then recently built, and known as Lancaster Seminary, from the fact
that a large school on the Lancasterian method was opened there, (in
1815,) under the presidency of Jacob Burnet, author of Notes on the
Northwestern Territory. The librarian's name was David Cathcart.
The library appears to have been selected with care by competent
judges of books. It contained a pleasing variety of standard works, and
was classified with exact system. The pride and glory of the trustees
seem to have been a set of Eees's Cyclopedia. The rules and regula-
tions of the library were very minute and stringent, indicating the high
estimation in which the books were held. A deposit of $5 was required
of every shareholder "on receiving a volume of the Cyclopedia." Wil-
900 Public Libraries in the United States.
sou's Ornitbologj' and two or tliree other expensive works could "only
be read or referred to in the library."
The moving spirit in the formation and management of the circulating
library was the president of its board of trustees, Dr. Daniel Drake,
a man who deserves to be remembered for his zeal, ability, and perse,
verance in useful enterprises of every kind, and esi^ecially those tending
to promote knowledge among the people.
The history of the circulating library reflects quite vividly the kind
and degree of culture possessed by the Queen City of the West in her
ambitious youth. The kind was practical, the degree high enough to
grasp the relations of reading with academic training, and to stimulate
several original literary enterprises. The seminary, which grew up with
the library and was nourished by it, was the first important school in
the city. The men whose provincial enthusiasm over the possession of
a few hundred books provokes a smile included in their number some
authors not to be despised, even by the critics of to-day.
The circulating library existed still at College Building in 182G, when
the number of its volumes had diminished to 1,300. Eventually, for
some reason unknown to the writer, the books were boxed up and packed
away in the cellar of a bookstore on Main street. Here they remained
for several years, gathering dampness and mold, until Rev. James H.
Perkins, a Unitarian clergyman and writer, who took great interest in
the literary and historical progress of the West, assumed the responsi-
bility of overhauling the boxes and bringing their neglected contents to
the light. Many of the books were entirely ruined. The treasured
volumes of Wilson's Ornithology fell to pieces of their own weight.
Such of the books as were in tolerable condition were selected and
placed upon the shelves of the library of the Ohio Mechanics' Institute^
a harbor destined to receive the drifting remnant of several pioneer col-
lections.
THE APPRENTICES' LIBRARY.
The third public library of Cincinnati was founded in February, 1821,
ostensibly for the improvement of "minors brought up to laborious em-
ployment in the city," and therefore called The Apprentices' Library.
The management of it was intrusted to a board of directors, appointed
by the contributors to the library, or by the city Council in case the
contributors failed to elect.
The library was deposited in the council chamber, and contained, ac-
cording to a catalogue published in 184G, about 2,500 volumes. The
character of this collection was severely useful. The catalogue impresses
the reader with a conviction that the generous donors to the library
freely gave from their private collections such books as they never
could prevail upon themselves to read or their neighbors to borrow ;
for examples. The Apprentice's Guide, The Ambitious Student, An In-
quiry for Happiness, The Improvement of the Mind, and Practical Piety.
These delightful treatises, strange as it may appear, were not eagerly
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 901
devoured hj the uugrateful " minors brought up to laborious employ-
ment," for whose edification they were provided. It, however, became
the custom for apprentices to draw books from the library for their
parents and friends, especially after some novels were added to the col-
lection by a certain wicked librarian named Jones.
The Apprentices' Library contrasts sharply with the Circulating
Library, as to origin, purpose, management, and almost everything else.
Like many an other institution built up /or rather than hy its benefici-
aries, it lacked vitality and never became popular. Its affairs were
loosely administered, and, worst of all, its books were of little account.
The collection was donated to the Mechanics' Institute shortly after that
was organized, and some of the books are yet to be seen on the shelves
of the Institute Library.
LIBRAllY OF THE OHIO MECHANICS' INSTITUTE.
At the close of a course of lectures on natural philosophy, delivered
in the autumn of 1828, by John D. Craig, then an old man and eminent
as a teacher of science, the lecturer suggested the establishment of a
mechanics' institute in Cincinnati, such organizations being already
in successful operation in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Balti-
more. Dr. Craig afterward prepared, upon popular invitation, an ad-
dress on mechanics' institutes, which was read before a large audience
and printed. This led to the establishment of the Ohio Mechanics' In-
stitute, in February, 1829.
The general object of the institute being "to facilitate the diffusion
of useful knowledge" among the people, various means of jiopular in-
struction were considered, and among them the formation of a library.
In 1830 the basis of a library was laid by donations of miscellaneous
volumes from Dr. Craig, John P. Foote, Prof. John Lock, J. L. Tal-
bott, and a few others. Three years after this Prof. Calvin E. Stowe?
then of Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, gave before the institute a lecture
on tjie History of Letters. The Hon. James Hall also delivered an
address on the importance of establishing a first class library in Cin-
cinnati. The audience drawn by these lectures was neither large nor
enthusiastic, but it contained the working few, the stanch vanguard
of devoted men and women who labor and make much sacrifice for the
higher interests of humanity.
The institute purchased the private library of Morgan Neville, esq.,
son of General Neville, of Eevolutionary fame. Some volumes of the
Neville collection yet remain, and they may be distinguished by a
label on which are engraved the Neville arms and the motto Nocturna
versate manu, versate diurnaJ^
The " Neville collection," together with the Apprentices' Library and
what was left of the Circulating Library, furnished the heterogeneous
and timeworn materials of which the foundation of the Institute Librarj^
902 Public Libraries in the United States.
Avas made. The coUectiou was placed in a building known as the Enon
Baptist Church, on Walnut street. It was presently removed to the
Cincinnati College, and again, in 1839, to the famous Bazaar built by Mrs.
Frances Trollope during her residence in Cincinnati. About the year
1840 the library received large donations of valuable books from its
friend and patron Kev. James H. Perkins. Some good books were given
also by an organization known as The Lyceum, of which Salmon P.
Chase was a prominent member.
From the Bazaar, or Trollope's Folly, as it was contemptuously called,
the library was transferred to a room on Walnut street, thence to a room
on Third street, and thence again, in 181:8, to another room on Walnut
street. About this time a'lot was purchased on the corner of Sixth and
Vine streets, and upon this the present Mechanics' Institute building was
erected. Thus, after a nomadic existence of nearly twenty years, the
library at last found permanent quarters. The record of its wanderings
and vicissitudes helps us to realize how painfully slow is the growth of
educational institutions in a new city.
In 1856 the Cincinnati school board leased rooms in the Mechanics^
Institute building, and deposited the Public Library there. The In-
stitute Library, comprising something less than 6,000 volumes, was
placed in charge of the school board and became virtually a part of the
Public Library. In the year 1870 the Public Library was removed to its
new home on Vine street, and the Institute Library was left in its own
apartment. Since that time it has notreceived any important additions,
except a valuable instalment of publications by the Patent Office. The
library is scarcely used at all by the public, and, in fact, it contains few,
if any, books that are not to be found in better condition at other public
libraries in the city. The Mechanics' Institute Library has outlived its
usefulness as a means of diffusing general knowledge; but as a monu-
ment of past enterprise it is full of local interest, and as a quaint col-
lection of odd, old books from different places and memorable individu-
als it is curious and historically precious.
THE YOUNG MEN'S MERCANTILE LIBRARY.
^ome six years after the intelligent mechanics of Cincinnati set
about organizing their noble institution for the intellectual elevation of
the workingmen, the leading business men of the city undertook the
establishment of an association which should contribute directly and
specially to the culture and dignity of the mercantile class. The Young
Men's Mercantile Library Association of Cincinnati was incorporated in
1836. It has been from the start one of the most efficient educational
lowers in the city. Its primary object, as the name implies, was the
formation of a library. The system and success with which this object
has been carried out, in the face of many discouragements, testify
favorably to the business tact, as well as to the liberality, of the asso-
ciation. The writer of this sketch has been forcibly struck by the fact
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 903
that of all the Cincinuati libraries the Mercantile is the only one whose
history is clearly and fully preserved. The reports and records of the
association are definite, statistical, and satisfactory.
Immediately upon the organization of the association the sum of $1,800
was raised by subscription, with part of which books were purchased,
and the library went at once into operation. The library was first opened
in Ames's building, Main street, but after several removals it found its
way to the Cincinnati College — a receptacle ever hospitable to the
agencies of culture, whether in the direction of science, literature, or art.
This edifice, endeared to the city by many associations, was destroyed
by fire on Sunday, January 19, 1845, but by the prompt exertions of
citizens all the books of the library were saved uninjured. The present
Cincinnati College was built in 184G, and in it the association secured
on perpetual lease, free of rent, a tine suite of rooms embracing the entire
second floor front.
The prospects of the library were now exceedingly good, and fine
progress was made from year to year. In 1847 subscriptions were first
made to foreign periodicals — English, German, and French. In 1849 a
valuable importation of English books wa* received. The library in
1854 contained 15,000 volumes, and the readin groom was supplied with
148 choice periodicals.
In the month of October, 1869, the College Building took fire, and
was with difficulty saved from entire destruction. On this occasion a
portion of the library was mined by fire and water, but most of the
books were preserved in good condition and removed to a suitable place
until the injured building was repaired and renovated. A new catalogue,
containing the titles of 30,000 volumes, was published a month after
the disaster by fire.
The library was restored to its old rooms in College Building in 1870.
Shortly after this the board of directors authorized the opening of the
reading room on Sunday, an innovation that met with general approval.
A radical change of policy was brought about in 1871, when a new con-
stitution was adopted abolishing the exclusive mercantile feature of the
association, and extending the privileges of membership to all classes.
This gives the association a more metropolitan character, and greatly
increases its usefulness as well as its popularity.
The Mercantile Library is conducted in a liberal spirit, and it meets
the wants of many readers. Its rooms are always quiet, clean, and
attractive, and therefore a favorite place of resort. Its shelves are
well supplied with history and statistics, especially American. The
collection of bound periodicals is excellent ; and the files of early west-
ern newspapers are of great rarity. The main features of the library are
its pleasant reading room and its department of prose fiction. While
the other public libraries of the city have until recently almost repudi-
ated fiction, this one has always promptly met the demand of the novel
reading public. Three-fourths of its circulation is of standard fiction.
904 Public Libraries in the United States.
In the annual report for 1871 it is stated that twenty copies of Miss
Alcott's Little Women and twelve copies of Mark Twain's Innocents
Abroad did not half supply the demand for those pleasant books. The
■library now numbers about 36,000 volumes.
The formation and maintenance of a library have not been the. only
objects of the Mercantile Library Association. Literary exercises formed
an important part of the programme of the association's meetings for a
good many years. The experiment of conducting classes in mathemat-
ics and modern languages was tried with varying success until 1858,
when it was discontinued. Efforts were made to establish a gallery of
fine arts and a cabinet of natural history, under the auspices of the
association. A collection of shells, fossils, and minerals was purchased
of Prof. David Christy for 84,000 ; but, this proving an incumbrance,
it was consigned to Triibner & Co., London, with the expectation of its
profitable sale ; to the chagrin of the association, it actually brought
only £36 17s.
The library rooms are adorned by a few works of fine art, among
■which are busts by Clevenger, Powers, and Canova.
The library association frequently renders itself and the city service
by securing popular lecturers to appear in Cincinnati under its pat-
ronage.
A peculiar custom has long prevailed in the association that gives it
a local importance not usual with organizations of the kind. The elec-
tion of officers is held annually, and it is always an occasion of intense
excitement, as there are invariably two rival tickets, known as the reg-
ular and the independent. . Each ticket is supported with a partisan
devotion amazing to strangers who happen in the citj" during the cam-
paign. Each party has its headquarters fitted up with great elegance,
its badge, its banner, and all the pomp and circumstance of glorious
war. Ladies are now allowed to vote, having a voting precinct of their
own, and tickets of the most elegant and dainty description. The effect
of all this annual parade is to call universal attention to the association
and to increase its membership and its money resources. The custom
has become traditional, and its mock-earnest excitement is anticipated
as part of the winter's amusement.
LIBRARY OF THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF OHIO.
The Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio was incorporated at
Columbus, Ohio, February 11, 1831. Its meetings and elections were
held annually during the sitting of the legislature, in the representa-
tives' hall. Addresses were made, occasional papers on local history
read, and a library was started. But the society never had any great
vitality until after its removal to Cincinnati, which took place in 1849.
The Cincinnati Historical Society, which had been in existence fiv^e
years, and which was in a thriving condition, was merged in the Histor-
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 905
ical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, which thereupon toolx a new
lease of life.
The society had its meetings and its library in a room of the Cincin-
nati College. Some time previous to the year 1855 the books of the
New England Society were deposited with the Historical Society and be-
came part of its library. The New England Society was organized for
the purpose of " perpetuating the memory of earlj^ settlers of New Eng-
land, extending charity to the needy of New England birth, and pro-
moting virtue, knowledge, and all useful learning." It was chartered in
1845, on the application of Lyman Beecher, Salmon P. Chase, Timothy
Walker, Bellamy Storer, Calvin E, Stowe, E. D. Mansfield, and others.
The books received from this interesting society are valuable in them-
selves, and have an added value from the fame of their donors.
The Historical Society flourished for a time, and gave promise of
healthy development. But it could not command the conditions of per-
manent prosperity. Having no rooms but those it rented, having no
endowment, and having no income but the annual fees of members, the
membership became so diminished that the rooms were given up, and
the collection placed on deposit in the Public Library of the city. Dur-
ing the war most of the members were away from the city ; some re-
moved permanently. Meetings were no longer held; the society was
entirely dormant.
In the spring of 1868 Robert Bnchanan, who had been president
up to the suspension of the active life of the society, Charles E. Cist,
who had been recording secretary, and John D. Caldwell, librarian,
resolved to attempt to resuscitate it. A meeting was called for reorga-
nization 23d May, 1868. New members were elected and the reorgani-
zation completed on the 7th December, 1868.
An arrangement was made with the Cincinnati Literary Club for the
joint use of their rooms. The library, or what remained of it, was
moved from the Public Library to the club rooms. The collection at that
time comprised 700 bound volumes and 1,250 pamphlets, exclusive of
duplicates.
The membership increased, the library grew, and greater space be-
came necessary. The trustees of the Cincinnati College, in the spring
of 1871, gave the society the use, rent free, of five rooms in the upper
story of the college building, and the society moved into these rooms
on the 1st of April, 1871.
Mr. Julius Dexter, being elected librarian, resolved to arrange and
catalogue the library, and gave up his time to the work. He began the
task on the 1st of January, 1872, and has now substantially completed
it. The 4,967 bound volumes and 15,856 pamphlets now catalogued
comprise nearly all owned by the society, except the duplicates.
The library, which numbers between 5,000 and 6,000 bound volumes
and about 17,000 pamphlets, has outgrown the space afforded by the
rooms now occupied by the society, and is growing. A respectable
906 Public Libraries in the United States.
collection of relics aud implements of the Indians and the mound
builders has been gathered, and could be at once increased, if there
were room.
The number of members has grown to 83. Meanwhile an endowment
fund has been created, partly by investing all money received for life
memberships, but mainly by contributions from the members^ A
building fund has likewise been raised and is increasing. The society
may soon be able to procure a permanent home for the library, and
t lus establish itself on a secure and proper foundation.
The Historical Society is exceedingly fortunate in enjoying the gra-
tuitous services of Mr. Julius Dexter, its librarian, whose public spirit,
untiring industry, and continued liberality have done more than all
other agencies to raise the library to its present state. This gentleman,
in addition to his personal labors in building up the library, has donated
more than $5,000 to its financial support.
THE THEOLOGICAL AND RELIGIOUS LIBRARY OF CINCINNATI.
George E. Day, D. D., late president of Lane Seminary, now professor
in Yale College, was the prime mover in the work of forming the Theo-
logical and Eeligious Library of Cincinnati. The association which
organized this library was incorporated in March, 1863. The basis on
which the library is founded is defined in the following extract from
a paper prepared by Prof. Day :
The end contemplated in the establishment of the library is twofold, ultimate and
proximate. The ultimate end to be kept steadily in view is the collecting of the en-
tire theological and religious literature of the world, now estimated to amount to not-
less than 250,000 volumes. . . . The proximate or immediate end proposed is
the careful selection and purchase of the very best books in every department of the-
ology, metaphysics, ethics, and religion, including the ablest works on both sides of
disputed questions, the most valuable portions of the current theological literature of
the United States, Great Britain, and the Continent, and the most important quarter-
lies and other theological journals of the various denominations.
The statement of Prof. Day further announced that —
The religious basis upon which the whole enterprise rests is of the most comprehen-
sive, liberal, and catholic character. It is absolutely and entirely undenominational.
All persons, whatever their religious opinions may be, are invited to co-operate. Books
and treatises explaining and defending the various forms of religious belief will be
placed, without distinction, on the shelves. AVhile the object of every individual
should be to ascertain what is true, the object of a good library is to collect and fur-
nish for use what exists.
The scheme met with the cordial indorsement of the public. Influen-
tial people of all denominations except the Catholics joined to put it in
execution. Contributions of cash were freely given. A "founder's col-
lection " of first rate books was donated. A reading room was opened
with a periodical collection which has been considered the completestof
its kind to be found in the world.
The library was first opened in a room on Fourth street, but it was
presently transferred to the Mechanics' Institute building, where it at-
Piihlic Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 907
tained a popularity hardly to be expected. Its reading table was a
principal attraction.
The Theological and Eeligious Library is now deposited in the Public
Library building, in charge of the school board and as part of the Pub-
lic Library. It contains about 4,000 bound volumes.
THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
In the year 1853 the school law of the State of Ohio was remodeled,
and provision was made for the establishment of school libraries at the
public cost. A tax of one-tenth of a mill on tbe dollar valuation was
levied, the proceeds to be intrusted to the State commissioner of com-
mon schools, to be exi)ended in the purchase of books and apparatus to
be distributed to all the school districts in the State.
H. H. Barney, who was commissioner at the time the new law went
into effect, made his purchases so as to supply every district with the
same books. To the auditor of' Hamilton County were sent eighteen
libraries precisely alike for the eighteen school districts of Cincinnati.
The school board, upon the suggestion of its president, Eufus King,
refused to receive so many libraries of one kind to be scattered in so
many places; and on December 18, 1855, resolved that there should
be but one school library in Cincinnati, and that should be kept in the
building in which the sessions of the school officers were held. Upon
this action the commissioner consented to give the school board the
money value of the eighteen libraries, which were thereupon removed.
Mr. King, assisted by Mr. Barney, made a selection and purchase of
1,500 volumes, which, early in 1856, were placed in a room on the tirst
floor of the old Central School House on Longworth street, the board
having its session room upstairs in the same building.
The library tax appropriated for the first three years from the passage
of the new law amounted to almost $11,000. Owing to the misuse of
books and apparatus in some parts of the State, and to strong opposi-
tion excited in the book trade against the monopoly of a certain eastern
publishing house, the tax was suspended (April, 1856,) for a year, and
again in April, 1857, for another year. After this the tax was levied
for two years, when, in 1860, the law was repealed.
During the years of change and uncertainty upon which the library
entered at the very outset of its career, the friends of popular education,
both in the school board and out of it, fought courageously for the
library.
In May, 1856, John D. Caldwell was elected clerk of the school board
and librarian. He proved an active officer. A circular was prepared
and sent to leading citizens requesting them to furnish lists of books
suitable to be purchased for the library. Among the twenty or thirty
persons who responded was Archbishop Purcell, who sent in a list of
sixteen foolscap pages. Donations of books were made in 1856 by the
Young Men's Mercantile Library Association.
908 Public Libraries in the United States.
The library soon felt the urgent need of suitable rooms. A proposal
to erect a third story qn the building- on Longworth street was consid-
ered and rejected. A project to build was disaiissed as impossible from
lack of means. Fruitless efforts were made to secure apartments for the
school board and the Public Library in College Building. At length a
proposition came from the directors of the Mechanics' Institute to the
library committee of the school board, offering to lease rooms to the
school board and to place the Institute Library under the same man-
agement as the Public Library. The terms of the offer seemed liberal
and advantageous to the committee, and it at once agreed to accept
them ; but when the contract was submitted to the school board for
ratification it was rejected. Dr. C. G. Comegys, chairman of the
library committee, now set resolutely to work using every legitimate
means in his power to change the disposition of the board and to
secure a reversal of votes. He was successful ; and on July 31, 1856,
the contract was duly signed by the proper parties. " This action," says
Thomas Vickers, in his address at the opening of the new library
building February 25, 1874, " was really the crossing of the Eubicon for
the Public Library ; it gave it an importance which it probably would
not have otherwise obtained; and those to whose untiring energy the
action was due ought to be gratefully remembered to-day. It is a pleas-
ing reflection that as a consequence of the occupancy of the Mechanics'
Institute building, the cause of public education in this city received a
new impulse. A night high school was established with eminent suc-
cess in Greenwood Hall, and an art gallery, which under the fostering
care of the then president of the school board (Mr. King) has grown into
the McMicken School of Design, the art department of the Cincinnati
University."
In October, 1857, the library committee, in their report to the school
board, recommended the appointment of a librarian in chief at a salarj^
not to exceed |1,100. The board having given permission, Mr. N. Pea.
body Poor was elected librarian at a salary of $800, with an assistant at
$300. In its report for 1857 we find the library committee lament-
ing the accession of novels from the transfer of the Institute Library.
The circulation of novels for the preceding year had amounted to
^,229. "The excessive propensity thus m.anifested for such reading,"
says the report, "has given us much pain, and it will be our duty, by
early and stringent measures, to put away from us all cause of reproach
on the subject." Prompted by the sense of moral obligation implied by
the above language, the committee resolved, October 2, 1857, that no
novels should be given out to pupils of the high schools ! The conflict
of opinion with respect to novel reading is carious to observe. It has
come up again and again in Cincinnati. The anti-fiction party appears
to have held the balance of power in the library for several years. In
1869 we notice the librarian, Mr. Freeman, mildly urging the purchase
of a few good novels ; and in 1872 the librarian, Mr. Poole, devotes a
4 1 1 iiH hi III I I
PnhUc Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 911
considerable part of his reparfc to the direct discLissiou of the subject of
uovel reading, affirming that no public library can enjoy popular
sympathy and proscribe prose fiction.
In April, 1859, two concerts were given in Pike's Opera House for the
benefit of the library, from which the sum of $L,335 was realized. The
greater part of this was used in fitting up the library with alcoves and
gallery.
During the w^ar the library languished. The reports of the librarian
were meagre. The library fell into a state of disorder. Many of the
books were defaced or worn out ; many were lost or stolen. Early in
1866 Mr. Poor, the aged librarian, suddenly died. The board elected
in his place Mr. Lewis Freeman.
At the close of the war there was a general awakening of literary
and educational interests. To Cincinnati the period was one of transi-
tion from provincial to metropolitan conditions and methods. The city
sprang forward and upward with a new impulse.
The library committee in 1866 issued a circular urging the public to
subscribe a fund, the income of which should support the library. In
response to the appeal, and throngh the vigorous efforts of Mr. Free-
man, the librarian, about 85,000 were raised. The fund was further in-
creased by a bequest of $5,000 from Mrs. Sarah Lewis. But it was
painfully evident that the library could not depend for a sufficient
income upon the liberality of a few individuals.
The chief hope of the library lay in the prospect of such legislation as
would restore the old tax or its equivalent. Such legislation was
eventually secured, largely through the influence of Eev. J. M. Walden.
A law was passed March 18, 1807, by which the city is empowered to
assess, additional to the usual educational tax, one-tenth of a mill on
the dollar for the maintenance of a Public Library. This important leg-
islation at once gave the library an independent income of over $13,000.
The library at once began a vigorous growth, which has not since been
checked. In 1868 over 1,000 volumes were added to the collection, em-
bracing the private library of W. T. Coggeshall, and a good collection
of German books. The library-, at this date, contained only 350 novels
in all.
The report of the board of library managers to the board of educa-
tion, dated June 28, 1869, records a movement which led to the results
most desired. "On the 20th of July, 1868," says the report, "your
board passed a resolution referring the subject of the location and erec-
tion of a building for the Public Library to a committee of your board,
in connection with the board of managers of the Public Library."
The committee thereby constituted held their first meeting on the
17th day of August, 186S, and proceeded to examine the Handy Opera
House property, which was about to be sold by public auction. It was
decided to be very desirable property for a public library, and afterward
it was purchased by the committee for the sum of 833,000.
912 Public Libraries in the United States.
Plans for a library building were prepared by Mr. J. W. McLaughlin,
architect, and the work of building was promptly begun.
Early in 1869 Mr. Freeman tendered his resignation as librarian,
which was accepted, and Mr. W. F. Poole, of the Boston Athenteum, was
elected to the position. Mr. Poole entered upon the discharge of his
duties Xoveraber 5, 1869. He set to work with great energy and
enthusiasm to reorganize the whole library economy, and to prepare for
the anticipated change and increase the sphere of library operations.
A new catalogue was begun. The front part of the new library build-
ing being ready for occupancy, the baoks were removed from the
Mechanics' Institute rooms during the autumn months of 1870, and the
new apartments were opened to the public December 8, 1870. The
whole number of volumes removed was 30,799, exclusive of the books of
the Theological and Religious Library, (3,291 volumes,) which were also
removed, to remain in charge of the Public Library. The Mechanics' In-
stitute Library was left with the flourishing institution *which created it
In March, 1871, the school board opened the Public Library for Sunday
use. The new catalogue, comprising 656 pages, was issued. A room
for illustrated works was fitted up, and proved to be very attractive.
Excellent progress was made during the years 1871, 1872. and 1873. The
library increased rapidly, and its popularity was proportional to its growth.
During the official year 1872-'73, the trustees of the Cincinnati Hospital
deposited their medical library in the Public Library, but this has since
been withdrawn.
Late in 1873, Mr. Poole resigned his position with the view of taking-
charge of the Chicago Public Library. His resignation was. accepted,
and the Rev. Thomas Vickers was elected in his stead, December 1,
1873. The main hall of the new library building being at length com-
pleted, appropriate dedicatory exercises took place February 25, 1874.
The magnificent room was thrown open to the public, and addresses
were made by Hon. George H. Pendleton and others. The library
room now ready for the accumulating treasures of the reading p&blic
of Cincinnati, is one of the largest and finest single apartments of the
kind in the world. It has a shelving capacity for 250,000 volumes.
On the 17th of March, 1874, Dr. W. H. Mussey placed in charge of
the Public Library his private library of 3,513 volumes. The collection
is practically a gift to the public. It is known as the Mussey Medi-
cal and Scientific Library, and occupies four alcoves in the main hall.
The Public Library contained in all about 70,000 volumes at the
beginning of Mr. Vickers's administration. It seemed to the librarian
imperative that, upon the removal of the books to the main hall, a re-
classification and a new catalogue were imperatively demanded. So
rapid had been the growth of the library, that the printed catalogue no
longer contained the titles of half the books. Mr. Vickers suggested
that the catalogue hereafter should consist of separate parts, "class
catalogues, which can be sold at a merely nominal price to the persons
IXTERIOK PUBLIC LIBRARY OF CIXCINNAII
56 E
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 915
interested in the various depaitmeuts, and which can be reprinted at
small cost whenever they are out of date by reason of large accessions."
This plan has been adopted, and the first of the series of class cata-
logues, that comprising the titles of fiction, is now nearly ready for the
press.
The labor of removing the books to the main library room was com-
pleted as rapidly as practicable, and all the apartments of the library
building are now applied to their appropriate uses. The various read-
ing rooms are in complete order, and the reference use of the library has
become a leading feature. From the admirable report of the librarian
to the board of managers for the official year ending June 30, .1875, we
learn that the library circulated in- that year 443,100 volumes. The
whole number of book borrowers recorded for the year is 26,247, and
the whole number of volumes issued for use in the reading room was
51,189.
It is a striking fact that the Sunday use of the library has steadily
increased until it now averages a thousand readers a day. Says the
librarian :
Certainly no one wlio will visit our various reading rooms ou Sunday, and observe
the large attendance of the young men of the city, the earnest aud thoughtful attitude
of by far the larger part of them, and the quiet and decorum which everywhere pre-
vail, can fail to see that the library, with its Sunday reading, is exerting a powerful
influence for good upon the morals of the community.
There is another very interesting fact brought to light by the tabular
statements of the librarian's last report. It' a[)pears that during certain
months in which the books of fiction were withdrawn from circulation
for the puri)ose of cataloguing, the reading of history and biography
increased 137 per cent., of geography, voyages, and travel, 191 per
cent., and of science and the arts 89 per cent.! When the restriction
on novels was withdiawn all the other classes of reading dropped to
their usual level. From these data the librarian ably aud convincingly
argues for the restriction, not suppression, of the circulation of light
literature. He says:
Much as I deplore the popular mania for the poorest and most ephemeral productions
of that class, I cannot regard the reading of even these as au unmitigated evil. Much
less do I iu the least deny or doubt the informing and educating power of the higher
class of modern novels, though it were certainly the height of unwisd'Om to seek one's
information aud education exclusively iu them. What, however, does appear question-
able is whether a library such as this oughtto undertake to supply the popular demand
for such literature to the fullest extent. It would seem that this library, intimately
connected as it is with our public schools, being, in fact, a part of the general system
of public instruction, should seek to exert a direct influence iu the education of the
people. Such restraint, therefore, on the novel reading]propeusity as comes from the
refusal of the board to purchase any large number of duplicates of works of the poorer
class, would seem iu order and a duty.
This carefully expressed and certainly very reasonable language is
of more than local api)licability, and seems to us w^orthy of attention by
all who have to do with the great trust of guiding popular taste and
culture through the agency of libraries.
916 Fuhlic Libraries in the United States.
There is still another poiut in Mr. Vickers's report of such general
importance that it may with propriety be quoted in a sketch designed
for national circulation :
In the management of the great libraries of Germany there is one feature, which,
with some modifications, might be successfully and profitably copied in America.
Wherever the scholar may reside in Germany he has in a certain sense the whole
literary wealth of the country at his command. On proper recommendation and
security he can have sent to him, from any of the principal libraries, for a definite
period, such works as he needs for the prosecution of his studies, his only expense
being that of transportation. By means of another arrangement, a scholar residing
in a place where there is an important library, can borrow books from libraries in
other cities on the security of the one in his own. For instance, Professor A, residing
in Dresden, needs a book which is not to be had there, but is in the Royal Library at
Berlin, or in the Eoyal Library at Munich; the Royal Public Library at Dresden sends
to Berlin or Munich for the book, becomes responsible for its safe return, and Professor
A has the use of it on payment of the small sum which the carriage costs. I see
no reason whatever why such an arrangement as this could not be made between the
principal libraries of this country. It would assuredly be an invaluable assistance to
scholars and students.
The annual income of the library now exceeds $20,000, and is increas-
ing.
OTHER LIBRARIES.
This sketch would fail to give a just account of the resources of Cin-
cinnati in the way of books, if it did not mention several semi-public
libraries accessible to the enterprising student.
Lane Seminary has a very interesting library, comprising many rare
works. The collection has been growing for many years. It numbers
12,000 volumes.
The College of St. Xavier possesses an excellent library of about
14,000 volumes, kept, in excellent order, in a very convenient room.
The books are almost without exception works of permanent value. Ot
course many of them relate to the history and polity of the Catholic
Church, and especially to the Society of Jesus. The students' society
libraries of the college contain about 3,000 volumes.
Mt. St. Mary's Seminary of the West also has a library of 15,100
volumes and 4,000 pamphlets. There is an attractive printed catalogue
of this collection, containing the titles of many good books and some
poor ones. The best portions of the library are its ascetical and polem-
ical works and its department of ancient classics.
The Cincinnati Law Library is deserving of more than passing men-
tion. It is considered by competent judges to be one of the best of its
kind. It numbers about 6,400 volumes.
The Ohio Medical College has a collection of 5,000 volumes.
The Cincinnati Hospital has a collection of 2,119 valuable medical
works.
A list is appended of other libraries, numbering each 1,000 volumes
or more.
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 917
Volnmea.
Catholic Institute 3,000
Queen City Business College 1 , 000
House of Refuge 1,000
Hughes High School 1,200
Mendenhall's Circulating Library 6, 000
New Church Library 1,100
Turners' Library 3, 310
Young Men's Christian Association 1,200
CONCLUSION.
The chief interest of the foregoing sketch is necessarily local, though
many of the facts have a general and representative value that justifies
their insertion. Any phase of the history of any city throws some light
upon municipal progress everywhere. Authentic facts, however few or
trivial, make up the agrgegate of useful details out of which true gener-
alizations arise.
It is worth while to remark, that a great deal of earnest effort has
been misdirected, thrown away, and lost, in Cincinnati from lack of
systematic co-operation on the part of those who engaged, from time to
time, in establishing libraries and other iustitutions. The fruits of their
labor are not so abundant as they might have been had they combined
their resources.
Oar review illustrates one encouraging truth, namely, that good en-
terprises are not always dead when they appear to be so. It takes time
to realize great improvements. The present splendid Public Library of
Cincinnati may be not unreasonably regarded as the outgrowth of seeds
planted as long ago as 1802. The spirit that inspired the founders of
the old Cincinnati Library three-quarters of a century ago also animates
the men who fostered and still foster the intellectual interests of the city
to-day.
The libraries of Cincinnati, as of other towns and cities, have ever
been the conservators of popular intelligence. Whenever and wherever
a collection of books has been formed, then and there other agencies of
knowledge and thought cluster together. Books are the nucleus about
which culture crystallizes, like a gem of many facets. They are at the
centre of literature, science, and art. They illuminate education, relig-
ion, and life. They are the stimulus of students, the strength of schol-
ars, and the delight of men of taste. To the pupil in school they are
only less valuable than the excellent teacher, and often more valuable
than even he. The sage of Concord has said that to the modern learner
the great library is equivalent to a university. There is no danger,
however, that the library will supersede the school, for these two agen-
cies of human amelioration rise together, complement each other, and
are both exponents of the highest civilization.
918 Public Libraries in the United States.
VII.— PUBLIC LIBRARIES OF NEW YORK CITY.
BX O. C. GARDINER.
LIBRARY OF THE CITY RECORDS.
This library, the date of origin of whicli cauiiot be defiuitely fixed,
began by the preservation and accumulation of the various manuscript
records pertaining to land titles and the administration of municipal
affairs, like similar collections elsewhere. It was probably first called a
library soon after the practice of printing the various records and reports
of the municipality was begun. It is deposited in the city hall, and now
contains about 4,000 volumes, besides 10,000 duplicates. It embraces,
besides the collection of printed volumes relating to the various depart-
ments of the city government, more than a hundred volumes of manu-
script records, and the original paperson which these recordsare founded.
The manuscripts and papers fill four large iron safes.
The manuscript records extend over a period of nearly two centuries,
from 1647 to 1S30, and the printed records over a period of nearly half
a century since.
These manuscript records were chiefly in Dutch from 1647 to 1674,
(the final cession to the English,) and are contained in six volumes, and
the English records before and after the Revolution in about 70 volumes.
The latter come down to 1830, since which all records, except those of
1871, have been printed. They were suspended, from June 27, 1774, to
February 10, 1784. From August, 1776, to November, 1783, during its
occupation by English troops, the city was under martial law.
In the 4,000 })rinted volumes are embraced the directories of the city,
from 1786 to 1876; proceedings of the boards of aldermen and assistant
aldermen from 1831, inclusive, till the board of assistants was abolished
by the l«te charter ; the reports of the treasurers and controllers from
1790 to 1867 ; the Annals of Congress from 1793 to 1809 ; 17 volumes of
American State Papers, and the National Archives of 1776 ; Historical
Collections of Louisiana, from 1678 to 1691 ; reports on Central Park ;
the Montgomerie charter, and the charters and amendments to char-
ters since the Revolution ; the charters and early ordinances of forty-
five cities of the United States, including the principal cities of New
York State, and Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington ; san-
itary reports, nearly complete ; reports, manuals, and directories of the
board of education ; records of board of supervisors, from 1809 to 1875,
except 1870-1871 ; Manuals of the Corporation from 1841 to 1870, ex-
cept 1867; Niles's Register, 1811 to 1849; the City Record since begun,
1873 to 1876 ; reports of tiie Croton aqueduct and of the fire depart-
ment since its organization as a paid service and its union with the fire
telegraph alarm.
It embraces also a large collection of French documents and British
Puhlic Libraries of Ten Priyicipal Cities. 919
sanitary reports ; Aurtuboii's works, in 9 volumes ; Tallack's prison sys-
tems ot Great Britain and the United States ; memoirs of James Duane,
and many others.
NEW YORK SOCIETY LIBRARY.
This was probably the earliest loan library in America. In early
records and histories of the city it was referred to and known as the
"City" or '-Public Library" in the City Hall.
The later catalogues of the Society Library, and many careful stu-
dents of the history of the city, among them the accomplislied and
venerable president of the library, Hon. Frederic De Peyster, date its
foundation in 1700 under Bellomont, governor of the province.
At the centennial of the 'charter of the library, in November, 187*J,
Mr. De Peyster made, in substance, the following brief statement :
Under English rule, after the revolution of 16SS, King William took
particular interest in the im[)rovement of New York, He naturally re-
garded it with special solicitude, as the settlement had sprung from his
native country. The Earl of Bellomont was a diligent promoter of his
views. A well devised system of education required a public library as
its support, and such an institution was established in this city in 1700.
It was the immediate predecessor of the chartered New York Society
Library of today. The library has in its collection a number of volumes
presented to it in the early years of the eighteenth century — from 1702
onward — the gift of Rev. John Sharp, an English chaplain at the fort in
this city. He was for some time a missionary for The Venerable So-
ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and in this
capacity', in 1710 addressed a letter from New York to its secretary in
London, stating the fact that " provincial and parochial libraries ''
were already in existence in the metropolis of the several provinces of
Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and Boston, and that many collec-
tions of good books had been sent over. In re(;ognizing a provincial or
public library in operation in New York, he confirms the statement o\ the
historian, Oldmixon, that such a library had been founded in this city in
1700. The evidence of this early date of 1700 is presumptive rather than
a matter of record in the city or provincial minutes of the time. The
history of the labors of Kev. Thomas Bray, D. D., to whom the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts owes its origin, affords
the strongest corroborative testimony. About the year 1697, he pro-
posed a plan for loan parochial libraries in every deanery in England
and Wales. He published two volumes on a plan of libraries and a
scheme of studies for the clergy. He was reputed a man of great insight,
energy, and prudence, and was selected by Dr. Compton, the bishop
of London, for the double office of bishop and commissary of the
English churches in the Maryland Province of America. Having spent
three years in selecting missionaries and parochial libraries, he sailed
for Auierica, arriving in March, 1700. He returned to London in 1701
920 Public Libraries in the United States.
to secure from King William a royal charter for the Society for the Pro-
pagation of the Gospel, and other immunities for the churches in the
Province of America. Not only Maryland, but the vestries of Boston,
Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, and Bermuda, returned thanks
forthelibrarieshe had forwarded. These were, most probably, parochial.
The records of Trinity Church, which was burned in the great fire of
1776, show its parochial library to have been valued by a committee of
the vestry, in making up the total loss, at £200.
In 1730, Eev. Dr. Millington, of Newington, England, at his death
bequeathed his library to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.
They decided to place it in New York City, as the most central point,
for the benefit of the colonies in America ; and, at a meeting of the com-
mon council of the city, held June 27, 1729, the mayor notified " this
court" that he had been served with a message from the speaker of the
general assembly, at the request of his excellency the governor, cover-
ing a letter from David Humphrey, secretary in London of the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel, that Dr. Millington had bequeathed
to them a valuable library, and that, desiring to place it where it should
be most useful abroad, they had agreed "to fix it in the city of New
York;" but it being their intention it should be established a library
from which the clergy and the gentlemen of the governments of New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut might borrow books
to read, ui)on giving security to return them within a limited time, they
desired that "a proper methx)d should be taken for the preservation of
the books;" that the assembly would provide a room for them, and pass
an act for their preservation and all others which should be added to
them. The conditions were accepted, and in the following spring the
library, which contained 1,642 volumes, was received and placed in the
City Hall.
The city records do not, at that date, show the appointment of a
" library keeper," (this was then the name.) But this is probable, for it
appears from a record of fifteen years' later date (vApril 19, 1745) that
the library not having proper care, James Parker, who was then printer
to the government, and had succeeded William Bradford in the New
York Gazette, proposed to the mayor and comnaon council to become
" library keeper " on the following terms : Would make perfect copy of
all the books, print catalogue, and at the foot of one give his receipt for
the books ; would charge six pence a week per volume, require double
security, lend no book for less than a week nor longer than a month j
members and officers of common council to receive books gratis, but give
same security ; would give his attention two hours once a week, and
repair all books at his own expense. This was agreed to, and the
arrangement probably continued for several years.
In 1754 a movement was begun which resulted in the formation of the
Society Library in the same year. The original subscription roll, which
comprised 140 names, began :
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 921
Whereas: a public library would be very useful to the city, and may be advantageous
to our intended college, we subscribe £5 each, New York currency, and 10 shilliugs
yearly.
It continued with brief rules and regulations, and a provision to ap-
point a library keeper, aod to allow him a proper salary for attendance.
At a meeting May 2, 1754, the following gentlemen were elected trus-
tees: Hon. James De Lancey, Joseph Murray, John Chambers, Henry
Barclay, William Walton, John Watts, James Alexander, Benjamin
NicoUs, William Livingston, Robert R. Livingston, William Alexander,
and William P. Smith. At a meeting May 7, it was voted that every
member bring in a list of such books as he might judge most projjcr for
the first purchase. At a meeting May 16, five such lists were produced,
and from these a list was selected and sent to London to be filled so far
as the money collected, about £750 New York currency, would allow.
The books selected formed a fair collection of the English standard
literature of the time, in its several departments.
At a meeting of the trustees on the 11th September, 1754, pending
the arrival of these books, the following resolutions were adopted, show-
ing that this library was placed in the library room of the City Hall,
and thus merged with the public library of Dr. Millington :
Whereas, the Corporation Library hath for some years past been shut up, and the
books become of little or no advantage to the public, that the same may be improved,
Resolved, That the following proposals be made to the corporation : Ist, that the
room in the City Hall in which the Corporation Library is now kept be appropriated to
the trustees of this library ; 2d, that such and so many of the books belonging to the
Corporation Library as shall be deemed by us most fit for the use of the New York So-
ciety Library may be joined to the same, and placed under the care of us and our suc-
cessors, we and they being accountable to the corporation whenever demanded ; 3d,
that any books not suited to our use may be boxed up and secured ; 4tb, that some per-
son be appointed by the corporation to act with persons appointed by us to inspect and
take account of the books, for which we will be accountable when delivered to our
management.
John Watts, William Livingston, and William P. Smith were ap-
pointed to carry these resolutions into effect.
These minutes also show that invoices of books, larger or smaller,
were added to the library in 1755, 1756, 1758, 1761, 1763, and 1765.
Among the records now in the archives of the library are two small
catalogues, with the imprint of " Hugh Gain, Hanover Square, at the
sign of the Bible and Crown," with no printed but the written dates
1758 and 1761. These dates are verified by accounts showing that he
was paid for catalogues June 6, 1758, and again September 2, 1761.
At a meeting of trustees December 4, 1771, Samuel Jones, treasurer
presented .the draft of a charter which was amended, adopted, and
forwarded to Governor William Tryon for the approval of the Crown.
This was witnessed as the royal charter of His Majesty George III,
November 9, 1772, with the seal and signature of Tryon. A new im-
petus was thus given, and the public interest in the library increased
till the portending events of 1773 and 1774 seem to have prevented any
922 Public Libraries in the United States.
further additions of books, or any record of meetings in 1774. The
accounts in brief extend to 1774, showing that it was still in use. This
was probably not long continued, for the city corporatiou records on
the same floor in the adjoining council chamber were suspended Jane
27, 1774.
The catalogue of 1761 contained the names of 120 subscribers, and
about 1,300 to 1,500 volumes, exclusive of the Millingtou collection j
so that, with additions from 1761 to 1772, the library must have con-
tained 3,500 to 4,000 volumes in 1776.
After a suspension of fourteen years, the library resumed active
operations in 1788, when twelve trustees were elected. The library was
largely depleted during the Revolution, and many of the books were
removed for safe keeping.
When the City Hall was enlarged and improved, for the first session
of Congress under the Constitution, March 4, 1789, the entire second
story was required ; and at a common council January 7, 1789, it was
resolved that the board has no objection to the appropriation of the
uppermost room in the southeast part of the City Hall for the use of
the Society Library.
From 1788 onward, the society enjoyed a new career of j>rosperity.
The first catalogue after the war, published in 1793, contained the
titles of 5,000 volumes, and in it were found many of the valuable works
gathered in its infancy.
The growing importance of the library in 1793 required larger accom-
modations. A subscri[)tiou was begun, a site purchased opposite the
Old Dutch Church next to the corner of Liberty, in ISTassau street, and
an edifice for its special use — one of the most imposing of that day —
completed in 1795.
In 1800 a supplement to the catalogue of 1793 made the aggregate at
that date 6,500 volumes.
The increased value of property in Nassau street led to the sale of the
library edifice and the search for a less costly site fartber up town, in
1836. In the mean time the library was removed to Chambers street,
near and east of Centre. It remained here lour years. During this time
a collection of books and magazines in Pine street, called the Athe-
naeum Library, was merged in the society. It contained 3,000 or 3,500
volumes, about one-half magazines. A new and more spacious building
was completed in 1840 on the corner of Broadway and Leonard street,
into which its books were removed. It was at tbis period the most
sought and most valued collection among the p()[)ular libraries of the
country.
In 1853, the property on Broadway was solil and the libraiy removed
to the Bible House, where it remained until the completion, in 1856, of
the present building on University Place near Twelfth street.
The library, built at a cost of $80,000, is a plain, solid two-story
brown-stone building 40 by 70 feet, with high ceilings, and arranged
Puhlic Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 923
with special reference to light and thorough ventilation. It contains a
large reading room for gentlemen, a smaller one for ladies, and two
commodious offices on the street tioor. The second story is arranged
with alcoves on either side the entire depth of the building, and a sec-
ond series above with galleries in front extending the entire circuit.
At the date of remov^al from the City Hall, 1795, it had 900 subscribers ;
on removal to its present edifice in 185G-'57, it had 1,100, and this num-
ber has continued with slight variations.
In 1800, the library contained 0,500 volumes ; iu 1813, 13,000 volumes;
in 1825, 16,000 volumes; in 1828, 25,000; iu 1853, 40,000; and now in
1876 about 65,000 volumes.
The second catalogue ai"ter the Revolution was issued in 1813, with
supplement in 1825; in 1838 a second catalogue was issued, with both
an alphabetical and analytical arrangement of titles. Suppleiiieuts fol-
lowed on the same plan iu 1841 and 1843. A third was |)repared on the
plan of that in 1838, with great care, in 1850. These were all the work
of Mr. Philip J. Forbes.
During its history of almost a century and a half this library has been
the recipient of many important gifts in books. Besides the Dr. Milling-
ton library, it received, in 1812, a most valuable collection of 275 volumes
on American history from heirs of John Winthrop the younger, first gov-
ernor of Connecticut. A more recent and rare gift was from Robert Lenox
Kennedy — the Hammond Circulating Library of Newport, R. 1., (contain-
ing about 2,500 volumes. These comprise choice works of fiction and
light literature. Many of the books are out of print and are not to be
found in modern or antiquarian bookstores of the present time; hence
rarer and more valuable as exam[)les of the novels of the last century.
From its inception down througii its long period of existence, the
Society Library has been pre-eminently the library ot the old Knicker-
bocker families of New York and their descendants. It has many valu-
able newspaper files, from 1726, the Gazette of William Bradford and
the Mercury of Hugh Gain, down to 1830. It had in many of its earlier
invoices, selected by the Alexanders, the Livingstons, and Smiths, rare
editions of history, biography, and literature, which have been pre-
served through all its reverses, and have come down to this generation.
NEW YORK HOSPITAL LIBRARY.
The New York Hospital was founded in 1770, one of the most excit-
ing periods of our |)rovin(;iid liistory. The library was established as a
much needed auxiliary in 1796.
In that year the governors appropriated $500 to the purchase of vol-
umes ; the medical faculty of Columbia College contributed from their
private collections, and these and this purchase formed the nucleus of
the Hospital Library. It was augmented by the purchase of the library
of Dr. Romayne, in 1800, and still further by the collection of the pri-
vate association of physicians, called The Medical Society of New
924 Public Libraries in the United States.
York. Among the additions made from time to time, during a period
of twenty-five years, was the botanical library of Dr. Hosack.
It has published in all four general catalogues and four supplements.
The first catalogue in 1804 enumerated less than 1,000 volumes; the
second, in 1818, about 2,000 volumes ; in 1845, 5,000 volumes, and in
thirty years since it has added 5,000 more, works of far greater value
than those first collected. Of the 10,000 volumes contained in the
library, 5,000 embrace standard treatises by eminent authors. The
various foreign and American standard medical periodicals which the
library has received for over fifty years, comprise 3,000 volumes more.
The remaining 2,000 volumes contain a valuable collection of botanical
works, many learned monographs, and miscellaneous works in biog-
raphy and the collateral sciences. It is altogether the largest and most
valuable medical library in the city of New York, and one of the most
valuable of its size in the country. It contains a valuable collection of
illustrated works, as Bourgery and Jacob's Anatomy, 8 volumes ; Hebra
and Elfinger's atlas, 8 numbers, on skin diseases ; Cruveilhiers Patho-
logical Anatomy, 2 volumes ; Auvert's Surgical Practice, 2 volumes,
folio.
It embraces all the standard works on general and special diseases.
Its collection on the theory and practice of medicine is very full, as also
that on surgery and anatomy. As it is a library for consultation and
reference, great care has been exercised in the selection. Dr. Vander-
voort, who was regularly educated, graduated, and in the practice of
medicine for over forty years, has acted as librarian for thirty-four
years ; and upon him has devolved the duty of selecting the books.
Special regard is had for works which record any advance in the science
or the practice of medicine.
From $L,500to $2,000 per annum are now appropriated to the in-
crease of the library.
LIBRARY OF THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The New York Historical Society was organized in 1804. In January,
1805, the first regular meeting was held, and the following oflicers
elected :
Egbert Benson, esq., president; Eight Rev. Bishop Moore, first vice-
president; Brockholst Livingston, second vice-president; Eev. Samuel
Miller, D. D., corresponding secretary ; Mr. John Pintard, recording sec-
retary ; Charles Wilkes, esq., treasurer, and Mr. John Forbes, librarian.
A standing committee was appointed to issue an address to the public
setting forth the objects of the society and to take such measures as
would best promote its growth and progress. The constitution and by-
laws were extensively circulated in pamphlet form and afterward in-
serted in the first volume of Collections.
The founders were men of eminent position as divines, statesmen,
and jurists, or as men of literary culture or scientific attainment. Mr.
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 925
Pintard, already in possession of a valuable collection of books relating
to American history, offered it at a reduced price. This the standing
committee was authorized to purchase, and it became the nucleus of
the library. Liberal donations of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, maps,
and other material followed, which with purchases soon formed a re-
spectable library in the department of American history.
In 1809, through the efforts of De Witt Clinton, then a member of the
State senate, a charter was obtained and the society placed upon a solid
foundation.
September 4, 1809, completed the second century since Hudson's dis-
covery and passage up the North River, which received his name. The
society colnmemorated the event by an oration from Rev. Samuel Miller,
author of A Hundred Years' Retrospect in America, and by a grand
dinner at the City Hotel. This celebration led to a series of publications,
and Dr. Miller's paper, Verrazzano's discoveries in 1524, Hudson's four
voyages, and the laws of the Duke of York's government over the col-
ony, formed the first volume.
The society having removed thither from the old City Hall in 1809,
remained in the government house about six years. During this period
Dr. John W. Francis became librarian. His enthusiasm and brilliant
intellect did much for its progress.
The plan of the society originally included natural history, and im-
portant collections had been made, but these were transferred to the
Lyceum of Natural History as better suited to its objects.
During Dr. Francis's service the Gates, Schuyler, and Colden Papers
were added. The first two as leading generals of the Revolution, the
latter sharing equal civic responsibilities, gave special historical value
to these additions. To its art collection were also added by the relict of
the late Gouverneur Morris, portraits of Columbus, AmericusVespucius,
Cortez, and Magellan, copies from the Florence gallery.
In 1816 the society removed to spacious rooms gratuitously provided
by the corporation in the New York Institution in the rear of the City
Hall, in the park. It continued in these rooms sixteen years, down to
1832. During the greater part of this period the society struggled with
special pecuniary embarrassments. But tlie liberal advances made to it
by Dr. John W. Francis and his indefatigable exertions to maintain its
credit, saved it from sacrifices which would otherwise have retarded its
progress for many years. At the point of greatest embarrassment
Hon. Frederic De Peyster repaired to Albany, and by the aid of De Witt
Clinton, in the session of 1827, obtained a grant of $5,000. This, added
to a sum raised by the special efforts of the society, relieved it of debt.
In 1850 a movement was begun to secure a site and to erect a build-
ing for the sole and permanent use of tlie library. This was completed
and occupied in 1857 on the corner of Tenth street and Second avenue-
The site is 50 by 100 feet. The building is of brick, 50 by about 95'feet,
and is three stories high. The street floor contains the lecture room
926 Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
and trustees' office, aud into the upper stories are crowded its large col-
lections of books, pamphlets, and inanuscri|)ts, and its extensive collec-
tions of paintings and sculpture.
At the organization of the society iu 1804, it issued an address to the
public, requesting donations and information under fourteen different
heads, chiefly covered by books, pamphlets, and manuscripts. Appended
to the address were twenty -five queries asking special and minute in-
formation upon as many topics connected with the discoveries, coloniza-
tion, and foundation of the government, extending back nearly three
centuries.
.In 1814 De Witt Clinton drafted an able memorial to the legislature,
se^^ting forth the objects of the society. It was to establish a collection
of the natural, civil, literary, and ecclesiastical history of America, and
particularly of tliis State. He divided the civd history into the period
of the aborigines, the half century under the Dutch, the one hundred
and twelve years under England, and our political existence since. The
society had already collected books, pamphlets, maps, and manu-
scripts to form the great outline of this history, but the hand of time
was rapidly obliterating much valuable historical material which might
now be obtained, but which the lapse of a few years would put beyond
the reach of hnman power. As an instance, the records of the Indian
commission, in four folio volumes, from 1G75 to 1758, were conveyed away
by Sir William Johnson on the outbreak of the Revolution.
The result of tliis appeal was a grant of $12,000 by the legislature,
and an order to send regularly to the society the laws and journals of
the State. Congress also* provided for the donation of its journals, laws,
and documents. The collections thus far had been the fruit of private
munificence, chiefly at the hands of its founders and the booksellers of
the city.
The first catalogue was issued in 1813, prepared with special care
and ability by the Eev. Timothy Alden, under an alphabetical arrange-
ment by authors, names of documents, maps, aud newspapers It com-
prised 130 pages closely printed iu small type.
These volumes were to a large extent miscellaneous, but the greater
part illustrating the history of the country during the preceding "century
and a half. They inchided the annals of discovery, aud early colonial
settlement of New York and adjoining States, and more fully the prin-
ciples and history of the foundation of the Goverumeut. A large num-
ber of these volumes were issues of the Loudon press from 1755 down
to 1810. Of twelve titles under America, nine were issued in Lon-
don. The colonial period gave rise to several works on the rivalry
between France and Great Britain as to territorial rights aud trade in
America. Spanish Settlements iu America, History of the British in
North America, (U volumes,) European Settlements in North America,
(Edmund Burke,) and speeches in the House of Commons in favor of
America, (Burke,) are specimens of many of the early volumes. Nine
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 927
volumes under New Jersey, related to the j^overnment of the province
iu 1732, and down to 1800. Ot sixty-five titles under New York, the
majority relate to the city government, and the laws of the province or
State, from 1691 to 1813. It contained a vast amount of historical data
relating to the whole territory of what are doav the New England and
Middle States, in tiie form of special sermons, anniversury discourses,
speeches of the fathers or t!ie Republic, and retrospects of the previous
century. As these materials lay scattered, but near to the period of the
important events narrated, and with the previous events of colonization
and discovery still fresh in the memory of those who wrote and spoke,
this catalogue shows in every page how earnestly and carefully the
Siigacious founders gathered up and preserved these records from
the ravages of time.
It contained lists of news|)apers, as far as they could be collected,
from William Bradford's New York Gazette — the tirst paper established
in New York, 1725 — down to 1813. The changes and casualties in
business made it impossible to collect perfect files. Of ninety <lififerent
files none is found complete; but the dates so lap one upon another
as to ^ive a fair portraiture of the j)eriod over which they extend. One
hundred and twenty Hve maps, charts, and surveys formed part of the
collection. The most important, a French atlas in two volumes, with
charts of voyages and discoveries from 12'40 to 1G9G ; and mai)S of New
York, New Jersey, and other territory, the gift of the heirs of Lord
Stirling, Its art collection contained about thirty portiaits of the
patriots and early discoverers. Fifty manuscripts and one hundred and
thirty almanacs, from 1C92 to 1812, had been added.
The i)ublications of the society (begun in 1809) have, in three series,
reached 23 volumes. The first, in G volumes, contain many in)portant
historical discourses, by De Witt Clinton, Morris, Wheaton, Ver[)lanck,
Pintard, and Drs, Mitchell and Hosack, and the continuation of Smith's
History of New York, The second, in 11 volumes, besides the dis-
courses of Kent, Benson, and a long list ol eminent scholars down to
1849, embraced the minutes of the society for seven years. The 6
volumes iu the third, under the publication fund, continue Oolden's
Critical Correspondence ui)on S'nith's History, and 3 volumes of the
letters of Maj, Gen. Charles Lee, the second in command in the revolu-
tionary army, dating from 1754 down to 1782. The entire series em-
braced also some of the most important records of discovery.
The second catalogue, issued in 1859, contains G53 octavo i)ages.
This, with an art catalogue of 175 pages in 1874, shows the great value
of the collection and the large i)roporLions it has attained. They show
the rich treasures in our history, in its rapid growth in civil, literary,
and ecclesiastical affairs. Its G0,000 volumes aud more than 12,000
pamphlets, however miscellaneaus, shed light upon almost every sub-
ject which can came within the [)rovince of the student o\' American
history.
928 Public Libraries in the United States.
The original manuscript collections, now in process of arrangemeQt in
chronological order, throw new light on many critical pe riods. They in-
clude the Golden Papers, from 1720 to 1776; the Lord Stirling Papers,
embracing all his letters to Washington, and before, from 1756 to 1783 ;
the Duer, Steuben, and Gates Papers, the last second only to those of
Washington as materials for the history of the time.
Its collection of newspapers from 1704 to the present time, although
the files are not complete, in their extent and variety, form a complete
picture of the life and manners of this period. About one-half are
bound and when completed will make 4,500 volumes.
The works of art probably exceed in value those of any other library
in the country.
MERCANTILE LIBRARY.
The first movement in behalf of a mercantile library was made by
a number of public spirited merchants and other active business men
late in the year 1820. Their efforts met with such success that in Feb-
ruary, 1821, the association numbered 175 active members and opened
its library with about 700 volumes, which increased to 1,000 within
the year ; and John Thompson, the first librarian, was employed at a
salary of $150 per annum. In these early years of its history it was
open only in the evening, and two directors were always in attendance.
All the leading publishers of the city generously agreed to present copies
of every work of merit they should issue.
In 1823 it was incorporated as the Mercantile Library Association,
under the general law of 1796. In the same year it received from the
Chamber of Commerce a gift of $250, and a committee of that body
was appointed to report annually upon its condition. The library had
grown in 1826 to 2,200 volumes, and the membership to 438. Such was
its prosperity, and so well had it fulfilled the hopes of its friends, that,
at the end of two years, February 22, 1828, a meeting of prominent mer-
chants was called, at which it was agreed to raise funds for a perma-
nent library building. About $40,000 were subscribed, and a build-
ing at once begun at the southwest corner of Nassau and Beekman
streets. As a means of greater protection to the library, the subscribers
to this fund formed a separate association, and obtained frotn the legis-
lature a charter under the title of The Clinton Hall Association of the
City of New York, for the cultivation and promotion of literature, science,
and art. This corporation was distinct from the Mercantile Library
Association, but identical in purpose and object. It went into opera-
tion February 23, 1830. The object of the corporators was to hold in
trust and manage all the property, real and personal, which the asso-
ciation might accumulate for the benefit of the library for all time, while
the ofiicers of the library should manage their own affairs, monetary
and administrative, as a distinct organization.
The first book presented to the library was a History of England, the
gift of De Witt Clinton, late the governor of the State, and, in memory
PuhJ'tc Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 929
and honor of this eminent statesman; the building was named Clinton
Hall,
A coven-ant was made between the two associations, by which the
library should always occupy its rooms free of rent, and, after paying
the ordinary expenses and laying aside a contingent fund of $5,000
per annum from rents and income of Clinton Hall, the surplus should
be invested in books for the library. It was further covenanted that
the library should always be equally free to the members of both associ-
ations. Under this liberal covenant the ]\Iercantile Library Association
took possession of its rooms in Clinton Hall November 2, 1830, with
6,000 volumes and a membership of 1,200. During this year Columbia
College granted perpetually to the library association two free scholar-
ships. A like gratuity was awarded to the association by the Univer-
sity of the City of New York in 1845, and several of the scholars of these
foundations have been graduated with special hofiors.
The library entered upon its second decade with marked prosperity.
During this period courses of lectures, which had been established, were
prosperous. Classes werealsoformedforthestudy of the French, German,
and Spanish languages, chemistry, drawing, and penmanship. Under
the supervision of able professors these were largely beneficial to the
members. Its members and volumes steadily increased, so that in 1840
the association numbered 3,G52 active members, 278 stockholders in
Clinton Hall, and the library 21,906 volumes.
The third decade, from 1840 to 1850, was not distinguished by any event
of peculiar interest. The membership varied, but the library steadily in-
creased in the number and in the value and character of its volumes. At
the close of this period the public interest in the library and the general
belief in the power of the institution to elevate and give a higher tone
to the character of the future merchants of the city had been greatly
strengthened. At or about this period there began an increased demand
for a better class of books. It often exceeded the supply. Thirteen
copies of Macaulay's History of England, nine of Layard's Nineveh,
six each of Lynch's Expedition and Hawks's Monuments of Egypt did
not supply a sixth of the demand. By this alliance and cooperation of
the Clinton Hall Association with the library, the selection of its higher
permanent class of books, was perpetually delegated to a committee of
older men. Their selections greatly enriched the library. They aimed
in their choice to combine solid instruction with entertainment. Out
of 2,500 volumes added in 1849, over 2,000 were works of general liter-
ature, science, and art. Among these were the Sydenham and Ray
Society publications. Philosophical Transactions, (in all, 55 volumes,)
Burnet's Rembrandt and his works, and Landscape painting in oil colors,
Pickering's Races of Men, and other similar works.
In entering on its fourth period, in 1850, it had about 3,500 members,
and 33,539 volumes. The reading room was now receiving special at-
tention, and had on its tables 131 daily, weekly, m.onthly, and quarterly
journals, American and foreign.
59 K
930 Fiihlic Libraries in the United States.
The fourth period, from 1850 to 1860, begaa a new era iu the history
of the library. In the first year its circulation reached 100,000 volumes.
The library had beeu entirely re-arranged in alphabetical Order. Other
important events in the history of the library followed. Clinton Hall was
sold to the Nassau Bank for $100,000; its charter was amended to give it
power to increase its capital. The Astor Place Opera House was pur-
chased and remodeled for the use of the library at a cost of .$250,000. So
strong and deep was the interest of the mercantile community, that a sub-
scription was raised sufficient to reduce the entire debt to $75,000. The
result of this change was a large increase of members. Among those who
ten and fifteen years before had been its young and active members, were
now found the enterprising and successful merchants of the day. The
annual report of Clinton Hall for 1850, setting forth the cost of this trans-
fer and describing the advantages of the new and spacious edifice, was
made by the president, Wilson G. Hunt, esq., who for a period of twenty
years had been one of its most active, able, and faithful directors, and has
so continued to the present day. Such were the interest and the pros-
perity of the preceding sixteen months, that 308,254 times had its mem-
bers shared in its benefits, making a daily average of 750 members who
had received books or visited the reading room ; 22,161 young men had
been identified as members during the thirty-five years of its history;
its library now contamed 55,000 volumes, and the total library re-
ceipts up to this period were $173,000. There were now 6,061 active
and subscribing mem])ers, and this period left a more decided way-
mark in the progress of the library than any of the years preceding or
ensuing down to the close of our civil war. The year 1857 was one of
financial panic'and disaster. The rupture between the North and South
so soon followed, and so great was the strain of the war in its opening
upon the financial resources of the whole people, and so many of the
young men of the city went into the ranks, that all social and literary
progress was checked. It greatly diminished the numbers and resources
of the library. For five or six j^ears- it scarcely held its condition as
in 1856. But near the close of the war an era of prosperity began,
which closed this decade of ten years from 1856 to 1866 as one of the
brightest and most successful in its history. A new catalogue was com-
pleted and $7,500 expended in its publication ; nearly $12,000 expended
for new books; a new act of incorporation granted giving the power
to receive and use large legacies without doubt; and as a crowning
success, the entire debt on Clinton Hall of $62,000 was extinguished.
During this year there was a total gain in membership of nearly 30 per
cent. There were now 1,500 stockholders and 10,169 sharing the bene-
fits of the library and reading room. The library now numbered 81,000
volumes, and the year's record showed a delivery of 178,000 volumes
to its readers.
During the last nine years the association has advanced in wealth and
power for good beyond any period in its fifty-four years. The officers
PuhUc Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 1)31
of the library and the trustees of Cliiitou Hall liave specially sought to
combine the knowledge and experience of forty-five years' administration
here with that of the best popular libraries at home and abroad. They
have sought to prove what is best in the daily record of delivery, in classi-
fying and arranging the books upon the shelves, and the selection of
books with special reference to the future needs of the library.
The reading room now contains the best American and foreign news-
liapers, magazines, and quarterlies, the total number of all being 417.
Un the 1st of May, 1875, the active and subscribing members of the
library were 8,3S0, and the total number sharing its privileges 10,287.
The library contained upward of 100,000 volumes. The number of vol-
umes circulated and read during the last year was 203,000, and 7,332
were used as reference. A bindery is connected \yith the library, and
thus a large saving is effected every year. A new catalogue is being
prepared under the direction of Mr. W. T. Peoples, librarian.
The Mercantile Library holds the fourth place, as to number of vol-
umes on its shelves, among American public libraries. Its property,
real and personal, is about 8300,090 in value. Within its rooms it has
gathered seven pieces of costly statuary-, twenty portraits and paintings,
and thirty engravings, all the gifts of its friends.
ASTOR LIBRARY.
The Astor Library was incorporated by act of the legislature January
18, 1849.
John Jacob Astor, a native of Germany, but during most of his busi-
ness life a resident of New York, who died at an advanced age March
29, 1848, by his will devoted the sum of 8400,000 to the foundation
and perpetual support of a library for the free use of the public. The
management of this fund and of the library was committed by the
will to ten trustees : Washington Irving, William B. Astor, Daniel Lord,
James G. King, Joseph G. Cogswell, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Henry Bre-
voort, Samuel B. Buggies, Samuel Ward, and Charles Astor Bristed,
and ex officiis the mayor and the chancellor of the State. He devoted
875,000 to the erection of a building ; 81.20,000 to the purchase of books
and furnishing it ; and the investment of the residue, $205,000, as a
fund to purchase the site and for the maintenance, increase, and care
of the library.
The site selected was a lot 65 by 120 feet on the east side of Lafayette
Place, costing $25,000, leaving $180,000, the annual income of which is
to be exclusively applied to the current expenses and increase of the
library.
The first meeting of the board after Mr. Astor's death was held May
20, 1849, but it was legally organized under the act February 14, 1819,
when Washington Irving was chosen president, and Samuel B. Ruggles
secretary. Dr. Joseph G. Cogswell was appointed superintendent, and
the success and value of the library have been largely due to the wis-
932 Public Libraries in the United States.
dom of this selection. A man could scarcely liav^e been found so emi-
nently fitted, both by his taste and his exact and extensive knowledge
of books, for this responsible trust. The entire period of nearly five
years, from 1849 to the opening of the library to the public, January 9,
1854, was spent by this learned and indomitable student in diligent
labor in the libraries and book marts of Europe, or in liis own sturdy and
library, where his invoices were verified, and the books arranged and
classified on shelves in a house temporarily occupied for that purpose.
Dr. Cogswell spent the winter of 18513 in Europe. The result of this
visit was an addition of 25,000 volumes, including a mathematical
library of 3,000 volumes bought in Berlin, and one of 5,000 volumes,
philosophical and miscellaneous, procured in Florence.
The aggregate expenditure at this period had been about $100,000 at
home and abroad, and the whole number of volumes then in the library
was 80,000.
The corner-stone of the library was laid on the 14th of March, 1850, and
"the building finished in 1853. It is a plain structure of brick, raised upon
a lower story of rustic ashler brownstone. The style of architecture is
the Byzantine. The main library room is on the second floor, and is
100 feet in depth by G4 in width, and 50 feet in height. A broad sky-
light extending two-thirds the length of the room, with a row of large,
curved panes of glass on each side and a double sash spreading hori-
zontally across the centre, pours in a flood of soft light from above, which,
with ten broad windows in front and eight in the rear, gives an exceed-
ingly cheerful aspect to the library. By an economical arrangement of
shelves and alcoves, the library affords space for 100,000 volumes.
Up to 1854 the whole department of bibliography, containing over 5,000
volumes, and including many rare and costly works, was the gift of Dr.
Cogswell.
Few scholars or bibliographers of any period have had a broader,
clearer idea of what is necessary to form a great foundation library
suited to the wants of scholars, investigators, and scientists, and to the
pursuit of exact knowledge in all the arts. His idea cannot be better
stated than by a quotation from one of his own reports. He said :
There are but few general libraries in this country whicli have been formed upon a
system ; . . . one that would enable the scientific inquirer to track the progress of
knowledge and discovery to its last step ; to faruish to the mechanic arts and practical
industry in general, the help and guidance required from books; to make the artist
familiar with the history, character, and stylo of the great masters of his art; to
call up to the student the past, in all the wide range of imagination and thought,
and to provide the best and healthiest intellectual food for the minds of all ages. If
this is the character of the Astor Librarj", it is such an one as the founder intended to
establish.
The design was to make this library a general and not a special one,
and Dr. Cogswell labored with a wide knowledge of books and great
and persistent assiduity to make every department complete. His
system of classification was that of Bruuet. The perpetual catalogue
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 933
of the Astor Library, as Dr. Cogswell termed it, he had at this time
completed ; that is, one so arranged as never to require any change,
except that of being enlarged as the library in(rreases. He proposed to
the trustees that a classified catalogue be printed at periods as each
department advanced towards its completion.
A better idea may be given of the great value of this library and
what it contained, by a brief synopsis of the comparatively full report
of Washington Irving, made at the date of its opsning with 80,000 vol-
umes.
Theology. — The department of theology comprised the best editions of
the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures; the Walton Polyglott; various edi-
tions of the Vulgate ; numerous versions of the whole Bible and parts in
the principal languages of Europe and the East; the Fathers in full, with
most of the Benedictine editions; Bibliotheca Maxima of Despont ;
Cotelerius's Patres Apostolici ; the most important works on the councils,
find Colet's edition of L'Abbe, in 20 volumes; Concilia Maxima, 37 vol-
umes folio; quite full collections in scholastic and polemic theology; all
the early and recent English divines.
Jurisprudence. — The department of jurisprudence included a good
collection on civil law, many editions of the Corpus Juris ; commentaries
on it; the codes of Scandinavia, and other parts of Europe, during the
Middle Ages; jurisprudence as now practiced in Italy, Portugal, Ger-
many, Denmark, and Sweden ; the most important works on the laws of
Spain, with digests and commentaries on the Mussulman, Hindoo, Gentoo,
and Chinese laws ; collections On French law, from the ordinances of the
kings down to the volumes of the Journal du Palais, and selections from
the English common law, made by two of the most eminent jurists in
the country.
Sciences and arts. — The department of natural sciences was one of the
richest and best furnished in the library, and very costly : Palmarum
Genera et Species, by Martins; Wallich's Plantie Asiatica3 Rariores;
Roxburgh's Plants of the Coast of Coromandel ; complete set of Gould's
Birdsof Europe, Australia, the Himalayas; Audubon's Birdsof America ;
Sibthorp's Flora Gmeca, and hundreds of like character, nearly 5,000
volumes.
Chemistry and 2)hy si cs.-^ AW the publications of the principal societies
of Great Britain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Swe-
den, ISTorway, Russia, Italy, Spain, and Portugal ; also, of the United
States. The object was to provide a complete bibliDtheqne industrielle;
i. e., books for the special benefit of practical industry. These then num-
bered nearly 5,000.
Mathematics. — It was rich both in pure and applied mathematics. It
drew largely upon the libraries of Halley, Legendie, Jacobi, and the
two Heiligenstadts of Berlin. A competent judge, resident of Ber-
lin, considered it more complete than that of the Royal Library there.
At any rate, it may be ranked with the first abroad. Besides all the
934 Fuhlic Libraries in the United States.
works of Euler and Gauss, and all the mathematical journals, it has all
the works of Newton, Leibnitz, the Bernoullis, Laplace, Delambre,
Lacroix, Legeudre, Lagrange, Jacobi, and a large collection of astro-
nomical observations and many rare papers not easily found.
The fine arts. — No part of the library cost so much money. In the
four branches of the fine arts proper, including archaeology, there are
2,500 volumes, the first 50 of which cost nearly $3,000, all large folios
bound in red morocco. Among the works in this department are Pira-
nesi's Antiquities, 21 volumes; Musee frangais, 4 volumes, and Mus6e
royal, 2 volumes; Eaphael's Loggie del Vaticano, 3 volumes; Grecian
Antiquities, L3 volumes ; Gruner's Fresco Decorations of Italy.
Literature. — In this the library is very strong. It has grammars and
dictionaries of one hundred and four different written languages and
dialects, and numerous vocabularies of unwritten ones. It has all the
families and branches of the European languages, and most of those of
Asia and Africa. It contains the best works on Egyptian hieroglyphics
and cuneiform inscriptions. It has the best vocabularies of dialects of
the Mexican and South American Indians, published by the early Span-
ish priests; the Seven Seas, a dictionary and grammar of the Persian
language by the late King of Oude, 7 volumes folio. Greek and
Latin literature is well represented. There are more than a dozen edi-
tions of Homer -^ one the princess of 1488 ; as many as six each of
the Greek tragedians, of Pindar, of Demosthenes, Herodotus, Thucyd-
ides, and others. In Latin there are twelve editions each of Virgil and
Horace; six each of Ovid, Cicero, Livy, and Pliny. In Spanish, Portu-
guese, Italian, and French literature, there are more than 3,000 volumes-
There are more than ],000 volumes of German belles-lettres of this
century. In Dutch literature are nearly 200 volumes, among them the
complete works of the immortal Cats.
The historical department, last in the order of classification, consti-
tuted at least a fourth part of the library.
The lilJrary possesses a complete collection of English parliamentary
journals, debates, and reports — over 2,000 volumes. These and other
similar European documents make nearly 3,000 volumes. The American
public documents of Congress and the States are still more complete.
The South Library was opened in 1854. In October, 1855, Mr. William
B. Astor presented to the board of trustees a deed of the land, 80 by
120 feet, adjoining the edifice already completed, and signified his inten-
tion to erect thereon an exact counterpart of the building completed.
This new North Library was similar in size and architecture to the South
Library, and was completed and opened September 1, 1859. The books
were so far changed as to devote the entire South or first library exclu-
sively to science and the industrial arts; the North or new library, to
history and literature. This last department, when fully arranged,
embraced G(),000 volumes of the 110,000 volumes then in the whole
library. This new building being Qj by 120 feet left a space of 15 feet
on the easterly side of the lot for light and ventilation.
Puhl'tc Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 935
Dr. Cogswell, who bad already showQ great ability in bis prelirai-
uary index of books needed for a library, and extraordinary judg-
ment and economy in tbe purchase of tbe collection, completed his
Alphabetical Catalogue in four volumes royal octavo, of 2,110 pages,
in 18G1. He resigned the office of superintendent in November, whicb
was accepted on tbe 6tb of December of that year. He had been for
several years in failing health, and resigning, in 18C4, his office as
trustee of the library, removed to Cambridge, Mass., where he died
on the 26th November, 1871. Not long after bis retirement be was
enabled to complete the supplement and analytical index to tbe cata-
logue of tbe library. Tbe trustees, in their minute of bis character and
services, said:
For nearly twenty years he has devoted to this institution the unremitting efforts
of a well directed and spotless life. . . . Had this last book been produced by
a mature and vigorous scholar, at the most robust period of his life, it would have
been a remarkable proof of knowledge and practical skill ; but as the work of an
octogenarian it was a literary curiosity, and the most valuable American contribution
to the department to which it belonged.
Mr. Francis Scbrceder was next appointed, and held the office of
superintendent for nearly ten years. He was succeeded by Dr. Edward
E. Straznicky, for many years an assistant, who died in February, 1876.
Tbe present superintendent is J. Carson Brevoortj tbe librarian, F.
Saunders.
During tbe twelv^e years since Dr. Cogswell's retirement as trustee, in
1864, tbe library has steadily advanced in the yearly additions to its
volumes, in financial resources, and in its admitted influence in widen-
ing tbe area of knowledge and research. It is made accessible to the
whole community without fee or ceremony, except tbe requisite age. It
has passed, by free gift, out of tbe hands of its founders to those of
trustees, for tbe use of the public.
The part of tbe original donation of $400,000 by John Jacob Astor
not expended in tbe edifice and books, equal to $180,000, has constantly
accumulated its interest. Tbe amount of the total munificent additions
made by William B. Astor, in tbe erection of the North Library, and in
books to tbe value of more than $60,000, exceeds $300,000. Tbe entire
fund given by father and son — already invested and at interest to sus-
tain and increase the library — now makes a grand total of $773,336,
while tbe library has reached a total of 152,446 volumes. Tbe inesti-
mable value of tbe library will be appreciated when it is remembered
it contains no light nor ephemeral books; that its books are for refer-
ence and consultation, to be read within its walls, and are, so far as
practicable, of lasting value.
936
Public Libraries in the United States.
Statement showing the numler of readers, and hooks consulted, in the Astor Library from the
year ISeO to 1874.
Tear
Books read.
Volumes,
total.
Readers in
both de-
partments.
Scientific.
Literary.
1660
25, 533
18, 896
33, 983
26, 070
32, 877
39, 175
42, 570
43, 357
46, 513
58, .595
55, 657
57, 755
66, 086
59,516
44, 966
54, 314
66, 426
74, 655
77, 099
78, 935
92, 023
111.317
116,694
127, 579
23, 085
1866
1867
27, 251
32, 085
33, 742
32, 422
39, 428
55, 660
58, 939
61,493
1868
1869
32, 634
1870
1871
1872
32, 557
35,956
41 692
1873
1874
From 18G1 to 18G4 the details were not preserved.
Tbe value of the gift of the late William B. Astor aud the personal
oversight he gave for twenty years to perfect a technological department,
embodying all branches of practical industry, cannot be overestimated.
^0 department of the library is now more complete. That it is fully
appreciated is seen in the fact that out of G,838 alcove readers, within a
certain period, 2,117 were in the department of patents.
The British commissioners of patents presented to the library a com-
plete set of their extensive, costly, aud valuable publications, -from the
earlier issues in 1G17 down. The.se, with Mr. Astor's selections for the
technological department, and other important works donated, have the
highest practical and lasting value.
At the expiration of twenty years, two only of the original trustees
(William B, Astor and Samuel B. Euggles) remained. Those since ap-
pointed aud now acting are James Carson Brevoort, John A. Dix, John
Jacob Astor, Hamilton Fish, Thomas M. Markoe, M. D., William J. Hop-
X^iu, John Romeyn Brodhead, and Alexander Hamiltou, jr. Washington
Irving, president of the board from its organization, died in 1860.
Daniel Lord, long its able supporter- and faithful treasurer, died in
1868. Those who now direct its affairs are animated by the spirit of
its founder and of the elder son, who so greatly added to its imperish-
able treasures, to make it a rich blessing both to this metropolis and to
the whole American public.
apprentices' ijbrary.
This library was founded in 1820, and is an outgrowth of the General
Society of Mechanics aud Tradesmen of New York, organized in 1785
and chartered in 1792.
The first amendment of the charter gave it power to establish a school
for educating the children of deceased members of limited means and
Fublic Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 937
to found a library for apprentices. This was the origin of the library.
The charter of 1833, and subsequent amendments, provided that one-
third of the initiation fees should go to a distinct fund for disseminating
"literary and scientific knowledge'' through the medium of lectures j
for a separate fund for the library and reading room ; that the society
might hold real and personal estate to the amount of $500,000. The
amendment of 1860 confirmed its titles to real estate, and that of 1872
gave power to hold property to the amount of $1,500,000.
The society has five committees: library, literary, pension, school,
and finance, the yearly reports of which show the extent of its beuevo-
lence and the steadily growing influence of the school and library.
The receipts from all sources, initiation fees, rents, and interest,
amounted in 1875 to $10,000, while its expenditures were only $30,000.
This annual saving has already accumulated a building fund of over
$47,000. This growing sum will soon be invested in a spacious fire-proof
edifice.
The total value of all the property of the society, in real estate, stocks,
bonds, library, and furniture, is now estimated at $550,000.
The school prospered and supplied a great need of the time. But
after the more extended organization of the public school system of the
city, the day school was closed in 1863, and the school fund applied to
the growing want of a practical, free, evening drawing school for the
apprentices of the city. It now numbers over 400 pupils, devoted to
freehand, mechanical, and architectural drawing, and 50 or more to
writing and bookkeeping, and is doing an important work.
From its foundation to 1846, the library was open in the evening
only. Now it opens at 8 a. m. and closes at 9 p. m. Members of the
society pay $50 initiation and no annual dues. It is free to all appren-
tices and female operatives, and to all others the terms are $2 per an-
num. In 1816 it contained 17,000 volumes and had 1,600 readers. It
now contains 53,000 volumes and has over 7,000 readers.
A catalogue was issued in 1865, and two supplements in 1869, under an
alphabetical list of authors, with brief titles. Mr. J. Schwartz, who has
filled the post of assistant librarian and librarian for the last thirteen
years, found that the alphabetical system, in the rapid increase of books
and readers, caused much confusion through the want of numbers on
the covers of the books to control their position on the shelves. Hav-
ing studied the various systems of library economy, he devised a new
system of arranging the books in 1872-74, based upon the three systems,
alphabetical, numerical, and classified, as co-ordinate parts of the whole,
these three elements being combined in his plan in an equal degree.^
The library contains about 1,500 volumes, in cyclopedias and other
books of reference; in natural science and useful arts, nearly 4,000; in
fine arts, poetry, and literature, 4,000; in fiction, 15,000; in history,
'A description of Mr. Schwartz's plan will be found in Chapter XXVIII, p. 657 et
acq., of this report. — Editors.
938 Public Libraries in the United States.
biography, voyages, travels, and geography, 10,000 ; philosophy and
theology, nearly 4,000; in juvenile literature, 4,000; and about 10,000
duplicates and miscellaneous works make up the total of nearly 53,000
volumes.
The total circulation the last year w^as nearly 115,000 volumes, and of
this large number only G4 were unreturned at the close of the year.
In 1862, the free use of the library was extended to workingwomen.
The result has been, and continues to be, most gratifying. During the
last year 2,500 girls enrolled their names as readers.
NEW YORK LAW INSTITUTE.
The first steps toward the creation of the Law Institute were taken in
1825. In 1828 it was fully organized, and Chancellor Kent elected
president. The nucleus of a law library was formed by the purchase of
the private collection of Robert Tillotson. The voluntary association
having failed to meet the expectations of its founders, a charter was
obtained in 1830. The growth of the library for some years was slow ;
in 1842 it numbered but 2,413 volumes; in 185L, 4,544 volumes; in
1855, 6,000 volumes; and Justice Kent then said it was one of the most
valuable collections in the United States. In 1842, a catalogue was
prepared by Vice Chancellor L. H. Sanford.
From 1828 to this date, 1876, the library has received larger or smaller
donations from more than one hundred members, from the commission-
ers of public records of Great Britain, and from law book publishers in
Europe and at home.
It has become a success in the highest and broadest sense, and now
furnishes the bench and bar of the city in legal treatises, text books,
American and foreign reports, collections of leading cases and trials —
resources of incalculable value.
The library, now the best public law library in the country, contains
20,000 volumes, complete sets of reports of courts of all the States ; the
Federal courts ; the latest revisions of the statutes ; complete reports of
English, Scotch, and Canadian higher courts ; one of the best collec-
tions of the statutes of all the States ; one of the largest collections of
the session laws of all the States; nearly all the leading English and
American text books, and treatises; one of the largest collections of
trials; one of the largest collections of English and American law
periodicals; next to the library at Washington, one of the best col-
lections of French law in the country. It has also a very fine collec-
tion on the literature of the law, memoirs and biographies.
LIBRARY OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE.
This library was begun in 1833, to promote the objects and success of
an association called the American Institute, which was organized in
1829. It was at first a share library, of $25 e^ch. Subsequently these
shares were relinquished for life memberships, or given up. Members
Puhlic Lihrark'S of Ten Frinc'ipal Cities. 939
ouly of the institute can take books. Initiation fees and dues, at $10
and $5 per annum, are paid, as from members of the institute, and not
of the library.
In 1850 the library numbered 6,500 voliynes, valued at over $7,000.
In 1859 it was removed to rooms in the Cooper Institute, where it still
remains.
In the forty-seven years of its history the institute has held forty-four
fairs. These have served two important objects : {!) to supply an ample
revenue ; (2) to extend a knowledge of new inventions, and of the applica-
tion of old principles to new forms in agricultural, mechanical, and do-
mestic implements and machinery. The transactions and awards of
these fairs make thirty-two printed volumes, which have been published
by the State. The appropriation for this object having been discon-
tinued, they are no longer printed.
In the selection of books careful attention has been paid to the require-
ments of the institute in pursuing investigations relating to mechanics,
agriculture, and other special subjects.
An alphabetical and analytical catalogue was published in 1852, and
a supplement in 1857. The analysis divides the library into twelve divis-
ions. The principal ones are, science, art, belles-lettres, geography, voy-
ages and travels, history, biography, law, transactions, and i)eriodicals.
Under the head Science in this division of the library are five
branches: Universal, mental and moral, political, exact, and natural ;
under that of Arts are four: Mathematical, natural, fine, and miscella-
neous.
The subdivisions under Universal Science are given as encyclopaedias
and dictionaries. Under Exact Science: Arithmetic, mathematics, and
astronomy ; under Natural Science : I. Natural philosophy and chem-
istry ; II. Natural history; III. Anatomy, physiology, medicine and
surgery. Under the Mathematical Arts are embraced : Engineering,
art of war, and navigation. Under the Natural Arts : Agriculture.
The growth of the library has been slow, but it is strongest in these
divisions of science and the arts. These branches, more than any
others, have seemed to serve the ends of the institute. The library now
contains 10,600 volumes. For two years no books have been added ex-
cept by donation. The object of the institute, as expressed in the
charter, is to promote domestic industry in this State and the United
States, in agriculture, manufactures, art, etc. It has for several years
directed its chief energies to its Fairs and Farmers' Club.
THE A:\rEElCAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.
The first effort to establish a geographical society in New York was
made by Eev. Francis L. Hawks, George Folsom, and others, in 1850,
but nothing was accomplished till October 9, 1851, when the American
Geographical Society was organized, and Henry Grinuell elected presi-
dent. It held its first public meeting after organization at the rooms
940 Piiblic Libraries in the United States.
of the Historical Society iu the University of the City of New York. It
was shortly thereafter established ia a room of its own in that building,
when it rapidly increased in members, began to accumulate a geograph-
ical library, and to have lecti^res in the chapel of the university on geo-
graphical subjects.
On the 13th of April, 1854, it was incorporated by the legislature of
New York by the title of the American Geographical and Statistical
Society, which was afterwards changed by another act to The American
Geographical Society of New York.
Its efforts were chiefly applied to building up a geographical library,
and the formation of a collection of maps and charts of all parts of the
world. The ultimate object was to establish iu the chief maritime city
of the United States an institution where accurate information might
be ol)taiued respecting all parts of the globe. To this for some years
its efforts were mainly directed. These we're greatly aided by the
contributions of books and liberal donations of money by many of its
members.
It has now a library of over 10,000 volumes, which is especially rich in
works relating to North and South America, and is very full in respect
to Asia, Africa, and the Arctic. It Comprises very valuable and exten-
sive collections of elementary works, of works of all kinds on statistics,
and of the publications of the geographical societies of the world, and
is the only place in this country where these publications can be found
to so great an extent. Its collection of voyages, travels, journeys, and
explorations in all parts of the world is extensive and very valuable.
It has a geological department quite full iu geological reports and
publications relating to the United States and Canada. It has a large,
valuable, and connected series of atlases, from the first atlas of Orte-
lius down to the present time, in which all the atlases of the great
cartographers, Dutch, German, French, and English, will be found.
The library also embraces the larger part of the publications of the
Government of the United States and of the different States upon
geographical, geological, and scientific subjects. Its collection of charts
and maps is large, though not as extensive as that of the Eoyal Geo-
graphical Society of London, but its geographical library is said to be
more valuable than either the library of the London or Paris Geograph-
ical Society, although the library of the Loudon society is larger.
The New York society has now over 1,800 fellows, 20 honorary and
a large body of corresponding members at home and abroad.
Its presidents iu these twenty-four years hav^e been Henry Grinnell,
George Bancroft, Francis L. Hawks, and Charles P. Daly. Its present
general secretary is Lieut. James T. Gardner, late geographer-in-chief
of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Terri-
tories, and of Clarence King's Survey of the Fortieth Parallel.
The report of the society to the legislature is reproduced in the form
of an annual publication.
PiihUc Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 941
Charles P. Daly lias beeu presiJeut siuce 1S61. He has delivered in
this period a series of anbiversary addresses, reviewing the work of the
society and the explorations and discov^eries iu all parts of the world —
several of them so exhanstive that the series would form, if published, a
valuable epitome of this important branch of knowledge.
The society has secured a fund of over $30,000, and hopes soon to
remove to an eilifica of its own with ample room for its growing collec-
tion.
LIBRARIES OF THE COLLEGE OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER.
Thecollegelibrary contains about 15,000 books. It has a good collection
of Biblesinorigiual texts and approved versions; also, commentaries, dic-
tionaries, and concordances of the Bible; a full collection of the Greek
and Latin Fathers, and a good representation of standard works in the-
ology, exegetical, dogmatic, and polemical. It contains the Bollandist
collection of the Lives of the Saints, complete in 60 folio volumes, from
St. Peter, about the year 5G, down to the last saint canonized.
In patrology, ic has of I'Abbe Migne's edition of the writings of the
Fathers, 220 or more volumes, in Latin and Greek, from TertuUian, in
the second century, down to the thirteenth, the time of Innocent III.
This collection is very nearly full in the faculty library, the original
design of Migne being to issue 200 volumes of the Latin Fathers and
100 of the Greek. It is very well represented in ancient and modern
history, and quite full in ecclesiastical. It has a good collection in the
several branches of science. It is also fairly represented iu works on
jurisprudence, canon, comtifion, and statute law. It is fairly represented
in geography, ancient and modern, and in travels ; and has a very good
collection iu literature and philology. This library has been selected
with special reference to the wants of the faculty in the several depart-
ments of instruction.
The library of the college students contains nearly G,000 volumes of
well selected books. It is very conveniently arranged for active use.
The volumes are grouped upon the shelves according to size and sub-
jects, on a plan similar in its general features to that of the Apprentices'
Library of New York. The perfect system in the minor details of the
shelf arrangement of that library is not carried out. The five general
heads under which this library is arranged are: Religion, under
shelf sections, represented by the letters of the alphabet from A to G ;
literature, from H to M ; history and biography, from N to S ;' fiction,
from T to Z; science and travels, from A A to GG.
The Xavier Union is a literary social club — comprising students,
alumni, and Catholic young men of the city — which has a select library
of about 5,000 volumes.
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MEDICINE.
This academy was instituted in 181G and incorporated in 1851.
The objects of the academy are, tlie cultivation of the science of med-
942 Public Libraries in the United States.
icine, the advancement of the character and honor of the profession,
the elevation of the standard of medical education, and tlie promotion
of the public liealth.
The members comprise four classes, resident, non-resident, corre-
sponding, and honorary fellows; the corresponding fellows limited to
one hundred; the honorary, who must be distinguished in the pro-
fession, to fifty. The terms of membership are $5 initiation and $10
annual dues. The meetings are held semi-monthly.
The committee on medical education have cognizance of the system
of medical instruction, private and public, in the city and State of New
York. They recommend all improvements in office training and exami-
nations ; text books ; reading in practical studies proper for the student;
public courses, practical and theoretical, for the colleges and hospitals,
and make such suggestions as seem necessary to render the system
of medical education thorough and efficient.
Since instituted, twenty-five years ago, the academy has gathered a
library of about 3,000 volumes. It embraces many rare and standard
works in medicine, surgery, and the allied sciences. Its notable specialty
is in complete files of American medical periodicals, medical transac-
tions of State societies, files of hospital reports, and medical journals of
Great Britain and the Continent.
The members number 325. The annual income approximates to
$4,000, chiefly from dues.
LIBRARY OF THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.
The first London association of young men as a Christian body was
formed in 1844, and the first on this continent, after the London plan,
was at Montreal, in 1851. The first formed in the United States was in
the same year, at Boston, Mass. In the following year, 1852, associations
were formed at New York, Buifalo, and Washington. The first conven-
tion of associations in America was held at Buffalo, in 1854, and so
popular was this method of organization for mental and moral improve-
ment, and so fruitful in good results that in 18G()-'61, on the breaking
out of the civil war, there were about 200 associations in the United
States. Many suspended work during the war, and some were dis-
banded, so that the total number then existing was one hundred and
sixty.
The New York Association, formed in 1852, occupied leased rooms in
several parts of the city till 18G9, when the edifice now owned and occu-
pied, at the southwest corner of Twenty-third street and Fourth avenue,
was completed, at a cost, for land and building, of $500,000.
The library was founded in 1852, and when opened in the new
building, in April, 1870, numbered only 2,000 volumes. It now num-
bers 10,552 volumes, and is valued at $20,000. Of the books,
about 25 per cent, are Hction, all very carefully selected. History,
biography, and literature form 32 per cent. ; science, about 14 ; poetry,
Fuhllc Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 943
fine arts, travels, and cjclopiiitlias, aboat 11) ; anil miscellaneous works
fora\ the remaining 10 per cent. From the foundation, the library com-
mittee has never fostered a taste for light reading, but every year sup-
plies the best standard works. A large number of these are superior
English editions. Though not numerous, the department of art is rich
in many choice works. One work specially worthy of notice is a unique
collection of 8,000 portraits engraved on copper in the highest style of
that art, collected by John Perceval, earl of Egmont, and supplemented
by John T. Graves, covering a period from the first century down
to 173G, in 35 folio volumes.
In the year 1875, 17,600 volumes were drawn from the library by
about 14,000 readers. The library room and reading room, on a sepa-
rate floor, comprise 375 magazines, reviews, and newspapers, and during
the last year over 30,000 persons were admitted to these rooms. The
library has shelf room for 20,000 volumes. It is open, free, from 8.30 a.
ni. to 10 p. m. daily to members and to all respectable persons who com-
ply with its rules.
LIBRARY OF THE COOPER UNION.
This librar3'" forms a department in the institution founded by the
munificence of Peter Cooper for free instruction in science and art. It
is made an auxiliary to the work of education, and, with its extensive
reading room, becomes a ministry of great power also to those outside
of the school, who continually share in its treasures. It already num-
bers 17,500 volumes. At least C,000 of these relate to practical science
and art, including standard and popular authors.. Its extensive
files of the best foreign and American scientific periodicals are
bound at the close of each year, and make an important element in the
library. Among these are the Franklin Institute Journal, (complete
series,) Silliman's Journal of Science and Art, (complete,) Youman's
Popular Science Monthly, Van Nostrand's Engineering Magazine, London
Popular Science Review, and the A,nnals of Chemistry, both from Paris
and Berlin. The bound volumes of periodicals in other departments,
literary and miscellaneous, with the works of fiction, which are of the
highest order, aggregate 6,000 volumes more. History, biography,
general literature, and books of reference make up the remainder.
Among the latter are a set of the Patent Oifice reports, nearly complete,
from 1843 to 1876, making 180 volumes. In this class it has the Edin-
burgh, Britaunica, Lardner's, Ree's, the American, Pennj^, Tomlinson's^
and Chambers's Cyclopiedias; also, Dunglison's, Gregory's, and lire's
dictionaries.
Of American and foreign newspapers, daily and weekly, it has on file
192; of magazines and reviews, American and foreign, 120; making a
total of 312. In 1875 over 190,000 books and periodicals were delivered
to the very large total of 600,000 readers of both sexes. No books are
taken from the library, and the number of daily visitors ranges from
800 to 2,500.
944 Public Libraries in the United States.
The sixteen years' existence of the Cooper Union, with its scbools,
library, and reading room, already fills one of the brightest pages in the
history of education in America. The common schools, seminaries, and
colleges deal with rudiments, or a higher and more exact discipline, but
little or not at all with industrial and artisan skill. The Cooper Union is
the first and only instance in American history where a great fortune
has been devoted to instructing and training the masses in the elements
of science and art, for the special object of producing skilled labor in all
industrial pursuits, and elevating and advancing those who are taught
by bringing each branch of instruction as close as possible to practical
life and remunerative labor.
The total amount expended in erecting the building and in sustaining
the institution down to the present is $1,372,840.
MEDICAL JOirRNAL A>SSO0IATION OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
This association, organized in 18G4, is designed to furnish immediate
access to all the current medical literature in the department of medi-
cal journals and monographs. The prominent American, English,
French, and German journals are taken. .During the winter, regular
Friday evening re-unions are held, at which digests of all new and im-
portant matter appearing in the medical journals, as well as other mat-
ters of professional interest, are presented and discussed. The library
contains about 3,500 volumes, mostly of these journals, gathered in the
eleven years since the association was formed, and some hundreds of
volumes of special monographs.
The membership numbers 350, comprising physicians and surgeons in
good standing.
Terms are $10 per annum. The reading room is in the building of
the New York Academy, 12 West Thirty-iirst street, where the re-unions
are also held.
The* income is about $3,500 a year, devoted to these public journals
and current expenses.
LIBRARY OF THE BAR ASSOCIATION.
This association was organized in 1870 to supply a want which the
Law Institute could not meet. That institution, first established to ad-
vance the fellowship and social culture of the legal profession, had
existed above forty years. For a time in its early history it admirably
served this purpose; but at length the means and strength of the insti-
tute were wholly directed to creating a large and valuable law library
for the consultation and use of its members.
At the time of this movement in 1870, two imperative needs were felt
by the older members of the bar. The first was an uptown library,
where the large and increasing numbers of the profession, could profit-
ably employ the evening in the preparation of their causes for the next
day, and where plans for reforming both the administration of law upon
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 945
the bench and the abuses in practice could be discussed. The movement
was initiated by William M. Evarts, Charles O'Conor, Samuel J. Tilden,
Charles Tracy, and other prominent members of the profession. The act
of incorporation, passed April, 1874, named William M. Evarts president,
James W. Gerard, Samuel J. Tilden, Joseph S. Bosworth, John Slosson,
and Edward S. Van Winkle, vice-presidents, under the title of the Asso-
ciation of the Bar of the City of New York.
The association soon numbered three hundred members. The initia-
tion fee of $50 each and the annual dues of $40 created a fund of $27,000.
A commodious house was purchased for $43,000, and the larger part of
this fund applied to the payment therefor. In three years the indebted-
ness of the association was extinguished.
The foundation of the library was laid by one hundred members sub-
scribing $100 each in cash. The general fund afforded ample means for
yearly additions to the library, so that at the end of the sixth j^ear it
numbered nearly nine thousand volumes. The growth of the association
to nearly seven hundred members and the increase of the library made
it necessary to seek more commodious quarters. A larger building, sit-
uated on West Twenty-ninth street, was bought, and the library removed
thither in October, 1875.
The library, which now contains between nine and ten thousand vol-
umes, embraces complete sets of the reports of the courts of all the
States; complete sets of the reports of the Federal courts, the last revi-
sions of the statutes of all the States, a large collection of the session
laws of all the States, complete sets of English, Scotch, Irish, and Cana-
dian reports, the English reports going back to the thirteenth century,
and a large collection of text books and treatises on law.
LIBRARY OF THE COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
By an act of the legislature, May 7, 1847, the board of education of
New York City was authorized to establish a free academy for higher
education, the curriculum to approximate to the ordinary college course.
The privileges of the academy were limited to those who had been pupils
in the common schools of the city, and liad attained the age of twelve
years.
The academy building was completed in January, 1849, at a cost, for
laud, edifice, library, apparatus, and furniture, of $90,000. In 18C6 its
name was changed by act of legislature, to The College of the City of
New York, with full powers of a college under the revised statutes, and
it was made subject to the visitation of the regents of the university.
The board of education are ex-officio trustees of the college, and a later
act makes the president ex-officio a trustee and one of the executive
committed in the government and management of the college.
The library is valued at $60-,000. It has a library fund of $35,000; it
contains about 20,000 volumes, besides about 13,000 text books, which
are supplied at the expense of the college. It is full in scientific jonr-
60 E
946 Public Libraries in the United States.
nals, containing, it is said, the only complete set in New York, of the
Philosophical Transactions of the French Academy of Sciences. It has
Silliman's and many other standard journals. It contains all the latest
authors in chemistry, physics, natural history, mathematics, and astron-
omy. It is very full in the best authors on the history both of ancient
and modern nations. It comprises standard works on chronology,
archaeology, and numismatics. It has lull collections of the best authors
of French, English, and American history — original works and reprints.
French, German, and Spanish literature, both classical and the best
modern works, are quite well represented. Much attention has of late
been devoted to the classical department and to comparative philology.
There are not only complete sets of the Delphine and Lemaire editions of
the Latin classics, but the most reliable modern editions, both English
and German, have been selected.
English literature is fully represented. Of works of fiction it con-
tains only the great English novelists. It contains all the prominent
encyciopjedias, American and foreign, and several biographical diction-
aries. The art department, though not numerous, is quite select.
The object of the library is to place within reach, both of professors
and students, the standard works on all the subjects taught in the
college.
THE LENOX LIBRARY.
Taking into view the quiet and beautiful site of this library, at one
of the elevated points on Fifth avenue, in front of Central Park, the
simple but massive proportions of the edifice, the admirable adapta-
tion of the interior to the purposes of so large an institution, and the
unique character of the collection to be placed in it, the Lenox Library,
founded by James Lenox, excels, in many respects, any other similar
foundation in America.
Loccdity and dimensions. — It fronts on Fifth avenue, and covers the
entire block of 200 feet between Seventieth and Seventy-first streets,
with a depth of 125 feet. While not designed upon any distinct order
of architecture, as the Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian, it is simple, classic,
and grand in the mass. It is built of white Lockport limestone, or
marble, finely polished, and embraces a central building with two pro-
ectiiig wings, the object being to secure all the light possible for the
library rooms and galleries. The building is 192 feet parallel to the ave-
nue, and 114 feet deep, with a front elevation of 105 feet. The central
part of the edifice for a space of 96 feet is set back 42 feet from the front
line, thus forming a courtyard 42 by 96 feet, with a flight of steps to
the front entrance. The main entrance from the street is through two
massive gateways and this court.
First story. — The principal entrance door opens into a vestibule 24
by 96 feet. This vestibule, the floor of which is laid with white marble
tiles, communicates at each end with a north and south library room,
each 30 by 108 feet. These rooms are 24 feet high, and each has six
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 949
alcoves, or recesses, G by 24 feet. The windows of each library room are
10 feet from the floor, to secure a large amount of wall space. In the
rear of the centre of this spacious vestibule are the janitor's office, the
cloak and retiring rooms, with broad stairways on, either side ascend-
ing by two easy flights to the second story. Half way up is a mezzanine
or half story between the library rooms, (which by reason of their height
afford ample space,) on which is a commodious suite of apartments for
the librarian, with parlor, dining, service rooms, and every convenience.
This completes the first story.
Second story. — Ascending to the second story, two doors open into the
principal art gallery, which is directly over and of the same size — 24 by
96 feet — as the vestibule below. Three large windows open on the bal-
cony and the court, looking on Central Park. The sides of the room are
divided by five arcades resting on piers, which are decorated with niches.
The walls are finished in oak to the height of these niches. At both
ends of this gallery, north and south, are library rooms, 30 by 108 feet,
with six alcoves or recesses in each, as on the street floor, and like those
except in height. These latter have vaulted ceilings, 40 feet in the centre
and 35 feet at the sides. A second picture gallery on this floor, directly
over the librarian's apartments, is 40 by 56 feet, well lighted by large
sky-lights, and tastefully skirted with dark wainscoting, which completes
the second story.
Third story. — The north stairs ascend to the third or attic story, to a
third gallery for paintings, 24 by 96 feet, the walls of which can be used
on three sides, the fourth being occupied by the windows and a broad
balcony extending nearly the whole length of the room, to afford a bet-
ter view of the paintings and easier access to the windows, which com-
mand an extensive prospect. On this floor is the tank-room, which will
afford an ample supply of water for the entire building.
Basement; heating and ventilation. — ^^The basement is 12 feet in height
and extends under the whole building ; is thoroughly dry and will be
used for storage of books, for boiler-room, with four large boilers, fire-
pump, and complete steam and water works. Great care has been given
to the heating by steam, and the ventilation, which work together and
are so arranged that the engineer has control of the heating and venti-
lation of the whole building without leaving his floor. The air in each
room can be changed every thirty minutes, if necessary, and the libra,
rian's office communicates by speaking tubes with the principal rooms,
and with the janitor, and engineer, so that he can at all times control
both heat and ventilation.
Capacity and cost. — The book presses or cases are of iron, arranged in
two tiers, with galleries, and for convenience of access in administration,
staircases of iron have been placed in two of the recesses on each floor.
The four library rooms, if filled to the extent of their capacity, will each
contain over 75,000 volumes, or the four an aggregate of over 300,000
volumes.
Mr. Lenox has already formally given to the library $385,000 in cash,
950 Public Libraries in the United States.
and probably smaller sums to make the total 14:00,000. Of this sum
and interest, after completing the building, there remain 1212,000 as
a permanent library fund. His gift of ten city lots for the site may be
estimated, at present depressed prices at $300,000, making the total
$700,000. This is exclusive of the costly collection of books and manu-
scripts in process of transfer and arrangement in the library.
Trustees and librarian. — The act of incorporation, passed January 20,
1870, made the following nine gentlemen the first trustees of the library:
James Lenox, William H. Aspinwall, Hamilton Fish, Eobert Ray, Al-
exander Yan Eensselaer, Daniel Huntington, John Fisher Sheale, James
Donaldson, and Aaron B. Belknap. James Lenox was elected president
and A. B. Belknap secretary. Six years have been occupied in the con-
struction of the building. George H. Moore, for twenty years connected
with the New York Historical Society, has been appointed librarian,
and is arranging the collection for the use of the public. In its present
shape the numerical extent of the collection cannot be given. Some of
the prominent features which made the private library of the founder
exceptionally rare and valuable can only be referred to iii this brief
sketch.
This private collection, not perhaps exceeding 15,000 volumes, has
been known to scholars and bibliopoles to be very complete and costly
in certain departments. In the specialty of American history and the
materials for it, no private library in America probably equals it. It
is known to contain not only all the more valuable books on America
published in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the tirst half
of the eighteenth, but most of the complete editions of the more val-
uable in the Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Italian, French, Latin, and
English. In the Bibliotheca Americana of Henry Harrisse are enumer-
ated more than 150 volumes of the most valuable works on America,
its discovery and settlement, published within a certain period, as in
his collection. The Lenox collection of Spanish manuscripts relating to
America is very large and valuable. The library contains the most
•complete collection of the editions of the De Bry books in the country.
Is;"o public or private library here is so rich in Shaksperean literature.
It contains a great number of complete editions of the various forms of
the dramatist's plays, as the first four folios, the first quartos, and sub-
sequent issues. If not all, it has most of the twenty plays published
in Shakspere's lifetime, which are valued at their weight in gold. It
is rich in Elizabethan poetry, exceeding most libraries in complete edi-
tions of the poets of that period. It is also rich both in works on the
fine arts and on angling. Another specialty is its collection of Bibles,
which is not surpassed in the country.
From what is known in general of Mr. Lenox's method of furnishing
this corporate library, it is believed that he will double or treble his
private collection with valuable works selected abroad. The public wait
patiently for these rare treasures, sooner or later to be opened to scholars
and the reading community.
Public Libraries of Ten Frincipal Cities. 951
OTHER COLLECTIONS.
Tbe following list embraces other public or semi-public libraries
in iS"ew York and vicinity which contain each 1,000 volumes or more.
Further statistics of these and minor collections will be found in the
general table at the end of this volume. — Editors.
Volumes.
American Bible Soci ety 2, 400
American Eclectic Library 30, 300
Ascbenbrcedel-Vereiu 1,700
Bloomingdale Asylum for tbe Insane 1,000
Catholic Protectory for Boys 2,000
Century Club 2,000
Chamber of Commerte 2, 500
Charlier Institute 3,500
Children's Aid Society Lodging-houses 1, 100
College of Pharmacy of the City of Now York 1,200
College of Physicians and Surgeons 1,200
Columbia College 18, 745
Philolexian Society 1,200
Peithologian Society 1,000
School of Mines 7,000
Law School 4,500
Botanical Library 1, 145
Court of Common Pleas 1 , 000
Department General Recruitiug Service 2,556
Dr. Van Norman's Classical School 2,040
Fire Department Library and Lyceum 6,750
Five Points House of Industry 1, 000
General Theological Seminary of the Protestaut Episcopal Church, (see sketch
in Theological Libraries, Chapter IV, pp. 152-153) 15,400
Grand Lodge Free and Accepted Masons, 224 Centre street 1,500
Harlem Library 8,000
Harmonic Club 6,000
Home for the Friendless 1,000
House of Refuge 4,086
Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb 2,800
Ladies' Five Points Mission w 1,400
Liederkranz 1,000
Ludlow Street Jail 1,,500
Manhattan College 13,000
Mile. Rostan's school 1,000
Mott Memorial Free Medical and Surgical Library 4,700
Mrs. J. T. Benedict's school 3,000
Naval Lyceum 4,250
New York Genealogical and Biographical Society 1,500
New York Juvenile Asylum 1, 500
Packard's Business College 2, 000
Philharmonic Society 1, 400
Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions 6, 000
Printers' Library 4, 100
Protestant Episcopal Church Mission Society for Seamen 1,500
Rutgers Female College 5, 000
Society for the Relief of Juvenile Delinquents 4,010
Standard Club 1,000
952 Public Libraries in the United States.
Volumes.
Sunday School Teachers' Eeadiog Room and Exchange 2, 000
Supreme Court, first department, first j udicial district 2, 000
Turnverein 1,750
Union League Club 1, 500
Union Theological Seminary, (see sketch of this library in Theological Libra-
ries, Chapter IV, p. 153) 34,000
University of the City of New York 3,500
Law Department 1,200
Verein Freundschaft 1 357
Washington Heights Library 2,794
Woman's Library 2, 500
Young Women's Christian Association 4,000
VII].— PUBLIC LIBRARIES OF PHILADELPRCA.
BY LLOYD P. SMITH,
Librarian of the Library Company of Philadelphia.
The idea, first carried out in New England, of free libraries supported
at municipal expense, has not yet penetrated to Philadelphia. All the
public libraries in this city are supported by the contributions of indi-
viduals. They are, however, nearly or quite all accessible, without
charge, to the public for consultation, and from most of them the books
may be borrowed on payment of a small sum. The remark recently
made by Dr. Daniel Wilson, that " in no country in the world are pub-
lic and private libraries and collections made available to the scientific
inquirer with the same unrestrained freedom as in the United States,"
is eminently true of the libraries of Philadelphia.
There is no one of them that in itself approaches to completeness ;
but as several are devoted to special subjects, thus supplementing each
other, they together form a group of great value and usefulness. The
Philadelphia Library, including the Loganian collection under the same
roof, and accessible to the members, is rich in early printed books, works
relating to America, newspapers, periodicals, and standard English lit-
erature ; the Law Library is a fine collection of reports, statutes, and
other legal works ; the Library of the Hospital and that of the College
of Physicians are medical collections which, together, are of the first
rank; the Library of the Academy of Natural Sciences is very rich in
works on natural history, and that of the Philosophical Society in the
transactions of learned societies; the Mercantile Library is strong in
bibliography, and, possessing already 125,000 volumes well adapted to a
circulating library, it grows and prospers marvelously; the Franklin
Institute has a complete set of the American, British, and French
patent publications ; the University has 8,000 volumes on political econ-
omy and 5,000 on engineering : and the Historical .Society has an inval-
uable treasure in the Penn Papers, while its collection of colonial and
revolutionary manuscripts, local histories, books relating to the French
Revolution, and curiosities, is important and rapidly increasing. It will
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. -953
be seen that these separate collections virtually supplement each other.
A better idea, however, of the resources of these various institutions will
be obtained by taking them up in turn and giving a sketch of their his-
tory and present state. This paper will not be without value if it
enables the student to ascertain whither he should turn his steps to find
books on a particular subject.
First in point of antiquity is
THE LIBRARY COMPANY.
The foundation of the present institution was laid by Dr. Benjamin
Franklin, who induced a small number of gentlemen to subscribe one
hundred pounds ; the books being first kept in Kobert Grace's house,
from which those who in 1731 signed the articles of association were
allowed to take them to their homes for perusal.
Many particulars in regard to Kobert Grace have been brought to
light in Mrs. T. C. James's recent Memorial of Thomas Potts, jr. From*
that work we learn that Mr. Grace was born on April 25, 1709, and that
he was the son of Eobert Grace the elder, of Philadelphia, who removed
thither from Barbadoes some time before February, 1707-'8. The
younger Grace seems to have inherited property to a considerable
amount, including the residence afterward noted as the cradle of the
Philadelphia Library. This was situated on the north side of High (now
Market) street, below Second, at that early date one of the most eligible
portions of the city. The town-hall stood nearly opposite, in the centre
of the broad thoroughfare, and was the place of meeting of the provin-
cial assembly and governor's council. After Dr. Franklin and Mr.
Grace became intimate friends, the latters residence was selected as
the place of meeting of the famous Junto, and a room therein was chosen
as the place of deposit for the newly formed library. The house itself
was perhaps one of the oldest brick houses in the city. An arched
carriage-way opened in the rear upon Pewter Platter alley, and through
this the members entered, so as not to disturb the inmates of the house.
Here the idea of a public library was conceived and carried out, and
here the collection remained for ten years, until removed to the upper
room of the westernmost office of the State-house.
By slow degrees new members joined the company, and new book-s
were annually added by purchase and donation. Among the donors
the proprietaries of Pennsylvania are to be numbered, and from them a
charter was obtained in 1712.
The utility and success of this association caused the establishment
of other libraries ; but it soon appeared to be more conducive to the
interests of literature that there should be in Philadelphia one large
rather than several small collections of books. Accordingly, coalitions
gradually took place, until, in 1769-71, the Amicable, the Association,
and the Union Companies were merged in the Library Company of
Philadelphia.
954 Public Libraries in the United States.
The library, which had been kept iu tlie State-house since 1740, was
in 1773 removed to the second floor of Carpenters' Hall, where it re-
mained until 1790, when it was transferred to its present site in Fifth
street. By the lapse of time the present building- has become some-
what venerable, and its interior, though plain, is impressive. The late
Dr. James W. Alexander, of Princeton, remarks in his Familiar Letters,
"No librarj^ I have ever seen, not even the Bodleian, has left such traces
on my imagination as the old Philadelphia, which I, want to see again."
The rooms contain portraits of Lord Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, William
Penn, John Penu, James Logan, Benjamin Franklin, Rev. Samuel Pres-
ton, (a benefactor of the library, the portrait by West,) William Mac-
kenzie, and Joseph Fisher, (the former of whom bequeathed books and
the latter money to the library,) Thomas Parke and Zachariah Poulson,
(directors,) and others. Various relics, such as William Penn's writing
desk, a colossal bust of Minerva, which formerly stood behind the
Speaker's chair in the first Congress under the Constitution, a mask of
Washington's face from the original, used for Houdon's statue, a read-
ing desk of John Dickinson, (author of The Farmer's Letters,) James
Logan's library table, and other curiosities, are calculated to interest the
visitor.
Since its organization the company has pursued a steady course of
m'odest and unostentatious usefulness, its members and property grad-
ually increasing until the former now number 967, while the number of
volumes is more than 100,000. This includes 11,000, many of them rare
and valuable, in the Loganian Library, founded by James Logan in 1750,
and now, in the hands of the directors and three descendants of the
founder, constituting a special trust.
The Loganian Library was kept from 1750 to 1792 in a building specially
erected for it by the founder at the northwest corner of Sixth and Walnut
streets. It is endowed with five hundred and ninety-six acres of land
in Bucks County, originally leased by James Logan for one hundred and
fourteen years. The lease expired in 18G1, and under the provisions of
the indenture the land was revalued and a new rent agreed upon for
the further term of one hundred and twenty-one years. In 1983 another
revaluation will take place, and so on, at the expiration of each one hun-
dred and twenty-one years, for ever. The net income of the Loganian
Library from this source is about $700.
In addition, the institution has $25,000 invested in bond and mort-
gage, the accounts being kept separate from those of the Library Com-
pany. Persons using the Loganian Library make a deposit to secure
the return of the books borrowed, but no charge is made for their use.
Besides the books, the Library Company has a few thousand dollars at
interest and the income from the Law Buildings adjoining the library;
the total annual receipts being about $12,000 for the Library Company,
and $2,200 for the Loganian Library. Members pay $8 a year, and dispose
of their shares— the par value of which is $40, though they sell for more
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 957
iu the market — by transfer or bequest, but the assent of the directors is
necessary before new members are admitted. It is not requisite, how-
ever, to be a member of the company to use the library. Persons desir.
ing to consult the books (for any useful purpose) are allowed to do so in
the rooms, and books may be taken out by subscribers (at $12 a year)
or by leaving a deposit of double their value. In the latter case a small
weekly charge is made for their use, except for Loganian books, which
are free.
Eotation in office has not yet invaded this venerable institution. It
has happened more than once in its history that directors have held
office for over fifty years, and during the last ninety years there have
been only four librarians and five secretaries. Since 1750 the Loganian
Library has had but six librarians.
During so prolonged an existence many books of value have naturally
accumulated. Some account of these will be found in the preface to the
third volume of the catalogue, and also in a paper in the Atlantic
Monthly for March. 1868. It will be sufficient to mention here that the
department of manuscripts is represented by examples iu the Hebrew,
Arabic, Abyssinian, Siamese, Burmese, Greek, and Latin languages;
that of incunabula, by specimens (belonging to the Loganian Library)
of the work of the earliest printers in Germany, England, Venice, and
Eome, respectively ; that of antiquities, among others, by Lepsius's, Eo-
sellini's, Napoleon's, Gau's, and Vyse's Egypt; Botta's and Layard's folio
plates of Nineveh ; Kingsborough's and Lenoir's Mexico; the government
works on Herculaneum and on the Monuments of Paris; Piranesi's and
Canina's Eome aflrd II Vaticano, and that invaluable work, the i)hoto.
graphs of the antiquities in the British Museum; while Spanish litera-
ture is represented by an excellent collection made by the late O. Eich
expressly for the Loganian Library.
The strength of the two libraries, however, so far as rare books are
concerned, lies in the department of works on America, which includes?
for a single item, complete sets of many Philadelphia newspapers, form-
ing continuous files from the first number of the first paper published
in this city (1719) to the present time. The library possesses also Du
Simitiere's collection of books, pamphlets, and broadsides relating to
the Eevolution, a complete set of congressional and of Pennsylvania
State documents, and nearly everything relating to Philadelphia, in-
cluding all the important maps from 1682 to the present time.
A classified catalogue, made by the late George Campbell, librarian
from 1806 to 1829, was published in 1835, and a supplement, also com
piled by him, together with a copious general alphabetical index by the
present librarian in 1855. The whole is contained in three volumes of
2,100 pages, and it has been pronounced by an expert, Dr. S. A. Allibone?
to be, on the whole, the best printed catalogue known to him. The ad-
vantages of a catalogue raisonne are so evident that it is hardly neces-
sary to particularize them. In a small library it is sufficient to have
958 Public Libraries in the United States.
books on the same subject together on the shelves. In a large library
it is of advantage to the student to have the titles themselves classified.
The arrangement adopted in the printed catalogue of the Philadelphia
Library is fivefold, the classes being, respectively: Religion, jurispru-
dence, science and arts, belles-lettres, and history, each class having
subdivisions. It is thought that the alphabetical index, in which every
important word in each title is indexed and a reference made to the
page where the full title is to be found, gives the catalogue all the advan-
tages of an alphabetical, together with those of a classed catalogue.
The titles of books added since 1855 are written on cards or, rather, slips
of paper, which are kept — mainly after the plan recommended by the
late Prof. 0. C. Jewett to the librarians' convention of 1853 — in alpha-
betical order. They occupy thirty-two drawers, the cross references
being copious. Pamphlets are bound in volumes, with some reference
to keeping those on the same subject together, and each pamphlet is
catalogued as fully as a book, a figure being added after the number
and size of the volume to designate its relative place therein. For
example :
Potter, (Alonzo.) 17137. O. 7, A discourse commemorative of the Rt. Rev. Alonzo
Potter. By William Bacon Stevens, bishop. Phil., 1866.
To this title there would be only one cross reference.
Stevens, (Bp. W. B.) 17137. O. 7. See Potter (A.) for discourse by.
In the above catalogue slip the letter O. standi for octavo, and the
figure 7 for the seventh pamphlet in the volume, numbered 17137 on the
shelves.
It may be noted in passing that this pamphlet is considered as a biog-
ra))hy of Bishop Potter, and the full title is given under his name and
not under that of the author. This is, of course, an exception to the
general rule, according to which the author's name is the catch word.
It would be desirable to have a complete printed cotalogue of the
library brought down to the present time, but the expBnse is too great
for the resources of the institution.
The arrangement of the books on the shelves is by sizes, not by sub-
iects. When a book is catalogued it takes one of four sets of numbers,
according as it is a folio, quarto, octavo, .or duodecimo. Its number
in that set stands forever as its shelf mark, and the books themselves
can be shifted ad libitum without altering the numbers. Alcove A,
let us say, for example, on the floor contains Nos. 1 to 4000 octavo. In
course of time the floor cases having been filled, and the older books not
being so much in demand, Nos. 1 to 4000 may be removed from alcove
A, carried up-stairs, and placed anyM^here, there being no shelf marks
to be altered. There is still a place for everything, and everything in
its place. This plan, while not claimed to be the best possible, is not
without its advantages. It is particularly well adapted for pamphlets,
and it gives the books a neat and orderly appearance on the shelves.
Certainly the larger the library the fewer are the evils of an absence of
Fiihlic Libraries of Ten Frincipal Ctties. 961
a classification by subjects on the slielves. Nevertheless, in practice, it
is found necessary, in some cases, to vary from the arrangement by
sizes only. For example, all the handbooks of travel are placed
together on the shelves, and so are the encyclopteclias, the directories,
and certain books of reference constantly in demand for consultation in
the rooms ,• and as regards the modern works of fiction also, a modifica-
tion of the general plan has been adopted.
The bookcases are protected by wire doors, which are kept locked,
with the exception of one case containing the newest books of a miscel-
laneous character, and another for the latest works of fiction.
The necessity of a fireproof building for the safe keeping of this valu-
able library has long been felt by the directors, who started a subscrip-
tion for that object in 1855.
In 1864, the late Joseph Fisher, bequeathed $51,488.12 to this build-
ing fund, which now amounts to $105,000. In 1869, the late Dr. James
liush left his large estate, appraised at over $1,000,000, for the purpose
of erecting a fire-proof building, to be called the Rldgway Branch of
the Philadelphia Library. The building,^ a noble structure of granite,
^Tbe governing principles iu the arrangement of this building were, that special
rooms be provided in which to arrange the books, as well as separate reading rooms
for the public, and that no books be obtained except over the librarian's desk, although
a few books might be placed within reach of the public in the main hall and reading
rooms.
Generally, then, the building may be said to consist of a centre, with north and
south wings, the books to be stored in the north wing; the main hall occupies the
centre, and the reading rooms are in the south wing.
The main hall is in the form of a cross, the western arm of which is occupied by the
entrance and vestibule; the northern, next the books, by the librarian's department;
the eastern, by a room for periodicals; and the southern, by the entrance to reading
rooms, and by the staircase to gallery of main hall, and to the memorial and directors'
rooms on the second floor of the south wing.
The north wing measures 32 feet 6 inches by 71 feet inside, and in the centre is open
to the ceiling a height of 34 feet, having three tiers of galleries, 10 feet wida, ou which
the books are arranged in the form of alcoves. A space of 2.") feet by 63 feet, between
the north wing and centre, is also available for the storage of books, and ultimately
wall cases may be put around the gallery of the hall. The total capacity for books
may be put at 400,000 volumes.
The south wing is occupied by a general reading room 32 feet G inches by 71 feet,
with a 20-foot ceiling. It is lighted by three large windows on each of the west, south,
and east sides; is provided with two open fire places, and has access at either end to
retiring rooms, lavatories, etc., for ladies and gentlemen.
In the angles of the central portion of the building, not occupied by the main hall,
are a room for receiving and cataloguing books, a private room for the librarian, and two
smaller reading or study rooms. These four rooms are each 22 feet square and 14 feet
high, and are well lighted by two large windows each.
The length of the arms of the main hall are 85 feet north and south, and 60 feet east
and west, and the width 35 feet. The height to the ceiling is 43 feet. There is a broad
gallery, or, more correctly perhaps, a second floor around the hall, at a height of 15
feet from the floor, from which rise 24 Ionic columns and pilasters which carry the
ceiling. Light is introduced by a Clere-story arrangement over the interior cornice,
01 E
962 Public Libraries in the United States.
in the Doric style of architecture, is now in course of erection, by the
executor, at the corner of Broad and Christian streets, and will proba-
bly be finished in 1876. It is to be hoped that the munificent intentions
of the testator, faithfully carried out by his executor, may result not
only in a stately building for the ornamentation of the city, but also in
a library of a size and income worthy of the sixth city of the civilized
world.
THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.i
This association was started in 1743 by Br. Benjamin Franklin. This
great man, who kept constantly in view the advancement of the com-
munity in which he lived, was well aware that this object could only be
attained by combined efforts. Hence the number of associations in
Philadelphia of which he was either the founder or one of the most efifi*-
cieut promotors. The Library Company and the Philosophical Society
appear to have both grown out of the celebrated Junto, or debating
society, founded when Franklin was but twenty-one years of age ; and
both, though always hampered by want of means, have for more than
a century faithfully pursued the course of public usefulness originally
planned for them.
The library of the Philosophical Society contains over 20,000 books^
largely scientific works, but including many of historical value. In
1863, Part I of a printed catalogue was published, followed in 1866- by
Part II. The third and concluding part is nearly ready for the press.
The learned librarian has struck out an original method of cataloguing.
" Eight principal classes carry from the universal to the special, from
the abstract to the concrete, from the inorganic to the organic, from
matter to mind. E'ach class begins with the theory of the subject and
by which means an abundant supply of light is obtained, without leakage from rain
or snow, to which the ordinary level skylights are so subject.
Externally, the west front on Broad street shows the arrangements of centre and wings
the former adorned with eight columns, and the latter with four each. The back or
east front is of similar general design, but without the columns, and the north and
south wiogs show a tetrastyle arrangement of pilasters with pediment over. The
Grecian Doric was the style named for the building by the late Dr. Rush, and the fol-
lowing are the general dimensions : Diameter of column at base, 5 feet ; height, includ-
ing capital, 30 feet ; iutercolumniation, 12 feet 3 inches; height of entablature, 12 feet
3 inches ; angle of pediments, 13°. The columns stand on a basement 8 feet high, and
the principal floor is one step above this. A broad flight of steps leads up to the entrance
in the centre of the building. The total length north and south is 220 feet; east and
west, over portico and basement, J 12 feet ; and the height from ground to apex of cen-
tral pediments 60 feet.
There is a well lighted basement under the whole building, with a ceiling 13 feet
high, to which there is direct entrance from the back of the building. It will be heated
throughout by steam, supplemented by open fires in all the reading rooms. It is built
of Cape Ann and Quincy granite, with iron floors, ceiling, and roof, and may be said to
le fire-proof, though the flooring and finish, for the sake of comfort, are of wood. Four
of the sixteen front columns are now in place, and the structure will be roofed in this
year.
1 See Scientific Libraries, Chapter Yll, pp. 183-186, and Historical Societies, Chapter
XIII, pp. 363-364.
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 963
follows with its practice. Excepting the first, which represents the
abstract conception of knowledge itself with its universal applications,
each class advances the theme beyond a point at which the class pre-
ceding leaves it." The several classes are as follows : 1. General
science. 2. The mathematical sciences. 3. The inorganic sciences.
4. The organic sciences. 5. The historical sciences. G. The social
^iences. 7. The spiritual sciences. 8. Personal science. The clas-
sification of books being always to a certain extent arbitrary, there does
not seem to be any serious objection to the foregoing arrangement,
although it would have been, perhaps, better to have placed what
Professor Lesley calls the historical sciences last and under the title
history, while personal science, which here means biography, might
properly have been made a subdivision of history. Tliis, howev^er, is a
small matter. When we come to the arrangement of the titles under
each subdivision, there is perhaps more room for criticism. The com-
piler makes the singular assertion that "in consulting a catalogua for
a book, perhaps the most natural reference first made is to the time of
its appearance."
THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY.
The Mercantile Library of Philadelphia was organized in 1821, by a
small number of energetic men of the class from which it derives its
name. Its development, though slow at first, has increased in a con-
stantly accelerating ratio until it has attained the highest rank among
self-sustaining libraries; for though of late there have been some few
donations and bequests, self-dependence is the essential basis of its life
and strength.
There have been but two occasions in its history when any portion of
the board have failed of re-election, the last of which was in 18G0, when,
after a very warm contest, a sufficient infusion of new blood entered the
board to give it the tone and character which it has since had.
It has been the policy of this new board to diffuse the benefits of the
library to the widest possible extent, and in pursuance of this gen-
eral idea it may be stated as one peculiarity of this institution, distin-
guishing it from all other large collections, that the books, which are
arranged by subjects, stand in open cases, just as accessible to members
as their own private libraries. The rooms are open 365 days in the
year, and ordinarily from 7J a. m. to 10 p. m. Books are delivered at
the residences of mambers on paymsut of the sum of 5 cents. Books
not already in the library are always parchased on the application of
members, unless they should be of an immoral tendency or otherwise
specially objectionable.
The same policy has governed the board in regard to the general sup-
ply of books, it being considered advisable to purchase good books that
will be read in preference to good books that will not be read. For in-
stance, scientific books adapted to popular reading are added in much
greater proportion than similar books intelligible only to the adept in
964 Public Libraries in the United States.
science, aud thus the capasity to comprehend the latter class of books
is developed which in a large i)roportion of cases would have lain dor-
mant. This mode of educating has, it is believed, been successful in a
most gratifying degree, for the character of the books most in demand
has been steadily rising to a higher plane of excellence. At one time,
very many years ago, this institution was looked to mainly for a supply
of light reading, but the mere fact that it now contains over 125,000 vol-
umes 90 per cent, of which cannot in any proper sense come within that
designation, shows how unjust it would be to the collection itself and
to the management to place it among the libraries for light reading
now.
In the department of bibliography it may be called strong, as it pos-
sesses some 4,000 volumes of that class. To show its growth in this
respect, it may be mentioned that in 1863 there was no class so denomi-
nated, and had there been it would have contained but portions of two
works. No copy of Lowndes, Watt, Brunet, Peignot, Panzer, or any of
the other lights of the science was to be found on the shelves. Now,
however, in addition to all these authors, it possesses every work cited
by AUibone as an authority, nearly all those recommended by Guild's
Librarian's Manual, and Home's Manual of Bibliography, together with
a valuable collection of priced catalogues, both foreign and American,
and a large number of other important works, including all the recent
ones of merit. In the department of rare Americana it has made no
attempt at completeness, for the reason that that department of litera-
ture is well cared for by the Philadelphia Library aud the Historical
Society; besides, the mania existing on the subject by private collect-
ors has had the effect of putting the market price far beyond the
intrinsic value of the books on this subject.
The library possesses nearly every edition of the letters of Junius
and of writings on the subject of their authorship or in any way con-
nected with it, including all the known writings of the various persons
to whom the authorship has been attributed.
It would take up too much space to name, individually, the many
rare and valuable works which it possesses ; suffice it to say, that the
Mercantile Library has some 20 or 30 volumes printed in the fifteenth
century ; a long series of Philadelphia newspapers, commencing with the
year 1740; a great number of books and pamphlets printed in Philadel-
phia and other American towns in the colonial days; a copy of Audu-
bon's Birds of America; a very fine copy, believed to be the finest in
existence, of Wilson's American Ornithology; a copy of Peale's Stone
Age, privately printed and exceedingly valuable; a copy of the first
Anglo-Saxon printed book ; a copy of the first book printed in Glasgow,
in Bristol, and in some two hundred other places.
Its yearly income from ordinary sources is about $45,000, only 1918 of
which are derived from endowments, the remainder being received from
the members. Its real estate is worth about $250,000, and the indebt-
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities.
965
edness thereon is under $40,000. It has a front of 90 feet on Tenth street
and a depth on Marble street of 30L feet, the building extending the en-
tire length, and covering an area very much larger than any other library
in America.
The reading rooms are supplied regularly with over 503 magazines,
reviews, and newspapers, representing -« very State and Territory in our
own country and the leading nations and colonies with which we have
any commercial intercourse.
The terms of membership, including the entire privileges of the insti-
tution, are the purchase of a share of stock at $10 and the payment of
an annual fee of $4, or a life membership for $40. Visitors are at all
times cheerfully admitted, but to use the rooms an introdnction is needed ;
any member has the privilege of introducing strangers for thirty days
without payment from either party.
No new buildings are in contemplation, as by economizing the space
already possessed it is believed 500,000 volumes can find safe and con-
veniently accessible lodgment.
The following table will exhibit the condition of the library at the
end of each decennial period since its foundation and at the close of 1874 -
Tear ending
December 31.
Total income.
Total cost of
reading mat-
ter.
=3
2 i
3 a
1
s
a
=3
is
II
3
2
ll
1830
11, 123 l.T
3, .'527 19
6, 186 69
11,351 19
32, 751 18
45, 800 13
$614 11
716 90
879 07
4, 185 48
9, 538 54
21,387 55
490
761
1,474
2,165
6,577
11,276
402
516
600
2,525
7,136
17, 004
3,320
6,434
13, 149
21, 500
56, 438
109, 943
8,430
14, 690
28, 000
87,500
148, 961
237, 341
13
37
226
335
4
11
43
52
150
168
1640
1&50
1800
1H70
339, 900
The number of volumes now in the library is 125,668, and the rate of
increase is from 1,000 to 1,500 volumes a month exclusive of donations.
There have never been any large gifts of baoks, the largest having
been a recent contribution of some 2,000 volumes from James G. Barn-
well, for many years a member of the board, to whom the writer is
indebted for this sketch of the library. With the exception of public
documents from the Government, no other gift ever reached 200 vol-
umes.
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.!
I am indebted to Prof. R. E. Thompson, librarian of the University of
Pennsylvania, for the following interesting account of the valuable
library of that institution.
The library of the university, like that of all our higher institutions
of learning, dates from the very beginning of the institution itself, which
' See College Libraries, Chapter III, pp. 116-118.
966 Public Libraries in the United States.
was established as an academy in 1749, chartered as a college ia 1755,
and as a university in 1778. The various parts of the collection in some
degree reflect the history of the university itself.
The oldest part is made up of gifts from the early trustees and other
public spirited citizens. Especially, the elder Richard Peters gave very
liberally, as may be seen from his autograph on a multitude of title
l)ages. Others bear the autograph of Benjamin Franklin. The gifts
of Mr. Peters are very largely historical and theological works by non-
jurors, but many are standard works by the older historians and divines.
A copy of the Baskerville Barclay's Apology , presented by Barclay's son,
and one of the Baskerville Virgil, subscri bed for by the university itself,
are in the library.
Dr. Smith, the provost, visited England in 1762, with a view to the
increase of the endowment, and his visit is commemorated by the pres-
ence of the works of many divines, historians, and men of science then
living. But the largest gift from abroad was that which the ill-fated
Louis XVI sent at the instance of General La Fayette. It consists of
French works on the natural sciences, history, and classical antiquities,
with the old Paris edition of the Byzantine historians, (incomplete.)
From the war of independence down to our own days but few addi-
tions were made to the library, and those mostly by presents from
authors and publishers. Dr. Thomas Hartwell Home acknowledged
the honor of his doctorate in divinity by a splendid uniformly bound
edition of his works; and Carey, the great Baptist missionary, pre-
sented a number of Oriental works, including his own '' Suugskrit "
Grammar.
The first of the great additions to the library was made by the family
of the late Stephen Colwell, who, in fulfilment of his own purpose,
presented his collection of works on social science and political econ-
omy, some 8,000 volumes. This collection is certainly unique in its
completeness, at least so far as any in America can be compared with
it. It includes almost every important book, pamphlet, or edition of
either on the subject, that appeared down to Mr. Colwell's death, in
1869, in English, French, or Italian, besides many in German and
Spanish. The collection of pamphlets on the theory of money and the
practice of banking is especially complete, and many of them are not to
be had at any price, or to be seen in any other American coUectioy. The
great French periodicals, the French and Italian collections of econo-
mists, the French dictionaries, encyclopaedias, with the most important
blue books of the English and official reports of the continental govern-
ments, are all in their places.
This library was given to the university just after the removal to
West Philadelphia, and almost simultaneously the library of Professor
Allen was purchased by the joint act of the trustees and the alumni.
This contains first of all a large and very carefally selected body of
authors in the department of classical, especially of Greek philology
Fuhlic Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 967
The great Bibliotheca of Didot, and the magnificent Paris edition of the
Thesaurus of Stephanus may be regarded as the stem of the collection,
around which are grouped the finest editions, introductions, philological
helps, that English, German, and French scholarship oflers. Their selec-
tion has been the life-long task of the university's revered professor of
Greek, and a labor of love to him.
Supplementary selections in the Allen Library, are (1) that of the
modern Latinists, including especially the Italian and Dutch poets, with
some of the patristic and mediaeval authors; (2) a collection of biblio-
graphical works, catalogues, and manuals, including nearly complete
collections of the works of Peignot and Nodier, and, of course, very fine
subscription copies of Bruuet and Graesse; (3) the Shakspere library,
including all the finest editions and annotated translations, (Delius,
Schlegel and Tieck, the Malone variorum edition, etc.,) with the best
commentaries, English and foreign, (Ulrici, Gervinus, the Jahrbiicher
der deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft, etc,,) and works on general
English philology; (4) a collection of works on military subjects, by the
chief English, French, and German authorities.
Besides this purchase, the trustees also appropriated funds for the
purchase of (1) a sufficient collection of historical works, both native
and foreign ; (2) a collection of the standard English poets, and of works
that illustrate and assist the study of the modern languages, (Grimm's
Worterbuch and the like,) and such books as were especially needed to
supplement the existing collections on related subjects, (the publications
of the Early-English Text Society, and other English philological works;)
also a collection of books on metaphysical and moral science, including
the works of the great German philosophers Hegel, Fichte, Schelling,
etc. A further addition to the resources of the library has been made
by the family of the late Tobias Wagner, which has given property to
create a Wagner fund yielding an annual revenue of $G00 for the pur-
chase and binding of books. Other recent gifts: (I) A large collection
of works on French, English, Scotch, and civil law, (including the great
French jurisconsults, the French code, English state trials, the Pan-
dects, etc.,) from the library of the late Judge Bouvier, presented by
his son-in-law. Dr. Peterson; (2) a number of very valuable historical
works, chiefly French and Italian, and largely on the hiscory of art,
presented by Prof. Alfred Stille. Not yet complete, but not inferior to
any other gift made to the library, is the Rogers library of engineering,
l^resented by Prof. Fairman Rogers in memory of his father. It will
consist of some 5,000 volumes on this single topic, many of them of a
highly costly, because voluminous and elaborately illustrated, class of
works. Of some it may be safe to say that there is no other copy in
America. The library contains about 20,000 volumes, which are ac-
commodated in a spacious and well lighted room with shelves for about
30,000 volumes. Each of the college societies, the Philomathean and
Zelosophic, has a library of some value Together they number 2,326
volumes.
968 Public Libraries in the United States.
LIBRARY OF THE FOUR MONTHLY MEETINGS OF FRIENDS.
This Quaker library, originating in a bequest made by Thomas Chalk-
ley, in 1742, of a small collection of books to the Society of Friends, now
contains about 8,000 volumes. It is valuable as furnishing the most
complete collection in America of the ancient writings of the Quakers.
The library is fiee to all members of the orthodox branch of the society,
and to others who bring a satisfactory reference.
PHILADELPHIA ATHEN^UM.
The Athenoeum was foun'ded in 1814 by about one hundred subscribers
who united to start a reading room for periodicals and newspapers. It
was kept in the rooms belonging to the Philosophical Society, in Fifth
street, until 1847, when the present luxurious quarters, on Sixth street
below Walnut, were occupied by the association. The reading rooms
are two large apartments in the second story, one appropriated to books
and periodicals and tlie other to newspapers. Between the two is a
smaller room devoted to chess, whither daily resort some of the best
plajers in Philadelphia.
The library contains about 20,000 volumes, largely of bound volumes
of magazines, the current numbers of the leading periodicals being
spread upon the tables for the use of members. The collection increases
slowl}^, the income of the institution of late years having been largely
devoted to paying off the indebtedness on the building. This has been
nearly accomplished, and the future jirospects of the Athenaeum are
good.
friends' FREE LIBRARY AND READING ROOM,i (GERMANTOWN.)
This library, situated in the corporate limits of Philadelphia, had its
origin many years ago in a small collection of books belonging to the
venerable Friends' Meeting, in Germautown. It was thrown open to the
public in 18G9 with a collection of about 2,700 volumes. This has been
since increased to about 7,000 volumes. In 1874 a fine hall was erected
on the meeting house property at a cost, borne mainly by Alfred Cope,
of about $17,000, where it is now open to the public.
Works of fiction are excluded and the moral tone of others assured
before placing them on the shelves. It is not found that many make the
want of light literature a reason for not frequenting the libiary. About
500 persons use the libiary, there being a weekly average of about 270
visitors, many of whom make use of the reacing room. The workmen
from the numerous factories in Germautown resort freely to the library,
which offers a counter attraction to the taverns of the village. Tho
library and reading room are open to all free of cost, the institution
being kept up by voluntary contributions.
LIBRARY OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.''
This fine collection of medical and scientific works, founded in 1789^
' See aiticle on Free Libraries, Chapter XVJ, p. 394.
^ See article on Medical Libraries, Chapter Vf, p. 174.
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 969
is contained in a neat fire proof building at the corner of Thirteenth and
Locust streets. It numbers about 19,000 volumes, and is increasing at
the rate of 1,000 volumes per annum. It is rich in general works of med-
ical literature, and especially in French and German journals ; and it
possesses, by the bequest of the late George Ord, the best and largest
collection of English and French dictionaries in this country.
LIBRARY OF THE PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL.'
This collection was commenced in 17G3, and now contains 12,500 vol-
umes, many of which are rare. The annual Bxpenditure for books and
binding has averaged during the last ten years $595.19, the annual in-
crease in volumes being about 275, Books may be borrowed by sub-
scribers, (who pay $3 a year,) or those who acquire a life right, either by
purchase ($28) or gift from the managers, these beneficiaries being chiefly
formerly resident physicians, to whom it is customary, on leaving, to give
the use of the library of the hospital. In 1857 was published an admi-
rable Catalogue Kaisonn^, prepared by Dr. Emil Fischer, with an alpha-
betical index of authors.
" The two great libraries," says Dr. Kicbard Dunglison, " of the Penn-
sylvania Hospital and the College of Physicians, would, if combined,
form a very remarkable library collection, embracing works in every de-
partment of medical literature and the kindred sciences. A comparison
of the library catalogues of the two institutions exhibits a surprising ab-
sence of duplication. If any action looking to their consolidation should
ever take place, Philadelphia would possess a magnificent medical
library, far surpassing in value and resources that of any other cis-
Atlantic city." It may be added that the Philadelphia Hospital (alms-
house) contains a library of about 3,000 volumes, and the nuclei of other
libraries may be found in several of our medical institutions.
LIBRARY OF THE GERMAN SOCIETY CONTRIBUTING FOR THE RELIEF
OF DISTRESSED GERMANS IN THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA.
This society, primarily one of benevolence, was incorporated in 1764.
Its library, begun iu 1817, is about equally divided between books in
the German and English languages, and contains 16,000 volumes.
Members of the German Society, or their widows, and " reading mem-
bers," the latter paying $1 a year, are entitled to use the library and to
take the books home.
A separate collection, commenced in 1867, of works on the early col-
onization of Pennsylvania, and on German-American life in general,
also of early German pursuits, is being made by Dr. O. Seidensticker,
under the auspices of the society. It is under the same roof as the
general library.
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA.^
The formation of the library of the Academy of Natural Sciences of
1 Seo article on Medical Libraries, Chapter VI, p. 174.
2 See article on Scientific Libraries, Chapter VII, p. 185-186.
970 Public Libraries in the United States.
Philadelphia was begun with the society in March, 1812. The first
books were presented by the founders of the institution, and its growth
is due to the bounty of intelligent and benevolent persons.
In 1836, when a catalogue was printed, the library contained 674 folio,
1,595 quarto, 3,723 octavo, and 898 duodecimo volumes, in all 6,890, and
435 separate maps and charts. Of these 5,232 volumes, and most of the
maps and charts, were presented by William Maclure, many of them be-
tween the years 1816 and 1820, but the majority of them in 1835.
In accordance with his verbal bequest, Mrs. Thomas Say presented, in
1834, her husband's entomological library of 100 volumes.
In May, 1845, the late Dr. Thomas B. Wilson presented Owen's His-
tory of British Fossil Mammalia and Birds. From that date till De-
cember, 1840, he had deposited 2,773 volumes, periodicals, serials, and
pamphlets. These were then presented to the society on condition
that their use should be restricted to the hall of the academy. From
that time until Dr. Wilson's death, March 15, 1866, his donations ex-
ceeded 8,800 volumes and pamphlets. They included nearly all of the
most elaborate and costly works on natural history and scientific travel
published within that period, as well as many valuable and rare works
for which catalogues of second-hand books were carefully examined.
He also spent large sums on binding and in altering the academy's
building for the accommodation of the books. In his last will he pro-
vided an annual income of $300 to defray the cost of continuation of
expensive serials, and an equal sum for the salary of a librarian.
Between the years 1850 and 1857 Mr. Edward Wilson presented 4,184
works. This collection is particularly rich in rare pamphlets and publi-
cations of the last century.
Among the valuable specialties of the library is an extensive series of
periodical publications of scientific societies throughout the world, re-
ceived generally in exchange for those of the academy. It includes a
complete set of the Transactions of the Eoyal Society of London, com-
menced in 1665, and still continued. Among the admirable books are
the elephant folio edition of Audubon's Birds of America, a gift by
nine members of the society ; a complete series of the works of John
Gould on birds and mammals, folio editions, beautifully illustrated ;
Elliot's ornithological monographs, including his superb works on pheas-
ants and birds of paradise. The work on pheasants is perhaps the most
elegantly illustrated work on descriptive natural history ever published ;
the plates were designed and drawn by Joseph Wolf, and colored by
hand in the highest style of art ; Wolt's Zoological Sketches, illustrated ;
Sonnini's edition of Baftbn, 127 volumes; The Flora of Austria, five folio
volumes, illustrated by the process known as nature printing ; The Ferns
of Great Britain and Ireland, illustrated in the same manner.
At the close of 1871 the conchological department of the library con-
tained, with one or two exceptions, every work on conchology published
APPRENTICES' LIBRA.RY
Fuhlic Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 973
up to that (late. It then numbered 807 titles. The perfection of this
collection is due to the generosity of Mr. George W. Tryon, jr., who gave
to it the very valuable library on this subject which he had formed.
^here is a valuable collection of illustrated works on Eoman, Greek,
and French antiquities, among which are all those of Piranesi.
In 1868 the number of volumes in the library was ascertained to be
21,964. The library now numbers about 30,000 volumes and 35,000
I)amphlets.
The books are kept in cases with glazed doors, without locks. .There
is a manuscript catalogue of each division to be found in one' of the
cases containing the works named in it. A general card catalogue has
been prepared.
The library is open from 10 a. m. to 10 p. m., daily, Sundays excepted,
and may be consulted freely by any respectable person. It is maintained
exclusively as a library of reference.
Kecently, Mr. I. V. Williamson has settled upon the institution $1,500
a year, to be expended in the purchase of scientific books, and for no
other purpose. It is believed that this sum will be sufficient to procure
all the publications which relate to the natural sciences as they appear,
and maintain this in the front rank of special libraries. Mr. Williamson
has in this gift conferred an inestimable benefit on the votaries of natu-
ral science in Philadelphia, and fixed his name in grateful remembrance
more enduringly than it could be in marble or bronze, and far more use-
fully.
LA.W ASSOCIATION.
This institution, founded in 1802, and supported mainly by subscrip-
tion, but partly by a tax on certain wiits, is situated at the corner of
Sixth and Walnut streets. The library possesses complete sets of the
reports of the several States and of the United States, as well as those
of Great Britain, and its collection of the pamphlet or annual laws of
the different States is nearly complete. In the other departments it is
also strong. The library numbers 8,500 volumes.
apprentices' library.
This is a free library, founded in 1820, and containing about 21,000
volumes. It is used by 2,000 boys and girls. Persons over twenty-one
years make a deposit of $2. The library increases at the rate of about
1,000 volumes a year. It is supported by voluntary contributions.
FRANKLIN INSTITUTE.
This institution was founded in 1824 for the promotion of the me-
chanic arts. Its library, numbering 16,000 volumes, contains complete
sets of the American, 'British, and French patent publications. The
work which the institute has done during the past fifty years in the
scientific education of mechanics is an important one, and its future
974 Public Libraries in the United States.
promises even more usefulness than its past. The society made a profit
of about 850,000 from its last exhibition, out of which an appropriation
of $5,000 has already been made for the library.
SOUTHWARK LIBRARY.
This is a circulating library, supported by subscriptions of $1 per
annum. It is in a flourishing condition, and already contains over 10,000
volumes.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA. ^
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania was organized Daceaiber 2^
1824. It met for nineteen years in the hall of the Amsrican Philo-
sophical Society, and had the use of a small closet therein to contain its.
books. In the year 1811, the society removed to a roDtn in the second
story of house Ko. 115 (now 211) South Sixth street. Its collection then
amounted to about 60 volumes, in addition to some boxes of public docu-
ments received from the Government at Washington, which had not been
opened, as the society had no place in which to put the books. Imme-
diately after the removal the library increased rapidly, and it became
necessary to provide other quarters, which was done by renting a room
in the then new Athenceum building, at the southeast corner of Sixth
and Adelphi streets, in which the books were placed October, 1847. In
1849 the number of volumes in the library amounted to about 1,700. In
the year 1871, in view of the growing demands for greater accommoda-
tion for its library and other collections, and for a sphere of action suf-
ficiently enlarged to meet the wants of a community that showed an in-
creased interest in its labors, the society adopted measures that seemed
to them to be calculated to effect the desired end, by removing the
following February to their present abode, No. 820 Spruce street,
which they had improved to better answer their purposes. In addition,
it contains two fire-proof rooms for the greater security of the most
valued treasures. The library at present contains about 16,000 bound
volumes, over' 30,000 pamphlets, and 224 bound volumes of manu-
cripts.
The manuscripts of the Penn family were purchased in 1871 through
the contributions of some of the members, and presented by them to the
society March 10, 1873. Commencing as early as 1629, 74 volumes are
now arranged and bound; the whole, when completed, may extend to
150 volumes. The official and private correspondence numbers 29 vol-
umes, beginning with the year 1654 and extending down to 1855, of
which only two volumes are of a date subsequent to the Revolution.
Fully three-fourths of the matter comprised in them relate to Pennsyl-
vania and the adjoining States. The papers on Indian affairs possess,
great interest, and embrace 7 volumes, extending from 1687 to 1772.
One of the volumes contains tlie original certificates of the delivery of
' See article on Historical Societies in the United States, Chapter XIII, pp. 365, 366.
PuUic Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 975
two beaver skins annually, on the first day of January, by the proprieta-
ries at Windsor Castle 5 for this was the tenure by which Pennsylvania
was held of the crown. These are complete from the years 1752 to 1780,
inclusive. In the numerous petitions to the king and the proprietaries,
many thousands of names of the early settlers of Pennsylvania are found,
written between the years 1G81 and 17G5, of which about 2,000 are in the
German language.
The society possesses manuscript copies of the records of births, mar-
riages, and deaths of the Society of Friends in Chester and a portion of
Delaware County. These are much consulted, particularly by those
engaged in genealogical researches, and possess the value of being made
from the originals and only here* brought together, and it is hoped that
by the liberality of a few members copies of such records of all the
meetings in Pennsylvania and the adjoining States may be obtained.
Among the manuscripts may also be mentioned the Logan Papers, in
5 volumes, from 1694 to 1802 ; the Shippeu Papers, 5 volumes, 1747 to
1790; the Potts Papers, 2 volumes, 1766 to 1780; Watson's Collections
and Annals, 2 volumes; besides 29 volumes relating to the colonial his-
tory of Pennsylvania, and 24 volumes to the Revolution — all original doc-
uments. In addition, there is an extensive collection of unbound manu-
scripts, not yet arranged.
In the library is a book in the Amharic language, written on vellum,
size 3 by 3.J inches, containing 42 pages, formerly the property of
King Theodore of Abyssinia, taken by an English officer, and pre-
sented by one of the surgeons in the expedition. The society possesses
a copy of the first Episcopal prayer book printed in New York in 1710,
believed to be unique.
In documents relating to the first French Revolution it is believed to
be the most complete in the country, the collection having been made
by the late William Maclure during his residence in that eventful period
in Paris, and numbering 1,793 volumes. In works relating to the
Moravian Church and its history the library is also rich, containing on
this subject 335 volumes. The i)ublications made by the society now
number 15 octavo volumes, chiefly relating to the history of Pennsyl-
vania, besides 2 volumes of addresses. All the collections of the historical
society, except about 300 volumes, have been the gifts of members and
a few others.
OTHER COLLECTIONS.
Scattered over the length and breadth of Philadelphia are many
other institutions possessing libraries, some of which number many
thousand volumes, more or less accessible to the public.
Each of these in its way is a centre of light and education to the sur-
rounding population. But it is clear that the multiplication of small
libraries does not make up for the absence of one great library where
the scholar, the professor, the editor, the author, the man of science, and
the man of affairs, may each be reasonably sure of finding any book he
976 Fuhlic Libraries in the United States.
wants. Fortunately the micleus of such a library already exists 1q the
combined Philadelphia and Loganian Libraries. What is still wanted is
an adequate endowment. A first class library is an expsnsive thing,
but it is indispensable for the higher education. Tlie workman is help-
less without his tools. A circulating library is one thing and a library
of reference is another. Tiiey need not even be in the sam3 building.
Pdiladelphia, as I have shown, is well supplied with circulating libraries.
What it now wants is a library of reference, like the British Museum,
and the other government libraries of Europe, or even like Bites Hall
and the Library of Congress. If they were in a fire-proof building, it can-
not be doubted that the Philadelphia and Loganian Libraries would re-
ceive gifts and bequests, as well of money as of the private libraries of
collectors; who, as a class, naturally shrink from having the toilsome ac-
cumulations of a lifetime dispersed under the auctioneer's hammer.
The following list embraces such of these libraries as number more
than 1,000 volumes each:
Volumes.
Academy of Notre Dame 5, 000
American Sunday-School Union 3, 200
Baptist Historical Society, (see Chapter XIII, p. 363, Historical Societies) 9, 315
Broad Street Academy 3, 500
Brotherhead Library " 35,000
Biu'd Orphan Asylum 4, 350
Byberry Library 2, 250
Carpenters' Company of Philadelphia 3, 602
Catholic Philopatrian Literary Institute 2, 000
Central High School .' 1,000
Christ Church Hospital 1,000
Christ Church Library , - 3,500
Christian Hall Library 3,000
Fifth Ward Grammar School 2,000
George Institute 1,838
Girard College 5,000
Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, Free and Accepted Masons 1,500
Hahnemann Medical College 2, 000
Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church 2,849
House of Refuge, (colored department) 1,450
Institute for Colored Youth 2,959
Institution for the Deaf and Dumb 5, 000
Kensington Institute l, 800
Keystone Public Grammar School 2,217
La Salle College 5,000
Library and Reading Room Association, Tw-euty-third ward 2,000
Lincoln Institute 1,200
Locust Street Grammar School 3,500
Mechanics' Institute of Southwark 3, 550
Moyamensing Literary Institute 4,000
Northern Home and Associated Soldiers' Orphans' Institute 2,^00
Northwestern Grammar School 1,579
Numismatic and Antiquarian Society 1,500
Penitentiary, eastern district I 8, 737
Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane 4, 703
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 977
Volumes.
Philadelphia City Institute 4,000
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy 2, 350
Philadelphia Divinity School, (Protestant Episcopal) 6,578
Presbyterian Board of Pnblication 3, 000
Presbyterian Historical Society 7, 000
Roxborough Lyceum 1,700
Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo, (Upper Merion) 9,500
St. Joseph's College 6,000
St. Vincent's Seminary 6, 000
Soldiers' Or])hans' School 2,000
Southwestern Grammar School 2, 000
Spring Garden Institute 5,787
Tabor Mutual Library 1,400
Teachers' Institute 3, 183
Theological Seminary, (Evangelical Lutheran) 3,500
University of Pennsylvania, medical department 3,000
Wagner Free Institute of Science , 15, 000
West Philadelphia Institute . . . .• 4, 526
Woman's Hospital 1,460
Young Ladies' Institute 2,000
Young Men's Christian Association 5,310
Germantown Library Company 2,400
IX.— PUBLIC LIBRARIES OF ST. LOUIS.
BY .JOHN JAY BAILEY,
Librarian of the St. Louis Public School Library.
ST. LOUIS MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.
On the eveninfj of December 30, 1845, ei^lit weutlemen devoted to
mercantile pursuits met to initiate measures for the establishment of a
library association. A committee was appointed to draft a constitution,
which was adopted, and a board of directors chosen in accordance with
its provisions at a meeting in Concert Hall, January 13, 184G. Feb-
ruary 2, 18IG, cash collections amounting to$L,8<>9.25, and subscriptions
to the further amount of $498, were reported. Rooms were shortly after-
ward obtained on the northeast corner of Pine and Main streets. Jo-
siah Dent was elected the first librarian of the new library, and on the
9th of April, 184(3, it was opened to the public.
At the close of the year 1846 the library contained 1,689 volumes; it
numbered 283 members; it had issued during the year 720 volumes;
its cash receipts had been $2,689.92 ; the property acquired was valued
at $1,954.35.
In September, 1846, the library was removed to more spacious quar-
ters, at Nos. 110 and 112 Glasgow Row, Fourth street.
The association was incorporated by act of the legislature February
16, 1847.
Mr. James E. Yeatman, first president of the association, has been,
from the first, among the most effective promoters of the success and
62 E
978 PuJMc Libraries in the United States.
growth of the Mercantile Library. He was succeeded in 1848 by Mr.
Alfred Vinton, who held the office two years. To him the library is in-
debted for jiiany costly gifts, which are esteemed to this day among the
most valued treasures of the association. It was he who first urged
upon the members of the" association and the citizens generally the
gradual establishment of a building fund, to be in time applied to the
erection of a permanent home for the librar3'.
During the year 1850, the sum of $1,012 was secured for the building
fuud in various donations made by several individuals. In January,
1851, Mr. H. E. Bridge, then president, proposed the organization of a
stock company, <listinct from the library association, for tlie sooner
carrying out of the desired end. Such a company was formed at once.
It was incorporated February 17, 1851, under the title of the Mercan-
tile Library Hall Company of St. Louis, with authority to issue stock, iu
shares of 810 each ; to purchase a lot and erect thereon a building for
the library — the library association to be permitted to occupy such
building free of rent, upon their defraying all expenses for taxes, in-
surance, and repairs, and further paying to the Hall Company 6 percent,
annual interest upon the stock held by the Hall Company. The company
was required to transfer the premises, iu fee simple, to the library asso-
ciation, as soon as the latter should have become possessed, by purchase
or otherwise, of the entire amount of stock issued by the former. Stock
was issued by the company, from time to time, to the aggregate amount
of $100,000. A lot, 115 feet by 127, was purchased for $25,500, on the
corner of Fifth and Locust streets, and a building erected, covering the
entire lot, and four stories in height. It is built of red brick, with cut
stone facings, in the Italian style of architecture, and was considered, at
the time of its erection, one of the finest ornaments of the city. The
first story, 14 feet high, is rented out in stores ; the second, 20 feet 6
inches in height, is now entirely occupied by the library ; the library
room being 80 feet by 64, and the adjoining reading roo n, at first and
for many years used as a lecture room, being 80 by 44 feet. The third
story, used for a public hall, is 105 by 80 feet, and 33 feet G inches high.
The lot and building cost $140,000. The library association has for
some years been in possession of the entire amount of the stoak of the
Hall Company, (a large portion having been donated or exchanged. for
life memberships,) and is consequently absolute in its o\''nershii) ot the
premises. The name of Henry D. Bacon s'lould not be omitted in the
present account, as it was mainly through his liberality that the enter-
prise was rendered successful. He took shares of stock to the amount
of $20,000, and at a critical moment, by an additional advance of $10,000,
enabled the company to continue its operations.
On the 23d of January, 1854, the building was so far completed as to
permit the removal of the library into the rooms devoted to its use.
On the 17th of October of the same year, the edifice was entirely fin-
ished. The Statistics for the year ending January 1, 1854, (the eighth
Pnhlic Libraries of Ten Pri)iclj)al Cities. 979
year of its existence,) show tbat the library contained 10,oG5 voUimes ;
its membership for the year was 944; its issue of books, 9,SS5 volumes ;
its receipts, 87,093.27 ; and the value of its property, 822,756.71,
Mr. Josiah Dent, the first librarian, and Mr. William Allen, his suc-
cessor, each held the office one year. Mr. William P. Curtis was elected
to the position iu 1848, and tilled it until 1859. He prepared the tirst
catalogue of the library (published iu 1850) aad a supplement to it,
(1851.) The catalogue was a simple list of the books, alphabetically ar-
ranged, with full titles, and a classified index, under the general heads
(subdivided into sections) of theology, jurisprudence, government and
politics, sciences and arts, belles-lettres, history, works relating to
America.
Edward W, Johnston became librariau of the associatiou in 1859. His
first important undertaking was the preparation of a second complete
catalogue, the library then contait>ing about 14,000 volumes. The cat-
alogue was mainly a classified one, the alphabetical part being but .^
brief index of authors and the titles of anouymous books. The method
adopted is the Baconian, or rather a modification of Bacon's plan for the
classification of human knowledge. "It places all books, not mixing
together various branches of knowledge, uuder three great divisions:
those of history, (or the memory,) of philosophy, (or the reason, the
judgment,) and of poetry, (or the imagination.) The authors who have
mixed their subjects, or have written separately on more than one, are
assigned to the iudeterminate class of polygraphs or writers on many
things." The first class is subdivided into 74 sections; the second into
120 ; the third into 31 ; polygra[)hs forming a section by itself.
Mr. Johnston's policy in the selection of books for addition to the li-
brary was that of filling up one section at a time, with a view to render
each as complete as the resources of the library would admit. He began
with English history and literature, both of which he largely enriched
with the best procurable editions of the early chroniclers, poets, and
other writers of note.
In 18G2, Mr. Johnston was succeeded as librarian by Mr. John N.
Dyer, who still holds the office.
A noteworthy acquisition, at a cost of $1,000, in Mr. Johnston's term
of office, was a copy of Audubon's Birds of America, text and plates
complete. The copy itself is not only a very perfect one, but of unri-
valled interest, through the fact that it was the author's own reserved
copy, and bears in each volume of the plates his autograph attached to
his bequest of it to his sister.
In June, 1872, the agitation of the question of opening libraries on
Sunday being then at its height, the Mercantile Library directors de-
cided to try the experiment. The rooms were opened on Sundays from
2 p. m. till 9 p. m., from June 9 till December 29, solely for reading
and reference purposes; no books being issued for home use, and none
but members being allowed access. The average attendance was found
980 Public Libraries in the United States.
to be 7ia, and at the annual meeting in January, 1873, it was resolved
that the experiment was a failure, and should be discontinued.
The library ranks to day among the most useful of the institutions
of St. Louis and is a monument to the liberality and enlightenment
of her citizens. It has been the recipient, from time to time, of
valuable gifts of books and works of art, among which may be mentioned
the Peck collection of books and pamphlets relating to America; the
marble statues of CEnone and Beatrice Cenci, by Harriet Hosmer ;
marble busts of Burns and Walter Scott, admirable productions, pre-
sented by the Caledonian Society of the city ; a number of choice paint-
ings and portraits ; a large sculptured slab of marble from Nimroud,
inscribed in cuneiform characters ; all of which, with many other objects
of curiosity and virtii, impart to the rooms an air of refined taste, and
render them well worthy of repeated visits.
The Mercantile is essentially a class library, and must always remain
such. It is the pride of the commercial community, and owes to that
large, wealthy, and munificent class nearly all the success it has
achieved. None but persons engaged in mercantile pursuits are eligible
to active membership in the association, although ladies and profes-
sional or trades people enjoy the privileges of the library as beneficiaries.
The chief present want of the library is a new, more commodious, and
fireproof building, and the directors are already agitating the question
of selling the present property and providing another and safer home for
their treasures.
The following figures, taken from the directors' report for the year
ending December 31, 1874, show the present status of the institution :
Total number of volumes 42,013
Number of vol nmes added during the year :
By purchase 1,225
By donation 316
1, 543
Number of new members enrolled, 1874 606
Total membership :
Honorary members 18
Life members 660
Proprietors 727
Clerks 1,511
Beneficiaries 1,530
4, 446
Volumes issued 132, 175
Total cash receipts, 1874 $46,505 49
Eeceipts from memberships ' 12, 224 75
Eeceipts from rent of hall and stores 19, 116 80
Total value of property - 278, 608 68
During the year 1874 the third general catalogue of the library was
published, at a cost of $8,170. In typographical execution it is very
handsome ; in method it differs but slightly from the catalogue prepared
by Mr. Johnston ; the general classes are retained; the minor subdi-
visions are reduced in number — history contains 70; philosophy, 84;
poetry, 16.
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 981
A supplement, with an index of authors, was issued in 1876, eontain-
ing 4,500 titles additional to those embraced in the general catalogue of
1874.
The terms of membership in the library are as follows: For proprie-
tors, (merchants,) $5 initiation fee, $5 annual dues; for clerks, (in mer-
cantile business,) $2 initiation fee, $3 annual dues ; for beneficiaries,
(persons not engaged in commercial pursuits,) $5 annual dues, no initia-
tion fee; life memberships, $50. The library i'o;)ms are open daily from
10 a. m. till 10 p. m., (Sundays excepted.) and daring the summer months
from 9 a. m. until 10 p. m. Once in four years the library is closed for
general examination.
ST. LOUIS PUBLIC SCHOOL LIBRARY.
This institution is mainly indebted for its existence to Ira Divoll, su-
perintendent of the St. Louis public schools from L857 to 1808. Mr.
Divoll entertained a deep and settled conviction that the public
schools in and of themselves are inadequate to supply the youth of
our country with such an education as should most thoroughly qualify
them fortheir duties as citizens. Hence, in his view, the highest function
of the public school — apart from its disciplinary side — was, first, to im-
plant in the minds of youth a profound desire for the acquisition of
knowledge; second, to point the way by which the coveted knowledge
might be obtained, and third, to supply the material for gratifying the
mental wants awakened by the text book education of the school. To
meet these ends, one instrumentality was indispensable, the library; and
to the solution of the problem how to connect the library permanently
with the public schools as a part of the system Mr. Divoll bent all the
energies of his fertile and practical mind. To use his own words :
There were libraries enough already for those who had ample means. Investigation
showed that not 2 per cent, of the children in the pnblic schools had access to libraries
of any kind, and ihat probably not over 4 per cent, of them ever would have such ac-
cess. It was for the remaining 96 per cent, that a new library was needed. A library
for the mass of the people, and not for the favored few, must be accessible on very low
and easy terms — as nearly free as possible.
January 10, 1860, Mr. Divoll submitted to the school board a plan for
the establishment of a public school library. The two distinctive features
of his plan were, first, that the fee for life membership should be fixed at
the low figure of $12, payable at once, or in quarter-yearly instalments
of $1; and, secondly, that the library should be inalienably connected
with the public schools, and that its books should be selected with
special reference to the wants of their teachers and pupils. The facility
of the proposed terms of membership, he argued, would bring the library
within the reach of children of the most moderate means; while its dis-
tinctive character, as an auxiliary to the public schools, would attract
to its i>rivileges pupils and teachers alike. This plan, though not acted
on at the time, is nevertheless that upon which the Public School Library
of St. Louis is conducted to-day.
982 Public Libraries in the United States.
Various circuinstauces from year to year prevented the scliool board
from carrying out Mr. DivoU's plau for the establishment of the pro-
posed library, but he never abandoned it. At last, weary of delay, the
friends of the enterprise organized a Public School Library Society,
which was incorporated by act of legislature February 3, 1865. By the
terms of the charter, membership in the society was restricted to such
as had been or might be connected in any way with the public schools,
and all adult life members were to be entitled to a voice in the affairs of
the library. Those affairs were to be managed by a board of sixteen
trustees, of which the president of the school board was to be ex officio
a member and the president; the superintendent of public schools and
the principals of the high and normal schools were to be members ex
ofticio; the remaining twelve (six of whom might be women) were to be
elected by the life members of the society.
The charter granted, unsparing efforts were made to obtain means for
starting the new enterprise. A number of prominent citizens lent their
aid, and advanced sums of money varying from $50 to $250, the greater
part of which were subsequently issued in life memberships, under the
direction of the donors. Ward meetings were held in various school-
houses, and the advantages of the proposed library laid before the peo-
ple. A total sum of $5,7-:6.65 had been collected, when, on November
1, 1865, Mr. John J. Bailey became librarian. The sum in treasury above
stated ; a nucleus of 453 volumes, chiefly school text books, presented
by the school board ; 304 life members, and about 200 who held certifi-
cates of partial payments — such was the status of the incipient library
on the 1st of November, 1865.
The sum of $5,000 was appropriated for the purchase of books ; all the
large publishing houses in the United States consented to fill first orders
at discounts of 40 to 50 per cent. ; and about 1,500 volumes had been re-
ceived and registered when the library was first opened, December 9,
1805, for the issue of books. A few rough shelves, in the session room of
the school board, formed the entire accommodations of the infantile
library. Early in 1806 a room in Darby's building, corner of Fifth and
Olive streets, was rented at $800 per annum. Its dimensions were 130
by 20 feet; it was divided by a glass partition into two nearly equal
apartments, one of which was devoted to the library, and the other, on
the 16th of October, 1866, was opened with formal ceremonies, as a read-
ing room, well supplied with newspapers and periodicals. The end of
the year 1866 found the novel experiment ««/aif accompli^ as the follow-
ing figures will show :
Volumes iu the library 9,623
Life members 493
Temporary members li 432
Volumes issued duriuR- the year 31 , 572
Cash receipts from the begiuiiiug $15,204 95
The causes of this success, and the means which promoted it, may be
briefly stated as follows :
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 983
1st. The community had need of it. It supplied a want that had
long existed, unrealized until the library came to fill the void that had
been vaguely felt, without being understood. Mr. DivolFs invariably
wise foresight had not been at fault when he augured that the librar^'^,
once established, would meet with grateful appreciation and cordial
support from all classes.
2d. It was a public school library. None but persons connected (or
who had been connected) with the public schools were eligible to mem-
bership in the society. True, all classes in the community were com-
prised in this definition, yet the teachers and pupils in the public schools
naturally felt that the success of their library depended upon their exer-
tions, and those exertions were put forth without stint.
3d. The personal efforts of the well wishers of the library, and of those
officially connected with it, had much to do with its early progress.
Influential gentlemen, at considerable cost of time, solicited subscrip-
tions for memberships and donations — in 1866 and 1867, realizing over
$2,000. The Franklin Library Association (1,060 volumes) and the
St. Louis German Institute (676 volumes) were induced to give their
books to the Public School Library, certificates of life membership being
issued to the leading men who had control of those institutions. The
High School Library was similarly given in exchange for thirty per-
petual memberships vested in the High School. The librarian paid
repeated visits to all the public schools, setting before the pupils the
advantages of using the library and the attractions which it offered.
The juvenile department in the library had been rendered especially
full by ample but careful selections of the works of the best and most
popular writers for the young. Perhaps no one circumstance contrib-
uted more to the advancement of the library than the visits alluded to,
and they are here mentioned as suggestions to other librarians. The
exhibition of some handsome picture books, the narration of some
lively stories from books in the library, will draw the children in large
numbers to drink of the fount set flowing for their refreshment, and the
first taste will invariably grow into a fixed thirst for literary enjoyment,
rising gradually from the hasty reading of story books to the more
deliberate study of literature or science. In 1806 and 1867, two exhi-
bitions were given for the benefit of the library. They were partici-
pated in by the teachers and pupils of the public schools, and together
netted over $2,300. Courses of lectures were given, which, although
the profit realized from them was very small, performed a great work
in advertising the library and keeping it favorably before the notice of
the public. One provision of the charter of the library society author-
ized the school board to ai)propriate $5,000 out of the school fund for
the use of the library, and this sum was given in January, 1868, it being
the first and only amount the library had received from any public fund
or endowment.
The original intention that the librarv should be owned and controlled
984 Public Libraries in the United States.
by the school board was never given up, but was held in reserve, to be
acted on at the first favorable opportunity. On the 13th of October,
1868, the school board appointed a committee of six to consult with the
trustees of the library with reference to a transfer of their trust to the
school board, and the library board promptly responded. After careful
deliberation, the transfer was accomplished April 17, 1869, the entire
property of the library society being transferred to the school board as
absolute owners of the same, conditioned that they should maintain the
institution according to the intention of its founders, and should appro-
priate for its maintenance, in addition to its regular revenues, not less
than $3,000 per annum ; and, further, that the library should be con-
trolled by a board of sixteen managers, of whom nine should be appointed
by the school board and seven elected by the lite members of the library.
In the subsequent revision of the regulations and by-laws of the library
the last shadow of class distinction was abolished, and all persons, with-
out discrimination, were admitted to the privileges of life membership
on equal terms.
In October, 1868, the school board had purchased from the Washing-
ton University the O'Fallon Polytechnic Institute building, and into
this building the library was removed the same month. The purchase
included the Henry Ames Library, which had belonged to the institute,
and contained about 6,000 volumes; it was accompanied by the trans-
fer to the school board of a legacy left by Henry Ames of $100,000 to
perpetuate the Polytechnic Institute and the library connected with it.
After the transfer of the Public School Library to the school board the
Henry Ames Library was incorporated with it, and it has received
annually $5,900 as its share of the interest on the legacy of Henry
Ames.
The first board of managers under the new regime was elected and
appointed in May, 1869. Ira Divoll was elected president.
Mention has been made of three libraries that were successively
absorbed by the Public School Library. In November and December,
1869, were purchased the private collections of the late Prof. E. A.
Eossmassler and Dr. B. F. Shumard. The former (571 volumes) con-
sisted of standard works on natural history; the latter (1,088 volumes)
was essentially geological in its character, and in completeness, its size
considered, was surpassed by few in the country. Between 1869 and
1872 a number of scientific and other societies became identified with
the library; some by giving their collections in exchange for life mem-
berships, others by paying full membership fees. The library, on its
part, agreed to expend all sums so received for books and periodicals^
under the direction of the societies from which they were receiv^ed ; and
the school board allowed the societies to hold their meetings, free of
expense, in the session room of the board in the Polytechnic Building.
These societies are as follows :
St. Louis Academy of Music. — Library contains 3,500 volumes; cabinet
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 985
of natural history, rtlliug six large double cases, deposited iu Public
School Library, subject to general reference, but remaining the property
of the academy.
St. Louis Medical .Society. — Total payments in cash for membership,
about $1,800, all of which has been spent in the purchase of medical
works.
St. Louis Institute of Architects. — Thirty three volumes of costly works
on architecture exchanged for memberships.
Engineers'' Club of St. Louis. — Eighty- three volumes given to library,
and membership fees paid in addition; the cash receipts being used in
subscriptions to engineering ])eriodicals.
St. Louis Art Society. — Collection composed of 3 fine oil paintings, 21
engravings by celebrated artists, 10 pieces of statuary casts from the
antique, and 151 autotypes. All these are on permanent exhibition in
the library rooms.
Missouri Historical Society. — Collection of relics, pictures of buildings
and portraits of distinguished persons, Indian curiosities, etc., deposited
in the library, but remaining iu the ownership ot the society.
Local Steam Engineers^ Association and St. Louis Microscopical Soci-
ety.— The members of these two organizations pay fees which are used
for the purchase of books under their respective direction.
The connection of these societies with the library gives to it strength
in the community, and helps to enrich it in the several special dejiart-
ments which the societies represent.
The Public School Library was first opened on Sunda3% June 9, 1872.
It has been open every Sunday since, from 10 a. m. until 10 p. m.; the
public, whether members or not, having been freely invited from the
first to use and enjoy it, and the issue of books to members for home
use having gone on as on week days. The experiment has proved suc-
cessful to a gratifying extent. While comparatively few books are
issued for home use on Sundays, the issues for library use are much
larger than on week days, as may be seen by the statistics :
Average issue of books on Sundays :
Volumes.
For home use 75.0
For library use 194. 5
Total 269.5
Average issue on week days :
For home use 247. 5
For library use 50. 6
Total : 298. 1
The difference in the character of the reading in the rooms on Sun-
days and week days is noteworthy. It shows that, while books of refer-
ence are most largely used on week days (chietiy by pupils in the
upper schools in tlie preparation of lessons or compositions,) juvenile
reading i)repondei'ates on Sundays.
986 Public Libraries in the United States.
DuriDg the mouths of March and April, 1875, a classified record was
kept of the reading in the library rooms, with the following results:
There were drawn on week days: novels, 227 volumes ; juveuiles, 408 ;
other books, 2,026. Oa Sundays: novels, 91 volumes; juveuiles, 799 ;
other books, 607.
The first general catalogue of the library was published in 1870. It
contains the titles of about 24,000 volumes, (including tiie books of the
Academy of Science.) In form it is alphabetical with full titles, and
classified with titles abbreviated. The system of classifi«;atioa is au
adaptation of the Baconian plan made by William T. Harris, LL. D.,
superintendent of the city public schools.^
A card catalogue in duplicate (alphabetical and classified) has been
kept, containing all accessions to the library since the printing of the
first catalogue. In the arrangement of the books on the shelves the
same method has been pursued as in the arrangement of their titles in
the catalogue. The classes are divided by movable markers, and in
each class the books are arranged alphabetically, no shelf numbers
being employed.
In September, 1871, a collection of duplicates was formed, to contain
such light reading as may be for a short period in greater demand than
the library can afford to supply with a just regard for the claims of
more solid literature. Books may be borrowed from the collection for
one week by members of the library upon payment of an extra fee of
five cents for each book. The experiment has been successful. Since
the collection was formed not more than two copies of any work of light
literature have been placed in the regular library, while as mauy as
thirty co[)ies of one work were placed in the colleotion of duplicates.
Up to the close of the fiscal year ending May 1, 1874, the total cash re-
ceipts of the collection had been $2,082.25 ; the total expenditures,
$1,989.06.
So large a sum as $51) is seldom required in any one month to keep
the collection fully up to the demand, while the income from issues and
fines frequently exceeds $80. Copies of the popular magazines have
from month to month been placed in the collection, affording memoers
an opportunity, denied them before, of taking magazines home to read.
As members may draw one book from the regular library, and at the
same time as many from the collection of duplicates as they choose to
Ijay for, the small fee of five cents a week is cheerfully paid.
For several successive years efforts were made to obtain the passage
of a State law in Missouri authorizing the establishment and mainte-
nance of public libraries at public cost. Despairing, at last, of the
attainment of any general law for the purpose, a special act for St.
Louis was passed March 27, 1874, as follows :
The board of president and directors of the St. Louis public schools is hereby
authorized to appropriate, out of its annual incorno, for tlie raamteaauce of a public
^For a descrixitiou of this catalogue seeCliapter XXVIII, pp. 660-6(52, Catalogues and
Cataloguing.
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 987
library and reading room, with or without branches, which shall be free for purposes
of reading and reference, under such rules and regulations as said board may from time
to time prescribe, such sum as in their discretion may be proper.
Under this act, the school board, in Jmie, 1874, voted to the library
$6,000 for the current fiscal year; and the atmual revenues of the
library became as follows: School board appropriation, $0,000; inter-
est on Henry Ames legacy, $5,900; income from memberships, fines,
etc., $5,000; total, $10,900.
In June, 1874, the library was thrown open to the public, free for
reading and reference, the membership fees being retained unaltered
for such as desired to borrow books for home use. It may here be stated
that the membership fees have increased rather than diminished under
the operation of the change. None of the members, so far as ascer-
tained, have ceased their payments, while many, first attracted to the
free library, have, after a time, i)aid membership fees for the privilege
of taking home books which they lacked time to read during library
hours.
The library is deposited in the Public School Polytechnic Building, a
granite edifice four stories in height, and covering a lot of ground 110
by 130 feet. The offices of the school board and a branch high school
and normal school are also in the building. The library occupies the
entire second floor. The library room is 00 feet by 80, and 33 feet high.
The reading room, adjoining, is 100 feet by 50, and 42 feetO inches high.
The present condition of the library is shown by the following statis-
tics from the annual report for the fiscal year ending May 1, 1875:
Volumes in library, (including the collection of the Academy of Science and
the collection of duplicates) 3rf, 758
Number of newspapers and periodicals in reading room ~51
Life members 2, "276
Perpetual memberships 30
Temporary members 3, r)19
5, 825
New members registered, 1874-75 1, 395
Issues :
For home use 93, 140
For library use 28, 061
121,201
Value of property, (estimated) '^72, 127.31
To the entire number of volumes in the library proper novels bear
the proportion of 19.3 per cent.; juveniles, 10.7 per cent. The average
circulation for home use shows 52 per cent, of novels, 20 per cent, of
juveniles. It has been determined that an annual expenditure of $000
will supply the library abundantly with novels, and $250 witli juveniles,
no matter how large the total amount the library may be able to spend
for books.
ST. LOUIS LAW LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.
This library was founded in May, 1838, by members of the St. Louis
bar. Its conditions of membership and use are that the applicant shall
988 Public Libraries in the United States.
be in good standing at the bar, shall pay an initiation fee of $20, and
an annual subscription of $10. The books are not allowed to leave the
room except to be taken to some court of record for use in lawsuits.
Without endowment or support from any public fund, this library has be-
come one of great value. It contains about 8,000 volumes, of which 1,500
are text books, the best having been selected; 1,500 reports and digests
of foreign cases, and 5,000 reports and digests of United States courts.
The library is in the county courthouse, and is used by 380 members.
ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY.
The university library contains 17,000 volumes, exclusive of students'
society libraries, which number 8,000 volutnes. The main library, which
is intended for the use of the professors, but to which any inquirer is
always made welcome, contains very complete collections of the early
writings of the Catholic Church, such as the works of the Fathers, trea-
tises on the canon law, and ecclesiastical history. Several works in the
collection are unique in our country. The library possesses some illu-
minated mediaeval manuscripts, numerous rare and original editions of
the Bible, and fine collections of the classic writers, as well as of the
modern historians and theologians. It was begun in 1829 by some
priests who came hither from Belgium, bringing a small collection of
books with them, to whi(^h additions have been made from year to year
from the funds of the university.
ST. LOUIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE.
The academy was organized in 1856, Dr. George Engelmann being
elected president. In April Dr. C. A. Pope offered "the free use of
the cabinet hall and other rooms suitable for the purposes of the acad-
emy, in the Dispensary Building of the St. Louis Medical College,"
which offer was gratefully accepted. The academy was incorporated
by act of legislature January 17, 1857. Through the influence and
efforts of its early presidents and secretaries, it was soon placed on
a good footing with similar institutions, and valuable donations of
books and transactions of other societies, as well as gifts and ex-
changes of specimens, gave it a respectable beginning of a library and
museum. In 1809 it lost most of its collections, aside from its library,
by fire. Anagreement was shortly after entered into between the acad
emy and the St. Louis board of public schools, by which the former
has since held its semi-monthly meetings in the session room of the lat-
ter, and the library and the remains of the cabinet have been placed in
the rooms of the Public School Library. Fortunately for the academy,
a large and valuable collection of fossils and mineralogical specimens
had, before the fire, been lent to the Washington University, and was
thus preserved. The cabinet of the academy now fills three and a half
large double cases, with glass doors, placed in the reading room of the
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 989
Public School Library. Their contents are the results of o^ifts from indi-
viduals and societies and exchanges. The library occupies an alcove in
the same library room, and is accessible to users of the Public School
Library for purposes of reference. The contents of the library are as fol-
lows: Bound volumes, transactions of other societies, 407; bound volumes,
miscellaneous scientific works, 904; unbound volumes, transactions of
other societies, 1,176; unbound volumes, miscellaneous scientific works,
257; total, 2,744.
The acadetuy published the first number of its transactions in 1857.
It has thus far published nine numbers of transactions in all, being
volumes I and II and parts 1 and 2 of volume III. It has remaining on
hand of these 2,670 numbers, held for sale or exchange.
ST. LOUIS MEDICAL COLLEGE.
The library of the college numbers 1,100 volumes. It was founded in
1844; is restricted in use to the faculty and students, and is maintained
and increased solely by voluntary contributions. The library of the late
Dr. Charles A. Pope (500 voluuies) passed in 1875^into the possession of
the college, one-half by purchase, the other half being given by his
widow.
INDEPENDENT ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS.
This order has a library numbering 4,000 volumes, which was begun
in 1868, For its support ten lodges contribute 25 cents semi-annually for
each of their members, and 50 cents for each new member initiated.
This gives the library a yearly income of about §1,500. It subscribes
to the leading popular American magazines, and has about 600 volumes
of German works, popular and standard. The room is open daily from
Monday till Friday, from 7 to 10 p. m., and on Saturday, from 2 to 10 p.m.
It is accessible only to members of the contributing lodges and their fam-
ilies.
ST. LOUIS TURNVEREIN LIBRARY.
The library was begun in 1855. It contains 2,000 volumes, of which
250 volumes are English ; the remainder chiefly German. The Turn-
verein appropriates $20 per month for library purposes; the fines col-
lected amount to about $10 more. The reading room is open only two
nights during the week ; it is supplied with about 20 newspapers and
magazines.
LIBRARY OF THE ACADEMY OF THE VISITATION.
The library was organized in 1832 by the Sisters of the Visitation. It
contains 4,000 volumes, including every variety of literature. It is sup-
ported by the pupils, who pay a yearly fee of $2 for the privilege of its
use. The total yearly income of the library is $150, the greater part of
which is used to replace books worn out ; new books are rarely added.
990 Fuhlic Libraries in the United States.
LIBRARY OF THE URSULINE ACADEMY.
Begun by tbe Sistersjn 1840, it now numbers about 2,000 volumes.
The pupils pay a fee of $3 per annum for its use, making its annual in-
come about $125.
LIBRARY OF THE COLLEGE OF THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERS.
The library was founded in 1860, and contains 22,000 volumes and
about 156 manuscripts. Its income is about sufiQcient for its support,
and is derived from membership fees paid by the pupils.
YOUNG men's SODALITY LIBRARY AND READING ROOM.
This library dates from the foundation of the Sodality Building, which
was built under the directorship of the Rev. A. Damen, S. J., about the
year 1855. Its object, as well as that of the library rooms attached, is
to furnish sound moral literature in its various branches to the mem-
bers of the sodality. Lately, however, it has been made accessible to the
friends of the society, Vho can become members by paying an initiation
fee of $1, and afterward 50 cents a quarter. To the members every-
thing is free. The library and reading room are supported out of the
general funds of the sodality. The following are some of the statistics :
Books in the library, 1,327 ; periodicals in reading room : dailies, 8 ;
weeklies, 9; monthlies, 9; quarterlies, 1; total, 27. Number of mem-
bers who avail themselves of the use of the library, 300. Books issued
during the year ending May 1, 1875, 1,225 volumes,. classified as follows:
reviews, magazines, etc., 49; history, 122; biography, 172; poetry, 49;
theology and controversy, 12 ; essays and lectures, 74 ; tales, sketches,
and travels, 661; philosophy and physical sciences, 37; ascetic, (religion,)
49; total, 1,225.
The above figures will serve to give an idea of the classification of the
books. The whole range of literature is comprised, and, while the num-
ber of books is not very large, every book is selected with care, and every
subject covered by sufficient material to give the reader a pretty com-
prehensive insight of it. The library is intended to foster a Catholic
spirit in its members, who are all Catholics.
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES.
There are four distinct collections: The general library, containing
4,500 volumes, chiefly books of reference ; the scientific department
library ; the law library, of 3,000 volumes; and the Mary Institute Li-
brary, of 500 reference books. Gifts from prominentcitizens have assisted
in their increase. The professors of the law department gave their sal-
aries for one year to add books to the law library. Mr. Hudson E.
Bridge bequeathed to the university the sum of 1100,000. the interest
on which is to be divided between the chancellorship and the libraries.
PiihUc Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 991
The income of the latter will be about $1,500 a year. With the excep-
tion of the law library, no great eftbrt has been made to bnild np the
university's collections, as the university owns several memberships in
the Mercantile Library, and a large nninber of its pupils are similarly
connected with the Public School Library ; and these two public libraries
supply to a great extent the wants of the university.
GERMAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CONCORDIA COLLEGE.
The library of this college was begun in 1840, It now numbers 4,800
volumes.
MISSOURI MEDICAL COLLEGE.
The library of the college dates from 1840, and contains 1,000 vol-
umes.
X.— PUBLIC LIBRARIES OF SAN FRANCISCO AXD OF THE
PACIFIC COAST.
BY A. E. ^VHITAKER,
Librarian of the Mercantile Library, San Francisco, CaX.
Unquestionably one of the most noticeable features in the literary
advancement of the United States during the last quarter of a century
has been the increase in the number, magnitude, and sphere of useful-
ness of libraries. From the humblest beginnings, when, in 1820, the
Boston* and New York Mercantile Library Associations were inaugu-
rated, until the present tiuie, their influence has been steadily extend-
ing, and has been fraught with incalculable advantages to the literature
and general character of the people. With sj^ecial significance does
this apply to those known as public libraries.
In the full and proper acceptation San Francisco has no public library,
and yet, in the history of these great co-educators of our country, she
is entitled, through her association libraries, to no little consideration.
The Pacific coast has been deemed the ultima Thule of the United States,
and not a little astonishment was occasioned when rapid and easy com-
munication revealed to the old such fruits of progress and advance in
the 7ieui. True it is that literary interests have failed to keep pace with
the more material, but yet they have i)assed successfully through the
most materialistic age in the country's existence, and to-day the library
associations of the West occupy a position which many similar ones of
the Eastern States strove in vain for hulf a century to obtain.
But many reasons prevail why comparison with like associations of
the East should be studied with indulgence. And first stands that of
age. The majority of the libraries of the eastern cities were from ten
to fifteen years advanced before a similar institution had come to light
on these western shores. The oldest library on the Pacific coast has
just issued its twenty -third annual report. Again, our libraries have
992 Public Libraries in the United States.
never received a siugle important donation, either in money or books,
while most of those in the East have been the recipients of liberal gifts
in both. Such benefactors as Beck, Cope, Morton, and Roberts to the
Philadelphia Mercantile Library ; as Grosvenor, McLane, Hnnt, and
Demilt to the New York Mercantile Library, have not as yet had
their counterparts with us. The well known bequest of Dr. Rush of
$1,000,000 to the Philadelphia Library Company: that of the Astors to
the Astor Library; and those to the Boston Public Library, almost too
numerous to mention, aggregating over $300,000, together with an en-
dowment fund of over $100,000, and the rich additions to its collection,
by the same means, of the Bowditch, Parker, Ticknor, and Prince Libra-
ries— these combined have hitherto failed to tempt any of California's
millionaires to take a similar step for her libraries. There is scarcely
a town in the Eastern States of twenty or thirty thousand inhabitants
that has not, either by municipal grant or by private generosity, con-
tributed liberally toward making public collections of books. More-
over, while most of the collections above referred to are situated in
the great bookmarts of America, and in frequent and easy communica-
tion with those of Europe, surrounded by wealthy friends interested
in their success, and aiding them by liberal gifts of books and money,
ours of the Pacific have been left to struggle alone, and cannot point
to a single bequest, save by the hand of some actor, musician, or
lecturer ; while every one of the thousands of volumes on our shelves
in its voyage hither traversed many thousands of miles, and, instead
of serving as an eloquent testimonial to the fostering care of a .legisla-
ture, or the munificence of an Astor, a Cope, a Bates, a Phillips, or a
Peabody, is due to the unaided exertions of an association of private
citizens.
The principal libraries of San Francisco, and hence of the Pacific
coast, (the State library at Sacramento not being here considered,) are
those of the Mercantile Library Association, of the Odd Fellows' Asso-
ciation, and of the Mechanics" Institute.
MERCANTILE LIBRARY.
First, in point of age, in extent of collection, in importance, and in
all that constitutes it the closest approximation to a public institution,
should be noticed the Mercantile Library. Dating almost from the
foundation of the city, its history is one of a slow but gradual advance
against an adverse current, of few encouraging prospects, and not with-
out an occasional struggle for existence itself. The first successful
attempt to organize a Mercantile Library Association in San Francisco
is recorded as having been made at a meeting held on the evening of
the 22d of December, 1852, in the chamber of the board of aldermen.
The account relates that " several previous eftbrts which had been made,
from time to time, with a view of forming associations of a kindred
character, had been rendered unavailing by a peculiar force of circum-
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 993
stances, resulting partly from the unsettled state of society, and tlie
many discouraging reverses which had befallen our whole mercantile
community, by reason of the frequent disastrous couHagrations that
had repeatedly laid our city in ashes, and thrown a gloomy pall over its
brightest hopes of prosperity. Bat, feeling the importance of such an
institution, the young men were not to be defeated in their commendable
exertions; and conlident of the merits of their cause, and bold in their
hopes of success, again renewed the attempt which has happily resulted
in the permanent establishment of the present institution." From the
minutes we find that " notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather,
the meeting was numerously attended, showing that a deep interest was
felt among all classes of the community and affording the most flattering
encouragement for the permanent success of the movement." The cap-
ital stock was fixed at .s50,00(), iu shares of $25 each. Subscriptions to
the amount of $2,000 were immediately pledged. A stirring appeal
was issued to the public for assistance ; a committee was appointed to
extend the subscription list, and the amount was rapidly increased to
$5,000. On the evening of January 24, 1853, a meeting was assembled,
the final organization effected, the certificate of incorporation adopted,
and officers elected for the ensuin'g year. Mr. David S. Turner was the
first president, and effectively served in that capacity for two years.
As the nucleus of a library, a collection of 1,500 volumes of standard
works, the library of General Hitchcock, was purchased. By means of
donations from many of the most earnest supporters of the enterprise
of books, from editors of the daily papers of a number of valuable files
of our daily journals, the number was increased during the following
year to nearly 5,000 volumes. Periodicals, newspapers, and magazines
were obtained from the Atlantic States and Europe, and, in a new
country like California, where all were sojourners, met with the heartiest
appreciation. Suitable rooms were procured in the California Exchange
building, then on the corner of Clay and Kearney streets, and on March
1, 1854, with tiiese resources, and under these auspices, the institution
commenced its career of usefulness.
To look back from the vantage ground afforded by the present, and
note the constant progress it has made, it would seem that its success
was insured from the start, but it has not been without great effort on
the part of its stanch supporters and its efficient boards of manage-
ment. Several periods are still fresh in its history during which its ex-
istence was almost despaired of. However, prosperity followed it, and
at three several times it was compelled to seek more commodious quar-
ters to accommodate its rapidly increasing treasures. The more -clearly
to show what constant and rapid growth has attended its early history,
the following table of statistics may be offered •
63 B
994
Public Libraries in the United States.
NUMBER OF VOLUMES AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH YEAR.
Year. No. of volumes.
1853 1,500
1854 2,705
1855 3,315
1H56 3,833
1857 6,135
1858 8,447
1859 10,066
1860 11,485
1861 13,821
1862 14,985
1863 ..-•- 15,906
1864 16,620
Year. No. of volumes.
1865 18,095
1866 19,711
1867 21,557
1868 24,020
1869 25,745
1870 28,110
1871 30,002
1872 30,006
1873 33,614
1874 36,356
1875 39,148
NUMBER OF MEMBERS AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH YEAR.
Year. No. of members.
1854 392
1855 552
1856 550
1857 1,250
1858 1,176
1859
1860
1861
1862
1863 1,786
1864 1,435
1,319
1,817
1,694
1.725
Year. No. of members.
1865 1,650
1866 2,198
1867 1,708
1868 1,818
1869 1,870
1870 1,984
1871 2,020
1872 2,062
1873 2,048
1874 2,038
1875 2,041
NUMBER OF VOLUMES TAKEN OUT.
Year. No. of volumes.
1854 3,371
1855 8,367
1856. 10,466
1857 17,528
1858 17,321
1859 21,903
1860 25,757
1861 31,955
1862 31,464
1863 35,702
1864 40,136
Year. No. of volumes.
1865. 41,737
1866 54, 389
1867 54,492
1868 62,237
1869... 79,189
1870 82,564
1871 84,710
1872 88,916
1873 88, 751
1874 84,763
1875' 80,084
Few libraries, indeed, are so little indebted to the beueficence of able
and generous donors for their prosperity and usefulness as the Mer-
cantile Library of San Francisco. Donations of books in any number
it has never known. Gifts of money from the close grasp of million,
aires have never fallen to its share. The association should then con-
gratulate itself upon its exceptional and permanent advance and the
high and solid position it holds to-day. Compared with the growth of
'This apparent decrease of circulation is due to a change in the system of keeping
the records.
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 995
other kindred institutions for the first twenty years, as shown in the
following table, there is no slight occasion for surprise and gratification :
Volntnes.
Boston Mercantile Library, fouuded in 1820, contained in 1860 19, 000
New York Mercantile Library, founded in 1820, contained in 18G0 55,000
Philadelphia Mercantile Library, founded in 1821, contained in 1860 16,800
Cincinnati Mercantile Library, founded in 18:15, contained in 1860 21, 000
Baltimore Mercantile Library, founded in 1839, contained in 1860 16,950
St. Louis Mercantile Library, founded in 1846, contained in 1860 16,000
Brooklyn Mercantile Library; founded in 1857, contained in 1860 17, 500
For the first decade of its existence the San Francisco Mercantile
exhibits an accumulation of 15,906 v^olumes, and an increase of circula-
tion from 3,371 to 40,136 a year. At the end of the second decade
33,614 volumes are numbered in its collection, while its circulation has
swelled to 84,763. A fit closing of the first decade of its career was its
reincorporation, in 1863, under an act of the legislature passed in the
early part of the same year, thus annulling its old shares of stock and
converting its shareholders into subscribers. The management of the
association was vested in a board of trustees, consisting of a president,
vice president, corresponding and recording secretary, treasurer, and
nine trustees, to be elected annually. No member was to hold the office
of president or vice-president for more than two successive years. The
early history of the association may be said to close with the comple-
tion and possession of its new library building and the struggle which
ensued in recovering from the burdensome indebtedness assumed in its
construction. A brief review of the undertaking and its results will
not be out of place here, since it was one of the darkest and most hope-
less periods in its whole history.
Library building.
In 1865, the project of procuring a lot and erecting thereon a building
suitable for the accommodation of the association first began to assume
some sensible form, but, indeed, only after years of agitation, discussion,
and deliberation. "Since 1861, the library had occupied contracted quarters
in theold building on the corner of Montgomery and Bash streets, at a con-
stantly increasing rental, and it was apparent to all that an early change
to more commodious rooms was fast becoming a necessity. In 1865, by
the united efforts of the trustees, the sum of $20,000 was secured from life
memberships and donations. With this amount, increased by an addi-
tional sum of $2,000 applied from the general fund of the association, the
board of trustees of the following year, acting upon instructions directly
given by a large and enthusiastic meeting of the members, proceeded
upon their delicate and difficult task. After great deliberation, a lot was
finally chosen on Bush street, midway between Montgomery and Sansom,
in the central part of the city. The price to be paid was $50,000. All the
available cash in the treasury of the association, about $22,000, was de-
996 Fuhlic Libraries in the United States.
voted to tlie part payment of this pnrcbase price. A loan of $100,000 was
then negotiated, the lot and proposed building being security. Fi'om
this the balance of the purchase money was paid upon the lot, and the
erection of the building commenced. Additional loans were subse-
quently effected to the amount of $100,000, the wliole bearing interest
at the rate of 1 per cent, per month. The building was completed, and
formally dedicated on the 18th of June, 1868.
In his following report, the president announced that the total in-
debtedness of the association was $240,000. This amount had been
reached, contrary to the expectation of the board, by reason of obstacles
and delays during the construction against which no ordinary ingenuity
could provide. It was proposed to reduce it by subscription, as far as
possible, and, for the balance, to negotiate bonds of the association,
secured on the property, bearing a moderate interest. But these hopes
and expectations proved illusory. Bonds for $100,000 were issued, bear-
ing 9 per cent, interest, but they could not be negotiated. A second
series for $150,000, bearing interest at 8 per cent., was placed upon
the market, with a like result. An effort w^as made to obtain subscrip-
tions, but without success. A course of lectures by distinguished east-
ern speakers failed to be supported, and assisted even in depleting the
treasury. A fair, held in the library hall, met the same fate. To quote
from President Swain's report :
Thus matters stood at the commencement of 1869. The prospects were most gloomy.
No favoring response came from any quarter. The purpose for which the building had
been erected appeared to be a failure. The institution was on the downward road.
There was no money to be appropriated to the purchase of new books. It was im-
possible to obtain a supply even of the cheap current literature of the day. Booksellers
had already large unpaid bills, and could not afford to trust any longer. The expenses
were increasing with the iucrease of the debt. No helping hand was extended to save
the institution ; appeals to the public pride, public duty, publicnecessity were fruit-
less. The French Loan Society, failing to receive their interest, had commenced a suit
of foreclosure. The fate of the library appeared sealed. With any other treasurer it
would have died at once. The trustees, almost disheartened, discouraged, aud dis-
gusted, met night after night for consultation, but they were like meetings of con-
sulting physicians over an expiring patient. It was evident the patient must die. If
a decent burial could be vouchsafed, it was as much as the trustees would dare ask of
an enlightened and liberal people. But at this crisis, just as the hearts of the trustees
were most faint and weary, temporary relief came from au unexpected quarter.
Camilla Urso, to whom the association is under a multitude of obligations, proposed a
grand musical festival, from which a handsome and very welcome sum was realized.
The festival was, in every respect, a great success, aud netted to the
association nearly $20,000. It awakened an interest in the public mind
and prepared the way for the consummation of the scheme from which
complete deliverance at last came. A bill, which became a law Febru-
ary 20, 1870, was passed by the legislature, authorizing the association
to hold three gift concerts, at which articles of value should be dis-
tributed, providing the proceeds were devoted to the liquidation of the
indebtedness of the association. The entertainments were given, with a
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 997
net profit of $310,120, from which the eutire indebtedness of the associa-
tion was paid, and a balance of 120,000 turned over to the treasurer.
In June, 1868, the property of the library was transferred to the new
quarters, and the building opened to the public. It received from the
press generally, as it has since from the many eastern and foreign tour-
ists who have visited it, the highest meed of praise and commendation.
It has a frontage on the north side of Bush street of 68| feet and a
depth of 137^ feet. It is three stories in height, with basement and
attic. The design of the front elevation is elegant and elaborate, and
is in the style known as modern Italian. The entrances are three in
number, surmounted by arches; the centre or main one, with a similar
one on either side. By these the visitor is introduced into a grand cen -
tral entrance, on the ground floor, 20 by iSO feet in extent, and 19 feet
in height, with a wide, central staircase leading to the library and rooms
above. On the first floor are placed the library room , ladies' reading
room and parlor, the reference room, trustees' room, and what was
formerly used for the chess and smoking room.
The second floor comprises the newspaper and magazine room, store
room, and chess room. The attic roi»ms are designed for oflices, artists'
studios, etc. Theie are two stores on the ground floor, one on each
side of the main entrance, each 18 by 50 feet, while in the basement
is the lecture room, 58 by 74 feet in area, and 24 feet high. Con-
nected with this are a supper room, ladies' and gentlemen's dressing
rooms, and waiting rooms. The library room proper is reached by two
entrances, one upon each side of the vestibule. This apartment is 52
by 64 feet in extent, and occupies the entire frontage of the building.
The books are arranged upon the east and west walls in cases pro-
jecting from the spaces between the windows. The librarian's desk
is conveniently placed near and between the two entrances, and is
enclosed by a massive railing in the form of a semicircle. The vesti-
bule is lighted from the library by a large plate window, in the centre of
which is placed a double-faced clock dial, so that the hour can be ob-
served from either side, while the works of the clock are in a glass case
within the inclosure of the librarian's desk. Directly over the library
room, of similar dimensions, and on the third floor, is the reading room.
It is furnished with convenient stands for newspapers, which are dis-
played thereon and neatly secured by an ingeniously devised file invented
by the former janitor of the building. For convenience of reference,
the diff"erent papers are geographically arranged by countries, States,
etc., the desks lettered, and a register posted near the entrance to direct
one, without delay, to the desired journal. There are 244 newspapers
on file, 81 of which are Atlantic or eastern and foreign, while 140 belong
to California and the Pacific coast. Tables of a peculiar design, adapted
for this use, occupy the front portion ,of the centre of the room, and
contain 115 magazines, of which 68 are foreign and 47 American, together
with 21 miscellaneous illustrated journals.
998 Public Libraries in the United States.
The terms of membership to the association are: life members, $100;
for subscribers : initiation fee, $2, and quarterly dues, $.3, payable in
advance. At the date of the annual report, January 22, 1875, there
were 1,643 subscribing members in good standing, 320 life members,
and 78 honorary members. The current revenues and expenses, as 'fore-
shadowed by the retiring president, for the succeeding year, may be
roughly estimated as follows:
Eece'ipts : Dues, $20,000 ; initiation fees, $1,000 ; rents, $8,000 ; other
sources, $1,000; total, $30,000. Probable expenses, $20,000; leaving
about $10,000 for the purchase of books.
The collection contains, at present, over 41,000 volumes, which, in ap-
proximate numbers, may be distributed through the various depart-
ments as follows : Bibliography, 400 ; belles lettres, 2,000 ; biography,
2,400; French language, 2,200 ; German, Spanish, and Italian, 1,300 5
history, 3,500 ; collected works, 850 ; magazines, (bound,) 4,200; poetry
and drama, 1,400; public documents, 1,800; romance and juvenile, over
10,000; science, 4,900; theology, 1,250; travels, 2,700; reference, 1,500;
duplicates, 600 ; making in all 41,000.
Although from various causes,but principally from lack of the requisite
means, the library cannot be said to have devoted itself to the building
up of any special department, and hence is complete in none, it yet
offers to the general reader goodly treasures from every mine. It has
fortunately acquired a creditable collection of illustrated works of an-
tiquity, architecture, painting, natural history, etc. ; material of great
cost, and of equally great value. For many years the preservation and
binding of magazines and serial publications, as well as the completion
of imperfect sets, have received special attention. In the transactions
of scientific and learned societies the library has made a good beginning.
The association has recently received, as a gift from the British govern-
ment, a complete set of the Abridgments of British Specifications of
Patents, with all continuations.
Book delivery. — Previous to 1875, books were delivered in the Mer-
cantile Library by means of two cumbersome registers of 2,500 pages
each. This system was attended with great labor and inconvenience,
and has been superseded by another and more satisfactory one. It
consists of an octagonal cylinder of wood, 3 feet 6 inches in height,
and 3 feet in diameter, revolving vertically on its axis. Into each of
the eight faces are bored 250 holes, 3 inches in depth and f inch in
diameter. The cylinder thus contains 2,000 holes, which, being num-
bered from 1 to 2,000, supply the place of pages in the old regis-
ters. As a hole is allotted to a member, a card of regulated size, and
of some distinct color, is placed therein, upon which are written his
name, address, and the number of the hole. These cards are per-
manent, indicating the ownership of the hole, and are uniform in color.
When a book is given out a similar card, but of different color, is used,
upon which are placed the letter, indicating the department in which
Puhlic Libraries of Ten Frincipal Cities.
999
the book belongs, the title, or number, or both, and the number
of the hole belonging to the party drawing the book. For conven-
ience, cards can be stamped before the work of delivery begins, and
with a little care, in such a manner that the department letter can oc-
cupy a small space on the end, distinct by itself. Upon the return of
the book the card is taken from the hole, the book identified, and the
card dropped into a drawer, where it remains to furnish data for the
statistical tables at the end of the mouth.
As will be observed by reference to the tables already presented, the
circulation of the library is between seven and eight thousand volumes
a month, the annual average for the past five years being 85,940. This
number is exclusive of books nsed in the rooms for reference and
reading, which, by actual count, at various times, proves to be equally
great. A table of classification of the circulation for the past year, to-
gether with the rate per cent., shows how slight a variation exists in the
statistics of the circulating libraries in various sections.
Circulation for 1874.
Volumes. Percent.
Volumes.
Per cent.
Prose fiction and juvenile
Travels
63,306 74.7 Spanish
2 996 3. 4 French
87
2,516
1, 932
558
194
84, 763
0.2
2.8
2,619 ^ 3.3
2, 318 ' 2. 8
3, 498 ' 4. 2
2,062 2.2
1, 773 2. 1
904 1.1
2.2
Theology
Periodicals
0.7
0.3
History
100. e
As Mr. Poole, the librarian, remarks: " Statistics show that the taste
for reading in one community is the same as that of every other com-
munity in similar social conditions. Statistics here, (Cincinnati,) in
New England, and in Old England show in the main the same results."
Doubtless they will not be materially changed by any new development
on the Pacific coast. About 75 per cent, of the selections will be prose
fiction and juvenile.
For additional interest, the following table is compiled, showing the
annual circulation for five years, in the special departments mentioned :
Year.
S
§ g
1
1
1870 t...
2,251
2,254
2,270
2,204
2,062
62, 850
64,623
65, 683
65, 985
63, 306
2,337
2,414
2,651
2,539
2,318
6,097
1871
5,677
1872
6,373
1873
6,683
1874
5,615
1000 Public Libraries in the United States.
As no library is complete without a catalo<?ue, so its history would
in so much fail did it make no mention thereof. The association has
issued three catalogues. The first was published in 1854, shortly after
its organization, and enumerated less than 3,000 volumes ; the second
followed in 1861, and contained nearly 14,000 volumes ; the third and
last was completed February 1, 1874, and forms a complete catalogue
of over 36,000 volumes, The first two proved of little permanent utility,
while the continuation by slips, carried through tlie subsequent years
by various hands, was so utterly lacking in accuracy and uniformity,
that the catalogue of 1874 was necessarily the result of a complete re-
examination of each individual book in the collection, involving a great
expense of time and money. It is prepared upon what is termed the
dictioimry plan, consisting of an ali)habetical arrangement by author,
title, and subject, with discretionary subdivisions of the latter, according
to its extent and importance. Like the Boston Public Library cata-
logues, it furnishes complete "contents" of all important works and
collections; but it advances one step beyond the point they have yet
reached in that it presents them in a purely ali)habetical order, by
subject, or, as in cases of collected authors, by author, and in very im-
portant collections by both author and subject. Without some method-
ical arrangement, in cases of extended "contents," one's search for an
author or article becomes a tedious, not to sa3" fruitless, task. The re-
cent date of its publication, and the small quantity of supplementary
slips accumulated, (which are made and arranged in every respect similar
to the catalogue itself,) place the library in this respect on a footing
equaled by few. The first supplement of 168 pages, and containing 5,000
titles, was issued in 1875. Pamphlets are catalogued as books, but are
placed temporarily in pamphlet cases; while the cards, numbered to cor-
respond with the case used, are kept in a separate compartment, distinct
from the body of the card catalogue. At convenient seasons the pam-
phlets are classified as much as possible and bound, the reference on the
cards changed, the card inserted in the card catalogue, and the bound
volume added to the accession list.
The location of the books upon the shelves is in accordance with the
usual system of classification, and an alphabetical arrangement by
author is observed in each separate department. The general divisions
are themselves subdivided, and the same arrangement by author adhered
to. The practicability and advantage of such a system in moderate
c llections, and in those in which books are accessible to the public, are
beyond question; but in a large and growing library, where the diffi-
culties of classification render it perplexing to assign places to the new
accessions, and almost impossible to find many of them when once
assigned, it becomes imperative to adopt some system more exact and
satisfactory. For this reason, the association has determined to number
its books, and the only regret is that the step could not have been taken
before the construction of the catalogue. In numbering, the divisions of
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 1001
classification are observed, although the strict alphabetical arrangement
therein is somewhat interfered with. This step of numbering the books
should lead to another greatly needed and more important, viz, that of
denying the public access to the shelves. Every open library suffers
from such a license more than its records can ever show. And yet,
aside from the unknown but assuredly great loss an open library ex-
periences at the hands of dishonest people, it can be safely claimed
that three-fourths at least of the wear and injury sustained by books
on the shelves arises from the promiscuous handling of the careless and
curious. To a librarian it is disheartening; books belonging in one
department are constantly found in some other ; they are declared "out,"'
when some careless hand has simply misj^laced them ; valuable sets, per-
haps procured at great pains, are discovered ruined by the less of a vol-
ume, and he despairs in his repeated efforts at reclamation.
Detracting nothing from the flattering account of the new building of
the association, reflecting naught upon the credit of those who pro-
jected it and bore all the burdens of the long struggle, the fact yet re-
mains, unpleasant as it is, that its location was ill chosen, its construe
tion, in matter of capacity and accommodations, inadequate and unsat-
isfactory. Situated as it is in the business centre of the city, it is sur-
rounded on all sides by lofty buildings, and is, in consequence, deprived
of the primary necessity of a library — light. Moreover, provision
should have been made, in the construction of so expensive an edifice, for
not less than 100,000 volumes. A library to live must grow, and a grow-
ing library requires a large margin for its accessions. Calculations for
an increase, at least equal to that of the past, cannot be avoided. Dur-
ing the two decadesjustpastithas been aconstant struggle for existence;
every dollar expended for books has been the result of great effort, and
yet, for each decade, there have been added 15,000 volumes. Jn twenty
years more the number of volumes in the collection should be doubled.
San Francisco is rapidly stretching out ; what was a few years since " out
of town" is now considered "down town." Her population, according
to the city directory for 1875, is placed at 230,000. The need of a new
location, one more retired ; of a building more generously supplied with
light, and adequate in every way to the natural growth df the collection,
is already a matter of serious consideration with the board of manage-
ment.
In making up an account of the libraries of San Francisco, so much
space and detail have been allotted the Mercantile Library because in its
inception and design, in its membership, its functions, its influence, and
in the estimation in which it is held by the public, it is, more essentially
than any other, the public library of San Francisco. Unfortunately, per-
haps, for the material interests of the association, the public contribute
freely to its patronage, but poorly to its support. Instead of receiving
State or municipal aid and encouragement, the association is called upon
for an annual tax of $2,500 as the price of its usefulness; a thing, I be-
1002 Public Libraries in the United States.
lieve, quite unknown in Europe, and in the older States of this country.
Without donations of books, without legislative or municipal aid, in spite
of all obstacles which have beset it, in the face of the materialism of a
new country, it has possessed itself of a large collection of books, of a
fine building, and has made itself acknowledged the educator it really
is on the Pacific coast, and now occupies a creditable position among
the libraries of the country.
ODD fellows' library.
The Odd Fellows' Library of San Francisco is an outgrowth of Odd
Fellowship, the fruit of the bequest of the late S. H. Parker, a promi-
nent member of the order, and was established in 1854. The library
association is a regularly organized and chartered body under the laws
of the State, and not merely a representative department of the lodges
of the order.
The lodges are almoners of their members' fees, under a solemn contract, signed and
sealed by the several lodges of the jurisdiction, which compact may require the cooper-
ation and joint action of both parties to the contract to alter or annul.
Each lodge contributing for its members shall have the right of namiug one trustee.
And any lodge contributing the sum of 50 cents per quarter in advance for each of
its members shall thereby entitle each of its members in good standing to mem-
bership in the association ; but every person, before he is a member, must sign its con-
stitution and by-laws. The board of trustees are not merely lodge representatives.
While they are lodge representatives in the association, they are trustees of the associa-
tion ; a separate organization with legal status. Lodge requests will be duly respected,
but lodges or a lodge has no moral or legal right to dictate to the trustees of the library
association.
As will be seen by its laws and regulations, its sphere of usefulness
as a public library is circumscribed, as its membership is restricted, to
members of the order; and yet Odd Fellowship has attained so eminent
a position, and is represented by so universal a membership in this city
and throughout the entire coast, that its library association has become
one of the great fountains of public influence, and claims a promiuent
place in the present notice. The association has succeeded in gather-
ing together a very useful, and, in many respects, a valuable collection
of books. The library occupies rather contracted quarters, in a building
which is owned by the order, and used principally for the accommoda-
tion of the several lodges of which it is composed.
The number of volumes reported in the library in May, 1874, was
nearly 25,000. The total number on the accession list at the present
writing is but little less than 27,000. The various departments of litera-
ture represented in the collection are shown in the following classifica-
tion, viz :
Classification of collection.
Volumes. Volumes.
Atlases, maps, charts, etc 50
Belles lettres 1,120
Biography 950
Classics 500
Collected works 400
Congressional, State, and law re-
ports 675
History 1,800
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities.
1003
Theology
Refereuce
Science aud art
Social scieuce
Societies, trausactious
Voyages and travels . . .
Volumes.
620
600
. 2, 000
300
750
. 1, 974
German 4,000
Total 26,883
Volumes.
Illustrated works 240
Letters, speeches, etc 200
Medicine 120
Philo8ophy,language,and education 300
Newspapers, (bound) 230
Novels 6,984
Odd Fellowship and Masonry 200
Patent Reports ^ 250
Periodicals 1, 850
Poetrj' and drama 770 '
As will be seen, selections have been .made from every department
with moderation, rather than from any special one extensively. As there
are many Germans in the order, the German department is very strong.
Books are added to the collection at the rate of about 2,500 volumes a
year. The number of members entitled to draw books is 3,735. The
number classed as oontributing members is 100. The receipts from dues
are about $7,000 annually, and the amount expended for books about
$2,500.
The circulation reaches nearly 7,000 volumes a month, or about 80,000
a year. The following table shows the use made of five principal de-
partments for the last five years :
Tear.
History.
Prose fic-
tion aud
■ juveniles.
Essays. ' ^^^f^^^^
•' and travels.
1
Total for
year.
1870*
50, 985
61, 763
1871
1872
1,767
1,537
1,793
1,823
50, 297
59, 928
66, 211
64, 509
2, 177 1, 458
2,235 1,315
2,385 1,689
2,280 J 1,664
1873
79 530
1874 . . .
78 219
* No classification of circulation this year.
" In regard to the popular taste in reading,"' remarks the librarian, in
his annual report for 1873-74, " the results shown forth in the statistics
of eastern libraries correspond, in the main, to our own. The eastern
statistics find the demand for novels ranges from 70 to 75 per cent. Our
experience places the figures at from 80 to 85 per cent. With them,
such writers as Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Irving, and Haw-
thorne, acknowledged masters of fiction, take the lead. With us, other
authors, like Southworth, Stephens, Holmes, Braddon, and Dupuy, are
most popular with the bulk of our readers. But time, the great educa-
tor, aided by the powerful influences of the library itself, will, I trust,
in the end correct this little aberration, and set us right." Connected
with the library room is a well supplied and well patronized reading
room, whose files present some sixty newspapers of the city and coast,
and twenty-three from the Eastern States and Europe. Forty maga-
zines, American and foreign, can be found on its tables, while on the
reference shelves of the library are fifteen valuable sets of society jour-
nals, transactions, reports, etc., received in bound volumes. Among
1004 Fuhlic Libraries in the United States.
these may be meationed the British Association Reports; the Bthuo-
logical Society of London Journals and Transactions ; the Geographical
Society Journal ; the Geological Society Journal ; the Linnsean Society
Transactions; the Social Science Association Transactions; and the
Statistical Society Journal, each a mine of wealth in itself. The library
has only a manuscript catalogue, and that of little utility. The presi-
dent, in his last report, says: " Jne of the greatest difficulties under
which we labor now is the want of a printed catalogue. We hope that
this defect will be removed at as early a date as possible." Unfor-
tunately for the comfort and attractiveness of the library, it has little
light and less available book room.
MECHANICS' INSTITUTE LIBRARY.
The first meeting of the mechanics of the city of San Francisco for
the purpose of organizing tbe association now known as the Mechanics'
Institute was held at the ofBce of the city tax collector, in tbe City Hall,
on the evening of December 11, 1854. A committee was appointed to
draft a constitution and by laws, and, on the 6th of March, 1855, the
same were reported and accepted. As set forth in article 1 of the con-
stitution, the association was to have for its object the establishment of
a library, reading room, the collection of a cabinet, scientific apparatus,
works of art, etc. On the 29th of the same month a permanent organi-
zation was effected, and the first regular board of officers elected, with
Benjamin Hayward as president.
Passing over the years of struggle, which, in corninon with the host
of similar institutions, mark its early history, we find it in 1866 in
the building on Post street, erected by the institute, and the one
occupied at the present day. The lot was purchased for the sum of
$25,000, and the building cost $45,000. The collection comprised at
that time 11,250 volumes. The whole number of volumes in the col-
lection now reaches 24,108, while in the president's last annual report
the valuation placed upon the lot and building, in the summing up
of the assets of the institute, was $120,000. The membership roll con-
tains names in good standing to the number of 1,456. The initiation
fee for members is $1, and the quarterly dues $1.50; life membership,
$50. Memberships are furnished strangers and sojourners at the rate
of 50 cents per mouth without initiation fee. The annual revenue of
the library may be estimated at: memberships, dues, etc., $6,000; rents,
etc., $7,000; total, $13,000, from which, after deducting current ex-
penses, a balance of $1,000 or $1,500 remains to be applied to the pur-
chase of books. The library contains over 6,000 volumes in the depart-
ment of science and art. As its name would imply, it has directed its
efforts in the main to the exp'ansion and perfection of those departments.
Its purpose is to build up for the city and the whole coast the best pos-
sible collection for reference of works on the practical sciences and
mechanical arts. In this view the accessions to the library for the last
five years will be of interest.
Public Libraries of Ten Principal Cities.
1005
Acce-tsion list.
Tear.
Stience and
art.
Fiction.
Miscellaneous.
Total.
1869 '70
626
584
726
246
284
1,147
687
607
605
605
823
712
583
405
372
2 593
1870-'7l . .
1,983
1871 '72
1872-'73
1873 '74
1 '♦ai
Total
2,466
3,651
2,S92
9 009
From this exhibit we fiuci an average annual addition of 1,800 vol-
umes, of which one-fourth belongs to the department of mechanical
science and art.
The circulation of the library reaches nearly 7,000 volumes a month.
The actual figures and classification could not be reached, since the
librarian has discontinued the record on the ground of the immaterial
variation from one year to another, and the substantial correspondence
in percentage existing among all similar collections. A classified
catalogue of the library was issued in 1867, consisting of 100 pages,
and representing nearly 12,000 volumes. It is the only one it has ever
had printed, and is probably found to be of limited use at present. It
is continued by slips mainly on the same systeui. It is the intention of
the trustees to issue, at an early date, a new catalogue of the works in
the reference room of the library.
During the last year the institute has received from the British gov-
ernment a complete set of the British Specifications of Patents, with the
continuations. The value of such a set on the Pacific coast cannot be
overestimated, and it is a matter of general congratulation that it has
fallen to the lot of the Mechanics' Institute, to which it properly be-
longs, to have it in charge.
The Mechanics' Inst tute of this city is essentially a representative
of the industrial interests of the State. To it belongs the credit of
having carried through successfully the only exhibitions of California
industry ever given in San Francisco. Since the year 1857 the institute
has held nine industrial fairs, and the incalculable benefits accruing to
the industrial interests of the State and coast through the extensive
exhibitions of home and foreign inventions, applications and produc-
tions, reflect the highest credit upon the noble enterprise of the institute
and the ability and zeal of its managers. Each year surpasses the pre-
ceding in the magnitude of the undertaking, and industrial and financial
success.
From the beneficent hand of Mr. James Lick, through whose regal
liberality $2,000,000 have recently been distributed among deserving
institutions and for public works in San Francisco and other places, the
Hechanics' Institute is favored with a gift of $10,000 to be devoted to
the purchase of works pertaining to the mechanical and scientific arts.
This is the first bequest as yet recorded to a library in San Francisco.
1006 Public Libraries in tJie United States.
SAN FRANCISCO ART ASSOCIATION LIBRARY.
The library of the San Fraucisco Art Association, though at present
small, is important as forming one of the many humble and promising
beginnings which are destined some day to assume a recognized im-
portance among the literary fountains of the coast. The association
was organized March 28, 1871, having for its objects the promotion of
painting, sculpture, and other kindred arts, the diffusion of a cultivated
taste for art in the community at large, and the establishment oft an
academy or school of design. Its membership is composed of artists
and persons interested in the progress of art. Every member is
required to pay an admission fee of $2 and monthly dues of $1. Life
memberships are $100. There are set apart annually, from the net
income of the association, at least $100 for the purchase of books and
periodicals relating to art. The library contains some 280 volumes of
standard works of art, including the London Art Journal, Galerie des
Peintres Celebres, Lubke's History of Sculpture, Lacroix's works, etc.
The association is favored with a wealthy, influential, and enthusiastic
membership, and will undoubtedly become, in time, the possessor of
an art library of great extent and merit.
LA LIGUE NATIONALS FRANCAISE.
The Ligue nationale fran9aise was organized in this city immediately
after the signing of the treaty of peace between France and Germany,
in 1871.
Its object is to promote friendship, encourage patriotic sentiments
among French people, aid in advancing the cause of education not only
in California but also in France, and assist in their distress the patriotic
emigrants from Alsace and Lorraine.
The league each year offers several prizes of 500 francs for the best
written treatise, in a popular point of view, on subjects named by the
society. The manuscripts are read by a committee selected for the
purpose, and the accepted ones are printed and circulated here and in
France (in country districts only) to the extent of from 50,000 to 200,000
gratuitously.
At the monthly meetings political and literary essays are read by a
lecturer appointed at a previous meeting, when the subject is given out.
It is the intention of the trustees to open, as soon as the means will
permit, a re;:;ular afternoon course (free) for ladies learning French, a
literary course, and, in addition to this, an evening course free to all
foreigners desiring to learn the English language. This course will be
strictly devoted to the teaching of the language.
The library, which was begun in 1875, numbers nearly 6,000 volumes,
and is accessible to persons of all nationalities.
Aside from those noticed, there are in San Francisco numerous soci-
ety libraries, but of slight extent and promise, many private collections
of creditable proportions, and a promising and growing law library, sup-
Fuhlic Libraries of Ten Principal Cities. 1007
ported by a revenue from the courts, and principally available by tbe
legal profession ; but in the three described centre the library interests
and prospects of the Pacific. Do they promise to supply the increasing
demands which are destined to arise here'? ^o; there is a demand for
something more general, more generous. There is a lack of unity of
interests, of oneness of purpose and desire, evinced in some well meant
efforts toward building lip for the new West a single grand public de-
pository of books freely accessible to all. The Pacific coast is and will
ever remain inconveniently distant from the great library centres of the
Atlantic States, and should possess among its own resources one univer-
sal library of reference for its students and scholars. A free public li-
brary secures the interest of all. JSuch an one in San Francisco should
look to the wants of our entire western domain and to the exigencies of
generations to come. Like the Library of Congress for the Atlantic, it
should be constituted for the Pacific a storehouse of every publication,
not only of California, but of the General Government and of the whole
country. It should be financially independent, and above and bej'ond
individual or party caprice.
The materialism of California is wearing away. The day may not be
very distant when some one of her many millionaires shall imitate the
munificence of great benefactors in the Eastern States, and establish for
the Pacific a free public library.
OTHER Collections.
A list is appended of other public or semi-public libraries in San
Francisco, containing each 1,000 volumes or- more, further statistics of
which will be found in the general table at the end of this volume. —
Editors.
Volumes.
Academy of Notre Dame 1,000
Law library 12,500
Pacific' 12,000
St. Ignatius College 5, 000
Sodality library, (gentlemen's) 3,000
Sodality library, (ladies') 1,500
Students' library 1, 500
St. Mary's College 3,500
San Francisco Vereiu 5, 000
Society of California Pioneers 2, 500
Theological Seminary of San Francisco. (For a sketch of this library see Chap-
ter IV, p. 142, Theological Libraries) 5,000
Young Men's Christian Association 5, 000
SACRAMENTO LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.
The Librarj' Association of Sacramento dates its organization from
October 26, 1857. It can hardly be pronounced prosperous, having no
fund to depend upon, and owing, aside from its floating debt, a mort-
gage of $6,000 upon its building. The library was built at a cost of
1 This library is the property of Mr. H. H. Bancroft, author of the Native Races of
the Pacific States of Norrh America, but may be freely consulted by scholars.
1008 Piihlic Libraries in the United States.
$17,000, of brick, centrally located, 34 by 80 feet, and is ueat and con-
venient in its appointments. The annual receipts of the association
from all regular sources amount to about 82,000. For the year preced-
ing the report made October 1, 1874, however, they ran up to 83,863.33.
The number of paying members at that date was 144 ; life members,
34; honorary, 4, and scholarships, 8 ; making the total number of per-
sons entitled to the privileges of the library 186.
The number of books in the library, at the date mentioned, was 5,539,
with barely any increase since. The library also possesses many pam-
phlets not as 3^et catalogued or enumerated, but no manuscripts. The
rooms are open only from 1 to 5 and 7 to 10 p. m. The circulation of
its books amounts to about 5,000 volumes per anuum. There are on its
files 8 monthlies, 10 illustrated and scientific periodicals, and 20 daily
and weekly newspapers. Public interest in the association is needed to
give it life and vigor. Its sources of revenue are barely sufficient to
meet the necessary current expenses, and outside means are annually re-
sorted to to supply whatever deficiencies may exist.
SAN JOSE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, SAN JOSE, CAL.
The Library Association of San Jose was incorporated July 13, 1872,
declaring its object to be the establishment of a library and reading
room ; the collection of a cabinet, scientific apparatus, works of art ; and
the general diffusion of knowledge by means of the circulation among
its members of the various books, periodicals, and journals published
throughout the world. It is under the immediate direction of a board of
management, consisting of a president, vice-president, recording secre-
tary, corresponding secretary, secretary, and two trustees.
Its support is derived from three classes of membership, viz : life,
annual, and monthly. Any [)erson may become a life member by the
payment of $50. Monthly members pay 50 cents a month, in advance.
Annual members are charged $6 per annum, payable semi-annually, in
instalments of $3. Ten years' consecutive membership constitutes one
a life member.
In July, 1874, the following constituted the entire membership of the
association, viz: annual members, 188; monthly members, 180; life
members, 21 ; honorary members, 11. Total membership, 400.
The circulation of the libr?a-y for the year 1874 amounted to 13,118
volumes. The number of volumes in the library in June, 1875, was about
4,000, of which 1,085 were added during the last year. The association
has no separate building of its own, but temporarily occupies rooms in
the Knox building.
There are found on its files some 40 magazines and illustrated papers,
and about 90 newspapers. The library possesses no catalogue of its
books as yet, but the librarian is engaged in the preparation of one, and
promises its speedy publication.
San Jose is a considerable city, situated about fifty miles south of San
Public Libraries of Ten PriiicipaJ Cities. 1009
Francisco, the centre of one of the most lovely and promising' valleys
(Santa Clara) in the State, and bids fair to possess at no distant day, in
its young and flourishiDg- library, a most valuable and useful collection
OREGON STATE LIBRARY, SALEM, OREG.
The state Library of Oregon was founded in 1850, upon an appropri-
ation of $5,000 made by Congress August 11, 1818. It was totally de-
stroyed by fire December 31, 1855, which accounts, in part, for the
present small collection. The legislature furnishes it support in the
shape of an annual appropriation of $750, which is invested by the
chief justice. According to the last biennial report of the librarian, the
collection contained 6,217 volumes, including 900 pamphlets, the greater
portion of which are, naturally, works on law and statistics. There are
some 1,400 volumes of reports and digests of the same, and nearly 4,000
volumes of laws, journals, legislative documents, etc. The library is
open to the reading public from 9 a. m. to 4 p. m., except during the
sessions of the supreme court, which are held in the rooms twice a year,
when the public are admitted from 7 a. m. to 9 p. m. The librarian is
elected for two years, at an annual salary of $500. Attached to the
report of September 1, 1874, is a catalogue of the library, forming a
pamphlet of sixty-four pages.
PORTLAND (OREGON) LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.
The Library Association of Portland was organized in 1804. Begin-
ning in an humble way, through the liberality of a few prominent citi-
zens, it has, by an economic management and careful expenditure of its
funds, steadily advanced to its present substantial position. It is man-
aged by a board of ten directors. The first subscription was started in
the winter of 1863-64, and resulted in the realization of $2,561.50. Two
thousand dollars of this amount were immediately invested in books,
and the balance appropriated toward the furnishing of suitable rooms.
At the end of the first year the association found itself in debt to the
amount of $684.25, which was speedily removed, however, by donations
and initiation fees. The membership rapidly increased, and there was
in a short time a surplus iu the treasury. The association has four
classes of membership, viz,' life, annual, quarterly, and honorary. Any
person can become a life member by the payment of $200. Yearly
members are charged $25 per annum, and quarterly members $3 per
quarter.
At the end of 1864 the library possessed 500 volumes. It numbers
about 7,500 volumes and 150 pamphlets. Its increase in 1874 was 550
volumes, which may be considered its average. The annual circulation
of books among its members reaches 15,000 volumes, with the usual
percentage in favor of fiction. Its reading room is well supplied with
newspapers, periodicals, etc., having some fifty Pacific coast papers,
nineteen Atlantic, thirty American magazines and illustrated papers,
and twenty English and continental.
64 E
CHAPTER XXXIX.
GENERAL STATISTICS OF ALL PUBLIC LIBRARIES IX THE
UiNITED STATES.
BY THE EDITORS.
IxTRODUCTiON — Table — List of librarians.
lu the subjoined table will be foaud statistics of all public libraries
numbering three hundred volumes or more from which returns were
received in 1875-76, excepting common or district school libraries-
Some common school libraries from which returns of the number of
volumes were received have been included, bnt they are too few and
unimportant to materially modify the figures given. In the summary
below the number of volumes they contain has beeu deducted from the
aggregate number of volumes reported in all the libraries of that class
In preparing the following table it was found advisable, in most
instances, to combine the society libraries of each college, and make
but one entry for all ; so that the number of libraries is apparently^
though not really, reduced from 3,682 to 3,647, a difference of 35.
Tbe chief fault of the table is its incompleteness. The omissions
are as follows: 653 libraries do not report the date of organization or
foundation ; 2,172 do not report the average annual increase of books }
2,910 do not report the extent of yearly use of the library ; 1,060 do not
report whether they have a permanent fund or not ; 2,852 do not report
a yearly income from any source ; 2,913 do not state the yearly expend-
itures for books, periodicals, and binding; and 3,039 do not report the
amount paid yearly for salaries and incidental expenses. Hence it
appears that the only column of the table which is complete through,
out is that giving the number of volumes. The totals given below do
not include the statistics of eight libraries embraced in the table, from
which returns were received after the summary was completed.
The following is a summary of the table :
Total number of volumes 12,276,964
Total yearly additions, (1,510 libraries reporting) 434, 33i>
Total yearly use of books, (742 libraries reporting) 8, 879,869
Total amount of permanent fuud, (1,722 libraries reporting) $6,105,581
Total amount of yearly income, (830 libraries reporting) 1,398,756
Total yearly expenditures for books, periodicals, and binding, (769 libraries
reporting) 562, 407
Total yearly expenditures for salaries and incidental expenses, (643 libra-
ries reporting) 682, 166
General Statistics of all Public Libraries. 1011
Imperfect returns show a little more tbau 1,500,000 pamphlets iu all
the libraries.
It will be seen that parish and Sunday school libraries have not beeo
included ; indeed, no systematic effort was made to gather the statistics
of such libraries, which are almost as numerous as the churches iu the
country.
The number of volumes iu the other public libraries of the United
States is as follows :
Libraries numberiDg 300 volumes and upwards 1'2. 276. 964
District school libraries, not included iu above 1,365,407
Pampblets, (imperfectly reported) 1,500, 000
Respecting district school libraries the further remark is necessary
that the reports of the State superintendents of California, Connecticut,
and New Jersey do not show the number of volumes in the libraries,
and therefore the school libraries of those States could not be included
in the above total of this class. California has expended for libraries
in the last ten years, $138,564.64; Connecticut expended for libraries
and apparatus in 1874-75, the sum of $7,608.82 ; in New Jersey about
thirteen thousand dollars have been expended since 1871 for libraries.
Following the table will be found a list of the names of librarians
and other officers furnishing reports. In many cases, as in school and
academy libraries, there is no regularly appointed librarian ; in some
other instances the name of the librarian was inadvertently omitted
from the return.
1012
Public Libraries in the United States.
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General Statistics of all Fuhlic Libraries.
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Fiiblic Libraries in the United States.
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Public Libraries in the United States.
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1017
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Fuhlic Libraries in iJie United States.
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1031
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1032
Puhlic Libraries in the United States.
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1034
Public Libraries in the United States.
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1035
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Public Libraries in the United States.
I
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1037
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Pahllc Libraries in the United States.
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Fort Madison, Iowa
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1039'
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1040
Public Libraries in the United States.
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o o o
2,000
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1,000
625
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4,160
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750
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1042
Fublic Libraries in the United States.
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3,261
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Public Libraries in the United States.
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1045
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Public Libraries in the United States.
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Public Libraries in the United States.
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Public Libraries in the United States.
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New York, N.Y
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New York,N.Y
New York, N.Y
New York.N.Y
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1098
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Oswego, N. Y
08wego,N.Y
Oswego,N.Y
Ovid,N.Y
Owego,N.Y
Oxford,N.Y
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Oyster Bay, N. Y
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Perry.N.Y
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Latrobe, Pa
Lewisburg, Pa
Lewisburg, Pa
Lewisburg, Pa
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Litiz,Pa
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1133
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561
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350
200
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Trinity University, Society Libraries, (3) ^
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Supreme Court
Nazareth Convent
Waco University
Society Libraries
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Public Libraries in the United States.
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1139
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1141
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List of Librarians.
1143
LIST OF LIBRARIANS IN THE UNITED STATES.
Library.
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Anbnrn, Ala
Marion, Ala
Mobile, Ala
Mobile, Ala
Montgomery, Ala
Tuscaloosa, Ala
Tuscaloosa, Ala
Tucson, Ariz
Eayetteville, Ark
Fort Smith, Ark
Little Rock, Ark
Knight's Ferry, Cal ...
Mary s ville, Cal
Nevada City, Cal
Oakland, Cal....
Oakland, Cal
Oakland, Cal
Oakland, Cal
Oroville,Cal
Petaluma City, Cal
Placerville, Cal
Sacramento, Cal
Sacramento, Cal
Sacramento, Cal
Sacramento, Cal
San Francisco, Cal
San Francisco, Cal
San Francisco, Cal
San Francisco, Cal
San Francisco, Cal
San Francisco, Cal
San Francisco, Cal
San Francisco, Cal
San Francisco, Cal
San Francisco, Cal
San Francisco, Cal
San Francisco, Cal
San Jos6, Cal
Santa Barbara, Cal
Santa Cruz, Cal
Stockton, Cal
Vallejo, Cal
Central City, Colo
Colorado Springs, Colo
Denver, Colo
Denver, Colo
Golden City, Colo
Ashford, Conn
Berlin, Conn
Bridgeport, Conn
Bristol, Conn
Agricultural and Mechanical College of Ala-
bama.
Howard College
Franklin Society Reading Room and Library
Law Library
Alabama State Library
Alabama Historical Society
University of Alabama
Territorial Library
Arkansas Industrial University
Public Library Association
Mercantile Library
Publi c Library
Odd Fellows' Library
Odd Fellows' Library
Oakland Library As80c;ation
Odd Fellows' Library
Pacific Theological Seminary
University of California ,
Ladies' Library
Odd Fellows' Library
Neptune Library
California State Library
Library Association
Odd Fellows' Library
Supreme Court Library
Bancroft Pacific Library
Bibliotheque de la Ligue nationale fran^aise
I^ireka Turn verein •
Mechanics' Institute
Mercantile Library
New Jerusalem Church Free Library
Odd Fellows' Library
St. Mary's Library Association
San Francisco Verein
Society of California Pioneers
Territorial Pioneers of California
Young Men's Christian Association
San Jos6 Library Association
Odd Fellows' Library
Santa Cruz Library
Odd Fellows' Library
Vallejo Library
Public School Library
El Paso County Library
Supreme Court Library
Territorial Library
University Schools of Colorado
Babcock Library
Berlin Library
Bridgeport Library ,
Young Men's Christian Association
B. P. Ross.
J. B. Kil Patrick.
TV. M. De Grnshe.
"William Alderson.
J. M. Riggs.
W. S. Wyman, secretary.
Prof. B. F. Meek.
Coles Bashford, secretary
of the Territory.
John Ayers.
J. H. Hobbs.
Frank M. Parsons.
A. Schell.
John Norton.
E. A. Foster.
In a D. Coolbrith.
Peter J. Ipsen.
Rev. George Mooar, D. D.
J. C. Rowell, A. B.
Maggie Morrison.
E. R. Healy.
Frederic F. Barss.
R. O. Cravens.
M. S. Gnshman.
Francis Lenoir.
Carl C. Finkler.
Henry L. Oak.
Daniel L6vy.
August Schumacher.
J. C. Hurlbnt
A. E. Whitaker.
John Doughty.
George A. Games.
John B. Gallagher.
L. E. "Wyneken.
Louis R. Lull.
Dr. E. L. "Willard, secretary
H. Cox.
George "W. Fentress.
James A. Brewster.
H. Dexter.
C. F. Rea.
James Phillips.
John L. Jerome.
Henry K. Palmer.
John W". Webster.
Orson Brooks, (acting.)
Rev. Richard Harding.
Peter Piatt.
Miss E. S. Brandegee.
Mrs. J. E. G. Clarke.
"William B. Hurd, chairman
library committee.
1144 Public Libraries in the United States.
List of librarians in the United States — Continuecl.
Canaan, Conn
Colchester, Conn . . .
Cromwell, Conn
Danbury, Conn ....
Derby, Conn
Derby, Conn
Durham, Conn
East Haddam, Conn
East Windsor, Conn
Earmington, Conn. .
Guilford, Conn
Hampton, Conn
Hartford, Conn
Hartford, Conn
Hartford, Conn
Hartford, Conn
Hartford, Conn
Hartford, Conn
Hartford, Conn
Hartford, Conn
Hartford, Conn
Kensington, Conn. .
Lakeville, Conn
Ledyard, Conn
Litchfield, Conn
Litchfield, Conn
Lyme, Conn
Manchester, Conn. .
Meriden, Conn
Middletown, Conn .
MiddletowD, Conn .
Middletown, Conn .
Milford, Conn
Moodus, Conn
New Britain, Conn.
New Haven, Conn .
New Haven, Conn .
New Haven, Conn .
New Haven, Conn .
New Haven, Conn .
New Haven, Conn .
New Haven, Conn .
New Haven, Conn .
New London, Conn.
New London, Conn.
New Milford, Conn.
Norfolk, Conn
Norwich, Conn
Say brook. Conn
Seymour, Conn
Simsbury, Conn
Stamford, Conn
StoningtoD, Conn . .
Library.
Douglas Library
Colchester Library
Friendly Association
Danbury Library
Allis Circulating Library
Odd Fellows' Library
Dujham Academy
Odd Fellows' Library
Library Association
Farmington Library
Guilford Circulating Library
Library Association
Circulating Library
Connecticut Historical Society
Hartford County Law Library Association.
Hartford Hospital
Medical Library and Journal Association..
State Library
Theological Institute of Connecticut
Watkinson Library of Reference
Toung Men's Institute ^
Kensington Library Society
Lakeville Library
Bill Libi'ary
Harris Plain District Library
Wolcott Library Association
Old Lyme Library
Library Association
Toung Men's Christian Association
Berkeley Divinity School -. .
Russell Library
Wesleyan University
Milford Lyceum
Library Association
New Britain Institute .^
American Oriental Society
Bartholomew's Library
Connecticut Academy of Art and Sciences .
First Church and Society
New Haven Colony Historical Society
Tale College ,
Tale College Law School
Toung Men's Institute
St. John's Library
Toung Men's Library Association
The Benevolent Library
Circulating Library
Otis Library
Acton Library
Library Association
Free Library »
Social Reading-Rooms
Book Club and Circulating Library
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Charles Gillette.
Miss Emma Fitch.
Edward S. Coe.
C. H. Sanford.
George C. Allis.
John H. Barlow.
Philo Mosher.
Azro Drown.
Samuel T. Bissell.
Thomas Treadwell.
Shepard and Fowler.
Mason 0. Fuller.
Miss King.
J. Hammond Trumbull.
Charles J. Hoadly.
Dr. G. W. Russell.
C. W. Chamberlain.
Charles J. Hoadly.
William Thompson.
J. Hammond Trumbull.
Caroline M. He wins.
Andrew J. Warner.
Lot Norton.
Edmund Spicer.
Elwin Merriman.
William L. Ransom.
John D. Morley.
George A. Easton.
R. T. Spencer.
Rev. Frederic Gardner, D.D.
George F. Winchester.
C. T. Winchester, A. M.
Alphouso Smith.
Mrs. D. F.Beebe.
Emma B. Hackett.
Addison Van Name, M. A.
L. B. Bartholomew.
Addison Van Name, M. A.
Solomon Mead.
William G. Andrews, sec.
Addison Van Name, M. A.
John A. Robinson, LL. B.
Miss C. Lizzie Todd.
Timothy J. Evers.
Nathan R. Chappell.
Fred. S. Starr.
Mrs. C. H. Mills.
Mrs. F. W. Robinson.
Miss Amelia Clark.
Frederick O'Mira.
George C. End.
George D. Hoyt.
Miss E. W. Palmer, presi-
dent.
List of Librarians.
List of Uhrarians in the United States — Continued.
1145
Library.
Stocington, Conn
Stratford, Conn
Terrysville, Conn
Thomaston, Conn
Thompson, Conn
Waterbury, Conn . . :
"Watertown, Conn
Wauregan, Conn
West Killingly, Conn ...
"West "Winsted, Conn
"Wethersfield, Conn
"Windsor Locks, Conn. .
"Windsor Locks, Conn...
"Wolcottville, Conn
"Woodbury, Conn
Yankton, Dak
Yankton, Dak ,
Newark, Del
New Castle, Del
Smyrna, Del
"Wilmington, Del
"Wilmington, Del
"Wilmington, Del
"Wilmington, Del
"Wilmington, Del
Georgetown, D. C ,
Georgetown, D. C
"Washington, D. C
"Washington, D. C
"Washington, D. C
"Washington, D. C
Washington, D. C
"Washington, D. C
Washington, D. C ,
Washington, D. C
Washington, D. C
Washington, D. C
Washington, D. D
Washington, D. C
Washington, D. C
Washington, D. C
Washinfi[ton, D. C
Washington , D. C
Washington, D. C
Washington, D. C
Washington, D. C
Washington, D. C
Jacksonville, Fla
Palmer and Trumbull's Library
Book C lub
Lyceum Library
Tillage Library
Fire Engine Library
Silas Bronson Library
Library Association
Library Association
Dowe's Circulating Library ,
Beardsley Library ,
Rose Library —
Holden's Circulating Library
Union School Library ,
Library Association
Library Association ,
Library Association
Ten itorial Library
Delaware College
Library Company
Library Association
Delaware Historical Society
New Castle Countj' Law Library Association
Shield's Library
Wilmington Institute
Young Men's Free Library As.sociation
Georgetown College
Peabody Library Association
Bureau of Education
Bureau of Statistics
Department of Agriculture
Department of State
Department of the Interior
House of Eepresentati ves
Independent Order of Odd Fellows' Library
Association.
Independent Order of Odd Fellows' Library
Association of East Washington.
Library of Congress
Masonic Library
Patent-Office
Post-Office Department
Signal Office, United States Army
Surgeon-General's Office
Treasury Department
United States Naval Observatory
United States Senate
War Department
Wa.shington City Library
Wayland Seminary
Florida Circulating Library
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Palmer and Trumbull.
H. A. Sutton.
Sherman Andrus.
Thomas H. Newton.
Oscar Munyan.
H. F. Bassett.
Nancy E. Bronson.
Henry Johnson.
M. P. Dowe.
Miss L. M. Carrington.
F. Hanmer.
C. A. Fox.
George Webb.
Mrs. Woodruff.
William C. De Forest.
Mrs. J. H. Haskell.
George H. Hand, secretary
of the Territory.
Prof O. B. Super.
Alexander B. Cooper.
Miss Alice Hoiiecker.
K. P. Johnson, M. D.
George H. Bates.
John J. Ryan.
Augustus F. Wilmans.
George N. Jackson.
Rev. J. S. Sumner, S. J.
Frank D. Johns.
E. T. Peters.
J. B. Russell.
Theodore F. Dwight.
Rev. John G. Ames.
John M. Rice.
George W. McLean.
John C. Axe.
A. R. Spofford.
W. P. Dunwoody.
William B. Taylor.
John Meigs.
Henry Jackson, First Lieu-
tenant, U. S. A.
John S. Billings, Assistant
Surgeon, U. S. A.
S. A. Johnson.
Prof. J. E. Nourse.
George F. Dawson.
P. O'Hagan.
W. B. Morris.
James Storum.
E. B. Kellogg.
1146 Public Libraries in the United States.
List of librarians in the United States — Continued.
Library.
Name of librarian or other
officer reportiug.
Milton, ria ,
St. Auj:«stine, Fla .
Tallahassee, Fla . .
Athens, Ga
Atlanta, Ga
Atlanta, Ga
Augusta, Ga
Augusta, Ga
Cartersville, Ga
Savannah, Ga ,
Talbotton, Ga
West Point, Ga ....
Boise City, Idaho .,
Alton, lU
Masonic Academy
City Library
State Library
University of the State of Georgia.
Georgia State Library
Young Men's Library
Catholic Young Men's Society
Young Men's Library Association .
Library Association
Georgia Historical Society
Lo "Vert College
[ Young Men's Library Association .
1 Territorial Library
. Public Library
Aurora, 111
Batavia, 111
Belleville, 111....
Belvidere, 111 . . .
BloomingtoD,Ill
Bloomington, 111
Bunker Hill, 111.
Bushnell,Ill....
Centralia.Ill....
Chicago, 111
Chicago, 111
Chicago, 111
Chicago, 111
Chicago, 111
Chicago, 111
Chicago, 111
Chicago, 111
Chicago, 111
Chicago, 111
Chicago, 111
Chicago, 111
Chicago, 111
.' Library Association
. j Batavia Free Library
. SiMgerbund and Liberal Society
-I Library Society
.! Illinois "Wesleyan University
. I Library Association '. . . .
. : Library Association
. Library Association
.] Public Library
. I Academy of Sciences
. American Electrical Society
Chicago, 111
Chicago, 111
Chicago, 111
Chicago, 111
Chicago, 111
Danville, 111
Decatur, 111
Dixon, 111
D wight, 111
East St. Louis, 111
Eden, 111
Elgin, 111
Elmwood, 111.
El Paso, 111 . .
Evanston,Ill.
Baptist Union Theological Seminary
Chicago Astronomical Soc.iety
Chicago Historical Society
Chicago Theological Seminary
Chicago Turngemeinde
Chicago University
Cobb's Library
Dearborn Observatory
Law Institute
North Chicago Kolling-Mill
Presbyterian Theological Seminary of the
Northwest.
Public Library
St. Ignatius College
Union Catholic Library Association
"West Side Library
Young Men's Christian Association
Culbertson Library
Ladies' Library Association
Hose Company No. 1
Kenyon's Circulating Library
Public Library and Reading-Room
Mutual Improvement and Library Associa-
tion.
Free Public Library
Young Men's Library and Reading Room. ..
Ladies' Library
Northwestern University
John Carlovitz.
Miss M. C. Reynolds.
Samuel B. McLiu.
Prof. Charles Morris, A. M.
Joel Branham.
Charles Herbst.
Richard B. Heslin.
S. G. Simmons.
Edgar L. Peocock.
"William Harden.
"William Park.
Moriis Herzberg.
E. J. Curtis, sec'y Territory
Mrs. M. A. H. Crandall, cor-
responding secretary.
Gustavus A. Pfrangle.
F. H. Buck.
Henry Raab.
Mrs. H. J. Sherrill.
G. R. Crow, A. M.
Mrs. H. R. Galliner.
Mrs. Sarah Cruickshanks.
Joseph B. McConnell.
R. M. McKee.
J. "W. Velie.
F. W. Jones.
E. C. Mitchell, D. D.
Elias Colbert, secretary.
Beldeu F. Culver.
Prof. Theodore "W. Hopkins.
Edward C. Witte
Hon. H. M. Thompson.
L. M. Cobb.
Elias Colbert.
Julius Rosenthal.
Tristram Mayhew.
Prof.W. M. Blackburn, D.D.
"William F. Poole.
Prof. P. J. Van Loco, S. J.
Mary A. Duffy.
Emerson and Kennedy.
Miss L. "W". Gushing.
Rev. A. L. Brooks.
Miss Libbie Jack, cor. sec.
F. H. Babbitt.
H. A. Kenyon.
Robert L. Barrowman.
Samuel Hynd'man.
L. H. Yarvrood.
Edwin Elliott.
Amanda M. Hewitt .
C. "W. Pearson, A. M.
List of Librarians.
1147
List of librarians in the United States — Continued.
Library.
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Galena, 111
Galesburgh, 111
Geneva, III
Greenville, 111
Jacksonville, HI —
Jacksonville, 111
Joliet,Ill
Kankakee, 111
Kewanee, 111 ^..
La-Salle,Ill
La Salle, 111
La Salle, 111
Mendota, 111
Moline, 111
Moline, 111
:iIonmonth, 111
Mou month. 111
ilorris. 111
Mount Vernon, 111 ,
Xormal, 111
Olney, 111
Onarga, 111
Ottawa, 111
Ottawa, 111
Pana.IU
Peoria, 111
Pittsfield, 111
Polo, 111
Qnincy, 111
Quincy, 111
Kantoul, 111
Robin's Nest, 111 .
Eockford, 111
Eock Island, III . .
Sandwich, 111
Sparta, 111
Sparta, 111
Springfield, 111 ...
Springfield, III ...
Springfield, 111 . . .
Young People's Library Association
Free Public Library
Public Library
Ladies' Library Association
Jacksonville Library Association
EeadingRoom and Library
Public Library
Ladies' Library Association
Public Library
Barnes &, Co.'s Circulating Library
St. Patrick's Total Abstinence Society
Malone's Circulating Library
Mendota Library Association
Concordia Society . . . ,
Public Library •.
Monmouth College
I Warren County Library and Eeadfng Boom
Library Association
Supreme Court, Southern Grand Division. ..
Illinois State Natural History Society
Public Library
Public Library
Odd Fellows' Library
I Supreme Court, Northern Grand Division...
; Library Association..:
Mercantile Library
j Ladies' Free Eeading-Room and Public Li-
brary.
j Library Association
I Friends in Council
I Quincy Library
Literary Society
Jubilee College
Public Librarj-
Public Library
Literary Association
Addisonian Library
I Circulating Library
j Library*Association
I State Board of Agriculture
State Library
Springfield, III ,
Springfield, III .
Sterling, III ... ,
Streator, 111 ....
Tuscola, III ....
Upper Alton, 111
Upper Alton, 111
Urbana,Ill
Urbana,Ill
Warsaw, III ,
Washington, III .
Supreme Court, Central Grand District
United States District Court
Library and Free Reading Room
Public Library
Library Association, First Presbyterian
Church.
Shurtleflf College
I Theological Department, ShurtlefF College..
Free Library •
Illinois Industrial University
Free Public Library
Library Association ■
Thomas B. Hughlett.
Mrs. F. A. Smith.
Mrs. Mary Jenny.
Kate Alexander.
J. H. Woods.
H. W. Milligan, secretary.
Miss Charlotte Aiken.
Mrs. A. P. Loring.
J. C. Rice.
G. M. Barnes.
Richard Stanton.
J. E. Malone.
J. D. Moody.
A. Schulz.
Kate S. Holt.
Ed.F.Ried.A.M..
Thomas H. Rogers.
Benjamin W. Sears.
R. A. D. Wilbauka.
S. A. Forbes.
F. W. Hutchinson.
Maria J. Davis.
George S. M. Beck.
George S. Williams.
Dr. T. C. McCoy.
Mrs. S. B. Armstrong.
Miss Louise Lusk.
Miss E. F. Barber.
Mrs. M. B. Deninan.
Miss Ellnora Simmons.
Charles Peterson.
Samuel Chase.
William L. Rowland.
Ellen Gale.
M. B. Castle.
Thomas F. Alexander.
William G. Chambers.
Miss E. G. Seaman.
S. D. Fisher, secretary.
George H. Harlow, ex officio
librarian.
E. C. Hamburger.
George P. Boweu, clerk.
B. A. Church.
Oscar B. Rj^an.
Hattie N. Miller.
Rev. W. Leverett, A. M.
Washington Leverett.
Miss Ida Haine3.
J. D. Crawford.
Edward E. Lane.
E. A. Smith.
1148
Public Libraries in the United States.
List of librarians in the United States — Continued.
Place.
Library.
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Waterloo, 111
Watseka.IU
Torkville 111
Monroe Advance Society
Library Association
Union Library Association
Maclure Working-Meus' Library
George L. Eiess.
ilatthew H. Peters.
M E Cornell
Attica Ind
E H Butler
Bedford Ind
•John M. Stalker, county
clerk.
T. A. Wylie.
Indiana University
James R. Bennett.
Brazil Ind
George W. French.
J. W. Adair.
David Stobo
Columbia City, Ind
Columbus Ind
Whitley County Library
Connersville Ind
Maclure Library
Wabash College
J. L. Rippetoe»
Caleb Mills, M. A.
Crawfordsville, Ind
Elkhart, Ind
Mrs. A. E. Babb.
Evansvillc lud
Piseon Township Library
Public Library
Vanderburgh Connty Library
Catholic Library Association
Lafayette Benevolent Society
Fred Blend
Evansville Ind
Evansville Ind
Joseph J. Reitz.
Phillip J. Singleton.
A. H. Carier, president.
Fort Wayne, Ind
John C. Ridpath.
Mrs.N. J. Hicks.,
Indianapolis Ind
Indiana Historical Society
Indianapolis, Ind
pro tempore.
Lizzie L. Hadley.
Julius Miessen.
Jeffrey Keating.
Indianapolis Ind
Dr Munhall
Jeffersonvllle, Ind
Working Mens' Institute
Newton County Library
Kentland.Ind
W. M. McCormick, county
clerk.
Mrs. Mary S. Willard.
La Porte, Ind
Library and Natural History A.ssociation...
Center Township and Young Men's Chris-
tian Association.
Madison, Ind
Martinsville Ind
Workin"' Men's Library
Mooresville, Ind
John W Hielson.
Muncie,Ind
Public Library ^
Mrs. Hattie L. Patterson.
New Castle, Ind ...
Working Men's Library
Thomas B. Redding.
Charles H. White.
Rev. J. C. Carrier, C.S.C.
Alonzo Cowgill.
W H Gilbert
Oxford Ind
Peru, Ind
Miami Working Men's Institute
Plymouth, Ind
Marshall County Library
J. B. N. Klinger.
List of Librarians. 1149
List of librarians in the United States— Coutinned.
Library.
Princeton, Ind i Gibson County Library
Eichmond, Ind Earlham College
Eicbmond,Ind Morrison Library
Richmond, lud Wayne County Law Library
Kising Sun, Ind ! Maclure Working-Men's Library
Rising Sun, Ind Randolph Township Library
Rockport, Ind , Ohio Township Library
South Bend, Ind Library Association
South Bend, Ind ' Portage Township Library
Vevay, Ind I Working Men's Library
Yinceunes, Ind Maclure Working-Men's Institute
Vincennes, Ind Public School Library
Vincennes, Ind Township Library
Vincennes, Ind : Vincennes Library
Wabash, Ind i Maclure Working-Men's Institute
Wabash, Ind Noble Township Library
"Waterloo, Ind Union Township Library
Waterloo, Ind ; ;iLaclure Working-Men's Institute
Albia, Iowa Albia Lyceum
Ames, Iowa State A gricultural College
Burlington, Iowa Public Library
Burlington, Iowa Swedish Public Library
Cedar Falls, Iowa Library Association
Cedar Rapids, Iowa Enos Free Library
Clinton, Iowa Young Men's Library Association
Davenport, Iowa Academy of Natural Sciences
Davenport, Iowa Griswold College
Davenport, Iowa Library Association
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Davenport, Iowa Young Men's Christian Association
Des Moines, Iowa ' Des Moines Library
Des Moines, Iowa State Library
Dubuque, Iowa German Presbyterian Theological School.
Dubuque, Iowa ! Iowa Institute of Science and Arts s.
Dubuque, Iowa Young Men's Library
Fairfield, Iowa Jefferson County Library Association
Fort Dodge, Iowa Library Association « .
Independence, Iowa Public Library i ^iss Nettie Jordan.
Iowa City, Iowa I Iowa State University Amos N. Currier, A. M.
Iowa City, Iowa l State Historical Society Samuel C. Trowbridge, (act-
W.P.Wellbuu, county clerk.
Anna Miles.
Mrs. Sarah A. Wrigley.
James Skinner.
J. M. Reister.
J. M. Reister.
S. Laird.
Mrs. Eliza F. Hain.
Mrs. Eliza F. Hain.
P. T. Hartford.
J. P. Currie.
Thomas J. Charlton, A. M.
John W. Duesterberg.
F. W. Viche.
Alexander Hess.
Alexander Hess.
D. Y. and C. Husselman.
R. Wes. McBride.
W. A. Nichol.
Miss Ellen W. Harlow.
J. P. Fuller.
Andrew Peterson.
A. R. Pegun.
Miss Bessie R. Penney.
F. A. Wadleigh.
R. J. Farquharson.
D. T. Sheldon.
Mrs. H. M. Martin, chair-
man library committee.
H. Williams.
John Welden, jr., manager.
Mrs. Ada North.
Prof. L. Griest.
Henry G. Horr.
Martha Chaddock.
A. T. Wells.
W. H. Johnston.
Keokuk, Iowa
Keosauqua, Iowa
Lyons, Iowa ,
Lyons, Iowa
Maquoketa, Iowa
Mason City, Iowa ,
Ottumwa, Iowa
Pella, Iowa
Salem, Iowa
Tabor, Iowa
Waterloo, Iowa
Waverly, Iowa
Western College, Iowa.
Library Association
Odd Fellows' Library, No. 3
German A ssociation
Young Men's Association
Literary Association
Library Association
Public Library
Central University of Iowa
Whittier College
Tabor College
Library Association
Library and Lecture Association.
Western College
Miss Emma Harte.
J. J. Kiraraersly.
A. R. Nysgaard.
Anna Carpenter.
D. A. Fletcher.
Henry H. Shepard.
Mrs. M. E. Israel.
J. N. Dunn.
Levi Gregory.
J. E. Todd.
James W. Logan.
H. S. Burr.
Rev. I. L. Kephart, A. M.
1150 PuUic Libraries in the United States.
List oj Uhrarians in the United States — Coutinued.
Lawrence, Kans
Leavenwortb, Kans
Manhattan, Kans
Topeka, Kans
Topeka, Kans
"Wyandotte, Kans
Bai dstown, Ky
Danville, Ky
Frankfort, Ky
Georgetown, Ky
Harrodsburg, Ky
Lexington, Ky
Lexington, Ky
Louisville, Ky
Louisville, Ky
Louisville, Ky
Louisville, Ky
Maysville, Ky
Newport, Ky
Paris,Ky
South Union, Ky
Monroe, La
New Orleans, La
New Orleans, La
New Orleans, La
New Orleans, La
New Orleans, La
New Orleans, La
New Orleans, La
New Orleans, La
Auburn, Me
City Library j
Law Library j
State Agricultural College !
Kansas State Library I
Library Association !
Library Association ;
St. Joseph's College
Centre College
Kentucky State Library |
Georgetown College i
Library Association i
Kentucky University i
Library Association I
Law Library i
Library Association i
Public Library of Kentucky ,
Theological Seminary of the P. E. Church I
Odd Fellows' Library i
Odd Fellows' Library
City Library j
South Union Library '
Young Catholic Friends' Society |
Academy- of Sciences
Ellis Circulating Library |
Fiske Free Library |
Librarie de la Famille !
Louisiana State Library
Louisiana Turnverein
New Orleans Law Association
Public School and Lyceum Library
Androscoggin County Law Library
Auburn, Me
Augusta, Me
Augusta, Me
Bangor, Me
Bangor, Me
Bangor, Me
Bath, Me
Bath, Me
Biddeford, Me
Biddeford, Me
Biddeford, Me
Brunswick, Me
Brunswick, Me
Bucksport, Me
Calais, Me
Cape Elizabeth, Me.
Castine, Me
Deering, Me
Dexter, Me
Eastport, Me
Ellsworth, Me
Fairfield, Me
Toung Men's Christian Association.
Kennebec County Law Library
Maine State Library
Bangor Mechanics' Associatiou
Bangor Theological Seminary
Penobscot Bar Library
Patten Library Association
Sagadahoc County Law Library
Circulating Library
City Library
French Canadian Institute
Bowdoin College
Maine Historical Society
Social Library
St. Croix Library
State Reform School
Town Library
TTestbrook Seminary
Mercantile Library
Sentinel Circulating Library
City Library
Village Library
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Mrs. J. C. Trask.
Judge n. "W". Ide.
Prof M. L. Ward.
David Dickinson.
Mrs. J. S. Kellum.
O. D. Burt.
Rev. E. M. Crane.
Prof. S. De Soto.
Owen W. Grimes.
Prof. D. Thomas, A. M.
John Van Angle w.
G. B. "Wagner.
J. B. Cooper.
Samuel F. Johnson.
F. A. Cooper.
P. A. Towne.
Rev. L. P. Tsebiffely.
George "W. Walz.
Thomas Duncan.
James Paton.
S. Rankin.
Henry Floyd.
Andrew F. McLain, M. D.
George Ellis and Bro.
Luther Homes.
Am. Sutton.
Miss E. Richardson.
Jacob Streil.
R. P. Upton.
Mrs. C. W. Culbertson.
D.iniel P. Atwood, county
clerk.
J. H. Otis.
William M. Stratton, clerk.
J. S. Hobbs.
Daniel Halman.
Prof. Levi L. Paine.
Albert W. Paine.
A. B. Farnham.
A. C. Hewoy.
Miss Emily Cleaves.
Miss Mary M. Dyer.
James Stebbins.
Alpheus S. Packard, D. D.
Rev. A. S. Packard.
A. Sparhawk.
Mary J. Arnold.
Isaac Libby.
P. J. Hooke.
D. "W. Hawkes.
L. S. Saflford.
E. H. Wadsworth.
Addie True.
George M. TwitchelL
List of Librarians.
List of librarians in the United States — Coutiuued.
1151
Library.
Xame of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Gardiner, Me
Hallowell, Me
Honlton, Me
Kent's Hill
Le wiston, Me
Lewiston, Me
Lewiston, Me
Lewiston, Me
Lewiston, Me
Lewiston, Me
Machias, Me
Orono,Me
Portland, Me
Portland, Me
Portland, Me
Eichmond, Me
Saco, Me
Saco, Me
Skowhegan, Me
South Berwick, Ee
Thomaston, Me
Thomaston, Me
Topsham, Me
Waterville, Me
Wiscasset, Me
Annapolis, Md
Annapolis, Md
Balti more, Md
Baltimore, Md
Baltimore, Md
Baltimore, Md
Baltimore, Md
Baltimore, Md
Baltimore, Md
Baltimore, Md
Baltimore, Md
Baltimore, Md
Baltimore, Md
Baltimore, Md
Baltimore, Md
Baltimore, Md
Baltimore, Md
Baltimore, Md
Baltimore, Md
Baltimore, Md
Baltimore, Md
Charlotte Hall, Md.
College Station, Md
Emmettsburg, Md .
Public Library
Social Librarj*
Library Association
Maine 'Wesleyan Seminary and Femal
College.
Bates College
Bates College, Theological School
French's Circulating Library
Manufacturers' and Mechanics' Library...
Parker's Circulating Library
Stevens & Co. 's Circulating Library
Washington County Bar Library
Maine State College of Agriculture and j
Mechanic Arts.
Mechanic A pprentices' Library
Mercantile Library
Portland Institute and Public Library...
Library Association
Saco Athenaenum
York Institute
Library Association
Library Association
Ladies' Library
State Prison
Johnson Home School
Colby University
Lincoln County Law Library
Maryland State Library
United States ^Naval Academy
Archiepiscopal Library
City Library
Concordia Library
Friends' Elementary and High School ...
General Society for aid of Mechanics
House of Refuge
Library Company of the Baltimore Bar .
Maryland Academy of Sciences
Maryland Historical Society
Maryland Institute
Mercantile Library Association
Odd Fellows' Library
Peabody Institute
Public School Library
St. Catherine's Normal Institute
Social Democratic Turners' Union
South Baltimore Mechanics' Library Asso-
ciation.
Toung Men's Catholic Association
Young Men's Christian Association
Washington and Stonewall Library
Mercer Literary Society
Mt. St. Mary's College
Mrs. S. H. Heath.
Annie F. Page.
Hadley Fairfield.
A. F. Chase, A. M.
Prof. J. Y. Stanton, A. M.
Andrew J. Eastman.
Addie M. Dunn.
Mary A. Little.
B. W. Parker.
Stevens & Co.
P. H. Longfellow, Co. clerk.
George H. Hamlin.
J. B. Thomdike.
Miss D. P. Coombs.
Edward A. Noyes.
William H. Stuart.
George A. Emery.
S. M. Watson.
M. D. JohuHon.
A. Carpenter.
Miss Ina Creighton.
D. J. Starrett.
D. L. Smith.
Prof E. W. Hall.
Geo. B. Sawyer, Co. clerk.
John H. T. Magruder.
Prof. Thomas Karney.
Rev. T. S. Lee, custodian.
John S. Brown.
G. Schweckendiek.
E. M. Lamb.
Paul F. Franzke.
S. T. Ewing.
Daniel T. Chandler.
Anthony M. Smith.
John G. Gatchell.
A. F. Lusby.
John W. M. Lee.
A. T. King.
N. H. Morrison, provost.
Prof H. E. Shepherd, super-
intendent public instruc-
tion.
Sister Mary Ferdinand.
F. List, sr.
Charles T. Mitchell.
L. P. Hayes.
H.P.Adams.
H. M. C. Bond.
Francis M. Cook.
Rev. William J. HilL
1152 Public Libraries in the United States.
List of librarians in the United States — Coutimied.
Frederick, Md
Ilchester, Md
Lonaconing, Md
Lonaconing, Md
Salisbury, Md..-
Sandy Spring, Md . . .
"SVoodstock, Md.....
Abington, Mass
Ameabury, Mass
Amesbury, Mass
Amherst, Mass
Amherst, Mass
Amherst, Mass
Andover, Mass
Andover, Mass
Arlington, Mass
Ashburnham, Mass .
Ashfleld, Mass
Attleborough, Mass.
Auburn, Mass
Ayer, Mass
Barnstable, Mass ...
Barre, Mass
Belmont, Mass
Bernardston, Mass . .
Beverly, Mass
Biilerica, Mass
Blackinton, Mass ...
Blackstone, Mass ...
Bolton, Mass
Boston, Mass
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass..
Boston, Mass..
Boston, Mass..
Boston, Mass..
Boston, Mass..
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Boiston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Library.
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Maryland Institution for the Deaf and Dumb
Mt. St. Clement's College . . . .'
Odd Fellows' Library, No. 85
St. Mary's Library
Circulating Library
Sandy Spring Library
Woodstock College
Centre Abington Library
Circulating Library
Public Library of Amesbury and Salisbury.
Amherst College
Massachusetts Agricultural College
Public Library
Andover Theological Seminary
Memorial Hall Library
Public Library
Ladies' Library
Library Association
Library Association
Public Library
Town Library
Sturgis Library
Town Library
Free Public Library
Cushman Library
Public Library
Library Association
Blackinton Library
Athenffium and Library Association
Town Library
American Academy of Arts and Sciences...
American Board of Commissioners of For-
eign Missions.
Boston and Albany Railroad Libi'ary
Boston Asylum and Farm School
Boston Athenseum
Boston Library Society
Boston Society of Natural History
Boston School of Theology
Caledonian Club
City Hospital
Commonwealth Circulating Library
Congregational Library
Deaf-Mute Library Association
Dorchester Athenaeum
General Theological Library
Handel and Haydn Society
Lindsley's Circulating Library
Liscom's Circulating Library
Massachusetts General Hospital, Treadwell
Library.
Massachusetts Historical Society
Massachusetts Horticultural Society
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Charles W. Ely, principal.
A. Konings.
William Thom.
Frank Myers.
James E. Ellegood.
Ellen Stabler, secretary.
Rev. Charles Cicaterri, S. J.
Mrs. R. B. Turner.
James Roper.
James H. Davia.
Wm. L. Montague, A. M.
John E. Soutbmayd.
Nina D. Beaman.
Rev. William L. Ropes.
Ballard Holt, second.
Lizzie J. Newton.
H. M. Foster.
Mrs. L. E. Coleman.
John M. Fisher.
Hannah Green.
L. A. Buck.
Mrs. O. Freeman.
H. F. Brooks.
David Mack.
Mrs. Sarah Cushman.
Joseph D. Tuck.
Miss Sarah Annable.
O. A. Archer.
George Ames.
Mrs. Rollins.
Edmund Quincy.
Rev. N. G. Clark, D. D.
H. C. Bixby.
William A. Morse.
Charles A. Cutter.
Gertrude Pope.
Edward Burgess.
D. Patten, S. T. D.
William Ivel, secretary.
W. A. Rust, M. D., secretary
L. S. Hills.
Rev. Isaac P. Langworthy.
Jonathan P. Marsh.
Mrs. A. Hemmenway.
Rev. Luther Farnham.
John H. Stinckney.
George W. Lindsley.
L. Liscom.
Norton Folsom.
Samuel A. Green.
E. W. Buswell.
William P. Atkinson.
List of Librarians.
U53
List of librarians in the United States — Continued.
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
3, Mass
Boston, Mass
Boston, Mass
Boston, Mass
Boston, Mass
Boston, Mass
Boston, Mass
Bosford, Mass
Boylstou Centre, Mass .
Bradford, Mass
Braintree, Mass
Brewster, Mass
Brockton, Mass
Brookfield, Mass
Brooliline, Mass
Burlington, Mass
Cambridge, Mass
Cambridge, Mass
Cambridge, Mass
Cambridgeport, Mass . .
Cambridgeport, Mass . .
Canton, Mass
Canton, Mass
Charlton, Mass
Chelmsford, Mass
Chelsea, Mass
Clieshire, Mass
Chesterfield, Mass
Chicopee, Mass
Clinton, Mass
Mechanics' Apprentices' Library
Mt'dical Library Association
Mercantile Library
Merrill's Libra! y
Xaval Library and Institute
New Church Library
New England Historic-Genealogical Society
Post Library, Fort Warren
Public Institutions, Deer Island
Public Library
Rosbury Atheuaium
Roxbury Society for Medical Improvement.
Seamen's Friend Society
Social Law Library
State Library
Weston's Pioneer Library
Young Men's Christian Association
Young Men's Christian Union
Young Women's Christian Association .
Public Library
Social Library
Union Library
Thayer Public Library
Ladies' Library ,
Public Library
Merrick Public Library
Public Library ,
Town Library
Harvard College ,
Harvard University Divinity School
Harvard University Law School
Cambridge Horticultural Society
Dana Library
Public Library
Social Library ,
Young Men's Library Association . .
Social Library
Public Library
Library Association
Town Library
Town Library
Bigelow Free Public Library
College Hill I Tufts College
College Hill I Uni versalist Historical Society
Concord, Mass Public Library
Conway, Mass I Social Library
Cummington, Mass j Bryant Library
Dalton, Mass Daltou Library
Duuvers, Mass ! Peabody Library
73 E
Name of librarian or other
otficer reporting.
Thomas J. Thomson.
J. R. Chadwick.
Clai'a B. Flagg.
Charles H. Meirill.
Dr. Henry Lyon.
Richard Ward.
John Ward Dean.
O. E. Herrick, post chaplain.
Col. J. C. Whiton, superin-
tendent.
Justin Winsor.
Sarah E. Pitts.
F. W. Goss, M. D.
S. H. Hayes, corresponding
secretarj'.
F. W. Vaughan.
Samuel C. Jackson, (acting.)
John H. Weston.
J. E. Gray.
John F. Locke.
C. V. Drinkwater, superin
tendent.
S. D. Gammell.
Chailes E.Wright.
A. A. IngersoU.
Abbie M. Arnold.
Caroline A. Dugan.
M. F. Southworth.
Martha J. W. Carkin.
Mary A. Bean.
Charles G. Foster.
John L. Sibley, A. M.
James Dennison, A. M.
John Hines Arnold.
Edwin A. Hall, secretary.
Almira L. Hayward.
R. L. Weston.
Miss Fannie E. Tucker.
Nelson Mclntyre.
Edwin H. Parkhurst.
M. J. Simpson.
Mary E. Martin.
Judson A. Higgins.
George V. Wheelock.
George W. Weeks, secre-
tary of board.
W. R. Shipman, A. M.
Thomas J. Sawyer.
Ellen F. Whitney.
A. F. R. Patrick.
L. H. Town,
Maria Curtis.
A. Sumner Howard.
1154
Public Libraries in the United States.
List of librarians in Ihe UiiUed Slates — Coutinued.
Library.
Name of librarian or other
ofiScer reporting.
Dedham.Mass i Dedhani Historical Society ...
Dedham, Mass Xorfolls County Law Li jrary .
Dcdliam Public Library
Deerfi'Md, Mass Reading Association Library
Dennis, Mass Dennis Library
p:ast Attleboro', Mass Daily Circalating Library
E ist Bridgp.water, Mass .. ! Library Association i
East Cambridge, Mass i St.Jobn's Literary Institute I
East Dennis, Mass As.soniation Library
East Hampton, Mass j Public Library Association
East Walpole, Mass East Walpnle Libiary
Erving, Mass Library Association
Fairhaven, Mass Library Association
Fall Kivcr, ^Lass '■ Public Library
Falnioutb, :\taHs ! First Congregational Church ,
Fitcliburg, Mass i North District Medical Society [
Fitcliburg, Mass ' Public Library !
Fosborough, Mass i Boy den Library !
Framingham, Mass | Town Library j
Franklin, Mass j Franklin Library I
Free Town, Mass ' Free Town Law Library |
Georgetown, Mass Peabody Library j
Gin, Mass i Town Library i
Globe Village, ILass Hamilton Free Library I
Gloucester, :iLiss S:i wyer Free Library _
Grafton, Mass I Grafton Library
Great Barrington, Mass .. ' Library Association
Greenfield, Mass ' Library Association
Groton, Mass First Parish and Sunday School Library .
Groton, Mass , Public Library
Harvard, Mass | Public Library
Harvard, Mass | The Union Library
Hatfield, Mass ; Social Library
Haverhill, Mass ! Morse & Son's Circulating Library
Haverhill, Mass I Public Library
Hinghara, Mass I Public Library
Hingham, Mass j Second Social Library
Hinsdale, Mass | Public Library Associatiou
Holbrook, Mass Public Library . . . ;
Holyoke, Mass Public Library
Hopkintoii, Mass Young M n's Christian Association
Housatonic, Mass The Cone Library
Hubbardston, Mass Public Library
Hudson, Mass
Hyde Park, Mass
Jamaica Plain, Mass .
Kingston, Mass
Lakeville, Mass
Lan master, Mass Town Liltrary
Lanpsborouffb, Mass Library A ssnciation .
Lawrence, Mass '■ Fiee Public Library
Public Library
Public Lil)rary
Jamaica Plain Circulating Library
Libiary Association
Town Library
John D. Cobb.
ErastusWashington, county
clerk.
Francis M. Mann.
M. G. Pratt.
S. K. Hall.
Miss H. N. Capron.
J. Henry Potter.
Hugh V. Whonskey.
Fannie C. Sears.
Miss D. C. Miller.
M. A. Coburn.
Mrs. Albert Briggs.
Georgia E. Faiifleld.
William R. Ballard.
Sam. F. Robinson.
George D. Colony.
P. C. Rice.
Sarah B. Doolittle.
Miss Ellen M. Kendall.
Waldo Daniels.
H. A. Francis, town clerk.
Richard Penney.
Josiah D. Canning.
James F. Blane.
Joseph L. Stevens, jr., su-
perintendent.
D. W. Norcross.
W. H. Parks.
Fannie E. Moody.
John Wilson.
Charles Woolley,.ir.
Mrs. A. M. Harrod.
Elijah Myrick.
E. F. Billings.
G. D. Morse.
Edward Capen.
Daniel Wing.
Ella W. Hobart.
Miss Mary Barrows.
Z. Aaron French.
Sarah E. Ely.
Elisha Frail.
Erama S. Judd.
Sarah E. Mareau.
Miss Amelia G. Whiting.
William E. Foster.
Silas Poole.
H. S. Everson.
S. T. Sampson.
Alice G. Chandler.
Miss A. C. Burlingham.
F. H. Hedge, jr.
List of Librarians.
List of librarians in the United States — Coutiuued.
1155
Lawrence, Mass
Lee, Mass
Leicester, Mass
Lenox, Mass
Leominster, Mass
Lexington, Mass
Lincoln, Mass
Lowell, Mass
Lowell, Mass
Lowell, Mass
Lowell, Mass
Lowell, Mass
Lowell, Mass
Lowell, Mass
Lunenburo;, Mass
Lynn, Mass
Lynn, Mass
Malilen, Mass
Maiden, Mass
ilanchester, Mass
Marion, Mass
Marlboro', Mass
Marlboro', Mass
Medfleld, Mass
Medl'ord, Mass
Medway, Mass
Melrose. Mass
Metliuen, Mass
Middleboro', Mass
Middlefleld, Mass
Middletun, Mass
Milbury, Mass ..
Milford, Mass
Milton, Mass
Montague, Mass
Nahant, Mass
Xantucket, Mass
Natick, Mass
Medham, Mass
New Bedford, Mass
iS'ewburyport, Mass
Newton, Mass
Newton, Mass
Newton Center, Mass . . .
Newton Lower Falls. ...
North Adams, Mass
Northa'mpton, Mass
Northampton, Mass
North Andover, Mass...
North Attleboro', Mass .
Northboro', Mass
Northbridge, Mass ,
North Brookfleld, Mass ,
North Brookfleld, Mass
Pacific Mills Library
Library Associalion ;
Public Library
Library Association
Public Library
Gary Librarj-
Public Library
Coggeshall's Circulating Library
City Library
Middlesex Mechanics' Association
Middlesex North District Medical Society .
Old llesideots' Historical Society
Young Men's Catholic Library Association
Young Men's Christian Association
Town Li brary
Free Public Library
Young Men's Christian Association
Boston Rubber Sioe Companj-
Central Square Circulating Library
Public Librarj'
Marion Library
Public Library
West Pai i.sh Library
Pub'ic Library
Public Library
Dean Library Association
Melrose Library
Public Library
Public Library
Public Library
Library Association
Town Library
Town Library
Public Library
Public Library
Public Libra.ty
Nantucket Atheniuum
Morse Institute
Librarj- Association
Free Public Library
Public Library
Free Library
Newton Athen;T}um
Newton Theological Institution ,.
P'ree Library
Library Association
Clarke Institution for Deaf-Mutes
Public Library
North Andover Library
Public Library
Free Library
Whitinsvilh' Social Library
Appleton Library
Ladies' Association
Name of libi;iriaii or other
officer re])iirriug.
0. D. RiJeout.
Joseph C. Chafftfe.
Miss S. E. Whittemoro.
Mary L. Hotchkin.
James M. Bronsou.
Marion S. Keyes.
Jennie Chapin.
F. H. Coggeshall.
Maisball H. Clongh.
Miss M. E. Sargent.
M. G. Parker.
Alfred Giliuan, secretary.
■\Villiam Dacpy.
n. J. McCoy.
Mrs. S.D.King.
Jacob Batclielder.
Henry H. Perry.
J. W. Robson.
Mrs. C. P. Lacoste.
John H. Croinbie.
John M. Allen.
Lizzie S. Wright.
Fred. Jewutt.
Mary A. Scwall.
Edwin C. Burbank.
L. n. Metcalf.
Miss Carrie Worthen.
J. Frank Emerson.
Joseph E. Beals, secretary.
Mrs. Lucy S. Newton.
Samuel A. Fletcher.
Abbie B. Freeman.
Nathaniel F. Blake.
J. E. Emerson.
Miss A. Chenery.
C.J. Hay ward.
Sarah F. Barnard.
Daniel "Wight.
George W. Southworth.
K. C. Ingraham.
Hiram A. Penney.
Hannah P. James.
Phineas Allen.
John B. Housler.
Aaron R. Cook.
Edw. D. Tyler.
Miss H. B. Rogers.
C. S. Laidley.
A. L. Smith.
John Ward.
C. Helen Adams.
C. F. Baker.
G. H. De Bevoise.
Mrs. Kate S. Mason.
1156 PahUc Libraries in the United States.
List of librarians in the United St alts — Continued.
Library.
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Xortlitield, Mass
Xorthfielti, Mass
Xoi th Reading, Mass.
Norwood, Mass
Orange, Mass
Orleans, Mass
Oxford, Mass
Palmer, Mass
Peabody, Mass
Peabody, Mass
Phillipstou, Mass
Pittsfield, Mass
Pittsfleld, Mass
Ply moutl). Mass
Plymouth, Mass
Provincetown, Mass .
Quincy, Mass
Quincy, Mass
Kandolph, Mass
Randolph, Mass
Randolph, Mass
Reading, Mass
Rockland, Mass
Rock port, Mass
Roylston, Mass
Roe, Mass
Rutland, Mass
Salem, Mass
Salem, Mass
Salem, Mass
Salem, Mass
Salem, Mass
Salem, Mass
Salem, Mass
Salem, Mass t
Salisbury, Mass !
Sandwich, Mass |
Sheffield, Mass [
Shelburne Centre, Mass ;
Shelburne Falls, Mass |
Sherborn, Mass
Shirley Village, Mass !
Shrewsbury, Mass
Somerville, Mass
Southboro', Mass
Southbridge, Mass
South Dedham, Mass
South Dennis, Mass
South Gardner, Mass
South Hadley, Mass
South Natick, Mass
South Scituate, Mass
First Parish Library
Social Library '
Flint Library
Free Public Library
Town Library
Library Association
Free Public Library
Allen & Cowen's Circulating Library
Eben Dale Sutton Reference Library
Peabody Institute
Phillips Free Public Library
Berkshire Athenajum
Berkshire Law Library Association
Pi 1 srim Society
Public Library
Public Library
National Sailors' Home
Public Library
Ladies' Library Association
Mechanics' Library
Iteading Room Library
Public Library
Library Association
Public Library
Public Library
Town Library
Public Library
Charitable Mechanic Association
Essex Agricultural Library
Essex County Law Library
Essex Institute
Essex Lodge, 1. 0. 0. F
Essex South District Medical Society
Fraternity Lodge, I. 0. 0. F
Salem Athenseum
Agricultural Library
Saudwich Circulating Library
Friendly Union
First Independent Social Library Company
Arms Library
Public Library
Shaker Community
Free Public Library
Public Library
Fay Library
Public Library
Norwood Public Library
Library Association
South Gardner Social Library
Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary
Historical, Natural History and Library So-
ciety.
James Library
Charles L. Holton.
A. C. Parsons.
Mrs. F. A. Mnsgrave.
Francis Tinker.
M. L. Eastman.
B. F. Seabury, secretary.
L. E. Thayer.
Allen & Cowen.
Miss Mary J. Floyd.
Theodore M. Osborne.
Mrs. T. H. Chaffin.
E. G. Hubbel.
James M. Barker.
Wm. T. Davis, president.
Joseph L. Brown.
Miss Salome A. Gififord.
W. L. Faxon, M. D., sup't.
Cora I. Young.
Mrs. Mary A. Dubois.
Miss Susan Alden.
V. H. Deane.
Alice B. Temple.
Amelia Pool.
Thomas F. Parsons, jr.
Obadiah "Walker.
Horace A.Smith.
Sarah E. Taylor.
Joseph Swasey.
John S. Ives.
Alfred A. Abbott, Co. clerk.
William P. Upham.
John Wilson.
William Neilson, M. D.
Will L. Welch, treasurer li-
brary committee.
Miss L. H. Smith.
George Currier.
Frederick Pope.
Mary R. Leonard.
Charles Welles.
Mrs. Ozro Miller.
George B. Hooker.
John Whiteley, elder.
Assuath F. Eaton.
Miss H. A. Adams.
Laura M. Chamberlain.
Miss A. J. Comins.
Francis Tinker.
Mrs. Freeman Gage.
L. W. Brown.
Mrs. Mary 0. Nutting.
Rev. Samuel D. Hosmer.
List of Librarians.
List of librarians in the United /S/fl<es — Continued.
1157
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Spencer, Mass ; Public Library Liberty "\T. Worthington.
Springboro", Mass Library Company F. W. 'SVi igli t.
Springfield, Mass , Central Circulating Library Miss E. A. Leaviit.
Springfield, Mass 1 City Library Association Rev. "William Rice.
Springfield. Mass I Gill & Hayes' Circulating Library D.W. Gill.
Springfie'd, Mass i Hampden County Law Library Robert 0. Morris.
Springfield, Mass I Young Men's Christian As.sociation S.J.Lincoln.
Sterling, Mass ] Free Public Library Nellie A. TVillard.
Stockbridge, Mass j Jackson Library Miss J. L. Barnura.
Stoneham, Mass j Public Library James Peyton.
Stoughtou, Mass j Public Library VTales French.
Stough ton. Mass j Stoughton Circulating Library Mamie E. Kellogg.
Sturbridge, Mass i Public Library Miss Emeline Hutohin.s.
Sunderland, Mass ., Sunderland Library Mary A. Warner.
Sutton, Mass | Sutton Free Library J. TV. Stock well
Swampscott, Ttlass | Town Library , Curtis*Merritt.
Taunton, Mass Bristol County Law Library Association ... Simeon Borden.
Taunton, Mass Dickerman's Circulating Library H. A. Dickerman.
Taunton, Mass , Public Library Walter S. Biscje.
Templeton, Mass ^ Boynton Free Public Library H.F.Lane.
Templeton.Mass | Ladies' Social Circle H. F. Lane.
Tewksbury, Mass i State Almshouse T.J. Marsh superintendent.
Topsfield, Mass | Town Library Sidney A. Merriam.
Townsend, Mass i Public Library Charles Osgood.
Upton, Mass ; Town Library George H.Stoddard.
Uxbridge, Mass Free Public Library F. W.Barnes.
Vineyard Haven, Mass Sailors' Free Library D. W. Stevens.
Wakefield, Mass Beebe Town Library Yictorine E. Marsh.
Wales, Mass i Library Association AVarren Shaw.
Waltham, Mass ] Public Library
Ware, Mass 1 Young Men's Library Association
Warwick, Mass [ Public Library
Watertown, Mass 1 Free Public Library
Watertown, Mass j United States Arsenal
Wayland, Mass
Wellesley, Mass
Wellfleet, Mass
Westboro', Mass
West Brookfield, Mass
. . A. J. Lathrop.
. . F. n. Grenville Gilbert.
. . Samuel P. French, M. D.
.. Solon F. Whitney.
.. Captain Cullen Bryant.
Free Public Library James S. Draper.
Literary Association L. A. Grant.
Workers' Library Miss B R. Freeman.
Free Public Library Jane S. Preston.
Public Library T. S. Knowlton.
West Dennis, Mass i Public Library George L. Davis.
Westfield, Mass \ Athenfeum T. L. Buell.
Westford, Mass i Town Lil^rary T. A. Bean.
Westminster, Mass , Westminster Library Marion P. Ames.
West Newbury, Mas.'*. 1 Library Association ' O. G. Cha.se.
Weston, Mass | Town Lil.rary John Coburn.
West Roxbury, Mass | Free Library C. Cowing.
West Scituate, Mass I Assinippi Library Benjamin N. Curtis.
West Springfield, Mass j Public Library John M. Harmon.
Whately, Mass j Whately Library Lucius P. Doane.
Wilbraham, Mass i Oub Library Charles A. Stenhon.se.
Wilbraham, Mass j Union Philosophical Society Nathan A. Warren.
Wilbraham, Mass j Wesleyan Academy Benjamin Gill.
Williarastown, Mass i Williams College Rfv. N. H Grillii, D D.
1158 Public Libraries in the United States.
List of librarians in the United States — Coatiuued.
Place.
Library.
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
"Wilmington, Mass
Public Library
Charles W. Swain.
"Wlucliendon, Ma.s3
Public Library
Mrs. Wheeler Poland.
Town Library
Town Library
A. Chapin, trustee.
Elizabeth H. Woodberry.
WobuFD, Mass
"Worcester, Mas.s
American Antiquarian Society
S. F. Haven.
"Worcester, Mass
Chamberlain's Circulating Library
Charles H. Fisher.
"Worcester, Mass
College of the Holy Cross
Rev. E. A. McGurk, S. J.
Free Public Library
South End Circulating Library
Technical Institute of Eeference
D. D. Clemence.jr.
C. 0. Thompson.
Worcester ^lass
"Worcester, Mass
"Worcester County Free Institute of Indus-
trial Science.
C. 0. Thompson.
"Worcester, Mass
Worcester County Horticultural Society
John C. Newton.
Joseph Mason.
Jeanuette P. Babbitt.
AV'orcester, Mass
Worcester County Mechauics' Association..
TVorcester, Mass
"Worcester County Musical Association
G. W. Elbius.
"Worcester, Mass
Worcester District Medical Association
Lewis S. Dixon, M. D.
Yarmouth, Mass
Libiary Association •. .
William J. Davis.
Adrian, Mich
Adrian Colleo-e
A. H. Lowrie.
Adrian.Mich
Ladies' Library Association
Mrs. A. Howell.
Albion, Mich
W. M. Osband.
Albion, Mich
Allegan Mich
D A McMartin
Alpena, Mich
William D. Hitchcock.
Ann Arbor Mich
Andrew Ten Brock
Battle Creek Mich
Mrs. E. A. Tomlinson.
Bay City, Mich
Bay County Law Library
H. A. Braddock.
Bay City, Mich
Bi^Kapids, Mich
Miss E. A. Cook.
Will E. Plimpton.
• Miss Mollie E. Kelsey.
Detroit Mich
Harry E. Starkey.
Henry Chaney.
Detroit, Mich
Public Library
Detroit, Mich
Young Men's Society
James N. Gatland.
Fenton, Mich
Ladies' Library Association
Miss Carrie Kimball.
Mrs. R. J. S. Page.
Mrs. Charles R. Bacon.
Grand Rapids, Mich
Public Library
Gi-eenville Mich
Mrs. D. S. Sapp.
John Chassel.
lIou"'hton Mich
Houghton Count}' Historical Society
Ionia, Mich
Mrs. Marian Hall.
Ishpeming, Mich
Township Library
J. C. Foley.
Jackson, Mich
School Librarj'
M. M. Lawton.
Ellen P. Fish.
ICalamazoo, Mich
Mrs. D B Webster
Kalamazoo, Mich
Mary J. Westcott.
Marv J. Wolcott.
Ka'amazoo, Mich
TouuT ]^Ien's Library Association
Lansing, Mich
Library and Literary Association
Mrs. T. W. Westcott.
Lansing, Mich
State Agricultural College
George T. Fairchild.
Lansing, Mich
State Library
Mrs. H. A. T. nuey.
Lapeer, Mich
Ladies' Librarv Ass'joiatiuii
Mrs. A. Vosburg.
Marquette, Mich
City Library
Joseph H. Primuan.
List of Librarians.
Lint of librariana in the United States — Continiwil.
1159
Marshall, Mich
M)nioe, Mich
Muskegon, Mich .
Olivet, Mich
O .vosso, Mich
Part Huron, Mich
St.Clair,Mich
Stiirgis, Mich
Tlirce Rivers, Mich
Tliroe Kivers, Midi
Y^silanti, Mich
Cliattield, Minn
Diiluth, Minn
F.11 ibault, Minn
H.istings, Minn
Minneapolis, Minn
Minneapolis, Minn
Minneapolis, Minu
Northfiekl, Minu
Owatonna, Minu
Ked Win;r, Minn
Rochester, Minn
Rochester, Minn
St. Cloud, Minn
St. Joseph, Minn
St. Paul, Minn
St. Paul, Minn
St.Paul.Minu
St. Peter, Minn
Stillwater, Minn
Winona, Minn
Jackson, Miss
Natchez, Miss
Rodney, Mis-s
Brunswick, Mo
Canton, Mo
Canton, Mo
Columbia, Mo
Columbia, Mo
Fayette, Mo
Hannibal, Mo
Independence, Mo
Kansas City, Mo
Kan.sas City, Mo
Kansas City, Mo
Liberty, Mo
Louisiana, Mo
Rolla,Mo
St. Charles, Mo ,
St. Charles, Mo
St. Joseph, Mo
St. Joseph, Mo ,
St. Joseph, Mo
St. Joseph, Mo
Library.
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Ladies' Library Association | Miss Eva Dibble.
City Library John Davis.
Library Association H. H. Holt.
Olivet College I Charles P. Chase, A.M.
Ladies' Library Association j Mrs. H. McBain.
Ladies' Library Association ! Mrs. L. M. Huntington.
Ladies' Library Association ; Miss Lizzie A. Graw.
Library Association ; Mrs. S. Hirsch.
Ladies' Library i Mrs. J. W. Arnold.
Lockport Township Library 1 David Knox, jr.
State Normal School ] D.Putnam.
Library Association Rollin A. Case.
Library Association 1 Mrs. M. A. Briukcrhoff.
Library Association I Mark Wells.
Library Association Miss S. L. Rich.
Augsburg Seminary -.; Prof. S. R. Gunuerson.
Minneapolis Athenseum Thomas H. Williams.
Young Men's Christian Association William Petram.
Carleton College i Prof. J. H. Chamberlain.
Literary Association i James M. Burlingame.
Lawrence &. Co's. Circulating Library 1 Lawrence & Co.
German Library Association j Henry Kolb.
Library Association j Mrs. Martha T. Newton.
Union Library I Charles Rees.
St. John's Theological Seminary Bernard Locnikar.
Minnesota Historical Society [ J. F. Williams.
Minnesota State Library j John C. Shaw.
St. Paul Library Mary S. Creek.
St. Peter Library ' Thomas Montgomery.
Library Association . . .
Winona Library
Mississippi State Libra
Natchez Institute
J. A. Love.
H. B. Sargeant.
John Williams.
J. W. Henderson.
Alcorn TTni versity Prof. G. B. Vashon
Library Association Isaac H. Kinley.
Canton Library Mrs. B. B. Brooks.
Risk's Library J. C. Risk.
Stephen's Female College Miss E. A. Barnhouse.
University of Missouri Dr. J. G. Norwood.
Central College | Rev. W. G. Miller, M. D.
Mercantile Library Association | Mrs. N. J. Carson.
Library Association I John Biyant.
Fetterraan's Circulating Library j J. C. Fetterman.
Law Library W.J.Ward.
Whittemore's Circulating Library j J. R. Whitteraore.
William Jewell College j Prof. J. R. Eaton, A.M.
Public School Library j Jo.seph M.White.
Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy ..j Court Yantis.
Public School Library j Ed. F. Hermanns.
St. Charles Catholic Library James C. Holmes.
Carl Fuelling's Library i Ca) 1 Fuelling.
Law Library - - ' Ben. J. Woodson
Public School Library | Mrs. S. E. Short.
Woolworth and Coil's Circulaiing Library..! B. F. Colt.
1160 Public Libraries in the United States.
List of librarians in the United /Stefes — Continued.
Library.
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
St. Louis, Mo
St. Louis, Mo
St Louis, Mo
St. Louis, Mo
St. Louis, Mo
St. Louis, Mo
St. Louis, Mo
St. Louis, Mo
St. Louis, Mo
St. Louis, Mo
Springfield, Mo
Troy.Mo
Warrensbarg, Mo. . .
Helena, Mont
Lincoln, Nebr
Lincoln, Nebr
Omaha, Nebr ........
Carson City, Nev ...
Virginia City, Nev. .
Virginia City, Nev. .
Ashuelot, If. H
Amherst, X. H
Charlestown, N. H .. ,
Claremont, N. H
Claremont, N. H
Concord, N. H
Concord, N. 11
Concord, N.H
Concord, N.H
Contoorook, N. H . . .
Dover, X. H
Dublin, N.H
East Franklin, N.H
Exeter, N. H
Farmington, X. H. ..
Farmington, X. H...
Fisherville, N. H
Fitzwilliam, X. II ...
Franc3Stown, X. H .
Franklin, N.H
Great Falls, N. H ...
Great Falls, N. H ...
Hanover, N". H
Hinsdale, N.H
Hollis,N.H
Keene, N. H
Laconip, N. H
Lanca'i' er, N.' H
Littleton, X.H
Manchester, N". H . . .
Milford,N. H
Mt. Vernon, K.H
Nashna, X. H
Academy of Science
College of the Christian Brothers
German Evangelical Lutheran Concordia
College.
Germania Saengerbund
Law Library Association
Public School Library
St. Louis Medical College
St. Louis Mercantile Library I
St. Louis Tarnverein
St. Louis Uni versitj'
Drury College I
Social Library
Enoch Clark Library
Library Association
!N"ebraska State Library
Public Library Association |
Omaha Library I
State Library 1
L O. O. F. Library Association I
Masonic Library of Storey County !
Ashuelot Union 1
Library A ssociation |
Social Library i
Book Club I
Fiske Free Library j
New Hampshire Asylum for Insane |
New Hampshire Historical Society
Public Library I
State Library
New Hampshire Antiquarian Society. ...
Dover Library
Juvenile and Social Library
Aiken Association
Town Library j
Circulating Library I
Farmington Library 1
Library Association I
Town Library j
Town Library j
Library Association i
Manufacturers' and Village Library I
Thwing's Circulating Library I
Shattuck Observatory, Dartmouth College ..
Public Library [
Social Library
Public Library
John.sons Circulating Library j
Public Library
Village Library
City Library
Free Library
Appleton Library
City Library
John Jay Bailey.
Brother Severian.
Prof. Martin Guuther.
Fred. Bonnet, .secretary.
George W. Gostorf.
John Jay Bailey.
Dr. J. S. B. Alleyne.
John N. Dyer.
Thigo GoUnier.
C. J. Leib, S. J.
George H. Ashley, A. M.
Mrs. S. McK. Fisher.
George W. Rayhill, sec.
Miss L. Guthrie.
Guy A.Brown.
Mrs. Ada Van Pelt.
Delia L. Sears.
John J. Ginn.
George Gribble.
Elbert S. Kincaid.
Ellen M. Burnham.
Miss Hattie I. Hawkins.
Samuel Webber.
Charles H. Long.
A.J. Swain.
J.P.Brown.
Samuel C. Eastman.
Frederick S. Crawford.
William H. Kiml>all.
H. A. Fellows.
John H. White.
M. D. Mason.
Emma Batterworth.
B. Marion Fernald.
A. C. Newell.
Josiah B. Edgerly.
Mary H. Gage.
Miss Julia A. Dyar.
C. Burgess Root.
Annie Nesmith.
E.J.Randall.
A. Thwing.
Prof. C. A. Young, director.
Miss Althea Stearns.
Levi Abbott.
Cyrus Piper, jr.
Frank P. Watson.
Isabel Hey wood.
Mrs. Laura Lunley.
Charles H. Marshall.
Appleton M. Hatch.
George W. Todd.
Emily R. Towne.
List of Librarians.
List of librarians in the United iS/afes — Continued.
1161
'
N^me of librarian or other
Place. !
Library.
officer reporting,
New Hampton, N. H
Gernianje Dilectae Scientia; Library
Ida M. Dolloff.
New Hampton, N. H
New Hampton, N. H
New Market, N. H
Peterboro', N. H
Plymouth, N. H
AsaH.Nickerson.
Social Fraternitv
L.N.Johnson.
Charles H. Smith.
Georgie A. Lynch.
Clara T. Clark.
Young Ladies' Circulating Library Associa-
tion.
Mechanics' Association Library
Portsmouth, N. H
Benjamin N. Parker.
Portsmouth, N. H
Mercantile Library Association
Floron Barri.
Portsmouth, N. H
Portsmouth Athenaeum
S. E. Christie.
Pu)chester, N. H
Social Library Company
Henry Kimball.
Rolling's Ford, N.H
Salmon Falls Library Association
Nathan Hill.
Shaker Village, N. H
Shaker Community
Henry C. Blinn, elder.
Uniou,N.H
Village Library
Charles W. Homo.
"Washington, N.H.
Mrs. Ida Brock way.
Wilton N H
Public Library
Mias P. J. Barrett.
Winchester, N. H
Washington Library Association
Henry Abbott.
Winclham,N.H
Nesinith Village
Miss Clarissa Hills.
Atlantic Citj-, N. J
Literary Association.
A. M. Bailey.
Bloorafield, N.J
D. G. Garabrant, secretary.
Bricksburg.N.J...
Library Association
MissHattie E. Smitli.
Brid^eton, N.J
Young Men's Christian A8sociati<^
L. Logne.
Camden N J
Miss Emma L. Shaw.
Elizabeth, N.J
Elizabeth Circulating Library
George Skinner.
Elizabeth, N.J
Putnam CircuUting Library
Erastus G.Putnam.
Elizabeth, N.J
Young Mens Cliristiau Association
William F. Magie.
Frankiinvillp,N.J
lona Morning Star
Miss R. Ford.
Hoboken.N.J
Franklin Lyceum
J. Limerick.
Jersey City, N. J
Bergen Library
H. Gaines.
Jersey City, N.J
Young Men's Christian Association
C. L. Biggs.
Madison.N.J
Drew TheologicalSerainary
Professor Daniel P. Kidder.
MiUville, N. J
Millville Library and Reading Room
Lewis F. Mulford.
Montclair,N. J
Israel Crane, secretary.
Mount Holly, N.J
Mount Holly N.J ...
•M. S. Pancoast.
R. A. Rhees.
Nowark.N.J
Howard Lodge, No. 7, 1. 0. 0. F
Aaron C. Hayward.
Newark,N.J
William £. Laytoii.
Newark N J
New Jersey Historical Society
W. A. Whitehead, corre-
sponding secretary.
Newark N J
E. T. Cone.
New Albany, N. J
Young Men's Christian Association
Lewis H. Eddy, superinten-
dent.
New Brunswick, N.J
Theological Seminary of Reformed Church . .
S. M. Woodbridge.
New Brunswick, N. J
Voung Men's Christian Association
C. B. Stout, chairman.
Newton,N. J
Orange, N. J
Young Men's Christian Association
William F. Candler.
Paterson N J
J. E. Manson.
Paterson.N.J
William Nelson.
Princeton, N. J
College of New Jersey
Frederic Vinton.
Princeton N J
Theological Seminary of Presbyterian
Church.
Charles A. Aiken.
Red Bank N J
Worrell's Ri verside Library
William H. Worrell.
Salem, N.J
Library Company
Morris H. Stratton.
1162 Public Libraries in the United States.
List of lihrarians in the United States — Continued.
Place.
Library.
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Somerville, N. J . . .
South Orange, X. J
Trenton, K.J...
Trenton, N.J
Trenton, N. J ...
Woodatown, N. J
Albany, N. Y . . .
Albany, N. Y . . .
Albanj-, N. Y....
Albany, X. Y ....
Albany, N. Y . . .
Albany, N. Y . . .
Albany, N.Y..
Albany, N.Y..
Albanj^X. Y..
Albany, N. Y . .
Annanilalc, N. '
Auburn, N. Y..
Auburn, K Y..
Batavia, N.Y..
Bath, N.Y
Belmont, X. Y.
Binghamton, N. Y
Bingbamton, N. Y
Binghamton, N. Y
Binghamton, N. Y
Brockport, N. Y.
Brooklyn, N. Y.
Brooklyn, X. Y.
Brooklyn, X^. Y.
Brooklyn, X. Y.
Brooklyn, N. Y.
Brooklyn, X. Y.
Brooklyn, X. Y.
Brooklyn, X. Y.
Brooklyn, X. Y.
Buffalo, X.Y....
Butfalo, X. Y....
Buffalo, X^Y....
Bulialo,X.Y....
Buifalo,X.Y. ...
Buffalo, X.Y....
Buflalo,X".Y....
Buffalo, X'.Y....
Buffalo, X.Y....
Buffalo, X^.Y....
Buffalo, X''.Y
Buffalo, X.Y..-.
Buffalo, X.Y....
Canandaigua, X.
Canton, X.Y
People's Eeading-Room and Library
Library Association
Fallsington Library Company
State Library
Young Men's Christian Association
Pilesgrove Library Association
I Albany County Law Library
I Albany High School
Albany Institute
Attorney-General's OfHce
Court of Appeals
German Literatur Yereiu
State Library
Youug Men's Association
Young Men's Catholic Lyceum
Young Men's Christian Associatioa
St. Stephen's College
Auburn Theological Seminary
Celtic Library and Benevolent Association.
Literary Association
Library Association
Allegany Couuty Law Library
Central Free School i
Library Association j
Sherwood Hollow Farmers' Club
State Inebriate Asylum
Beach Free Library
Brooklyn Law Library ;
Eastern District School Libiary '
Free Reading Room and Library, (Church !
of the Pilgrims.) j
Long Island Historical Society \
Mercantile Library i
Packer Collegiate Institute |
Union for Christian Work j
Young Men's Christian Association
Youths' Free Library
Buffalo Catholic Institute !
Buffalo Female Academy |
Buffalo Historical Society j
Buffalo Society of Xatural Sciences j
Choral Union
Erie County Medical Society |
German Young Men's Association
Grosvenor Library j
Law Library, (Eighth -Judicial District) j
Malleable Iron Works Library
Mechanics' Institute
Youug Men's Association I
Young Men's Catholic Association |
Wood Library
Herring Library
James J. Bergen.
Grace Xewton.
Eliza Hance.
James S. McDonald.
Rev. D. Elwell.
William G. Flitcraft.
William E. Haswell.
Charles W. Cole.
Daniel J. Pratt, correspond-
ing secretary.
S. W. Swaney.
E. O. Perrin.
Julius Laventall.
Henry A. Homes.
Dwight Adams.
William H. Conley.
William Keeler.
Albert E. George.
Prof E. A. Huntington.
William Gibbon.
Mrs. M. E. ShefBeld.
R. L. May.
W. H. H. Russell, county
clerk.
Miss EUie S. Collier.
Miss Lucy King.
EberS. Deviue.
A. G. Gridley.
Timothy Frye.
S. C. Betts.
Samuel S. Martin.
John Anderson.
George Hannah.
S. B. Xoyes.
Hannah J. Garahan.
John Thomson.
A. S. Emmons.
Louise X. Rose.
A. T. Chester.
George S. Armstrong.
Charles Linden.
O. J. Wilcox.
James B. Samo.
Dr. F. A. Haupt.
Arthur Benedict.
F. P. Murray.
E. D. Warren.
William M. Bloomer.
William Ives.
Edward G. McGowan.
Calista S. Marshall.
E. E. Fisher, M. D.
List of Librarians.
List of librarians in the United <S<afe« — Continued.
1163
Library.
Narae of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Canton, X. Y
Carmel, X. Y
Cohoes, N. Y
ColIegePoint, N. Y....
College Point, N. Y —
College Point, X. Y .. ,
College Point, N. Y. . .
Corning, X. Y
Cornwall, X. Y
Dunkirk, X. Y
Eluiira, X. Y
Elmira, X. Y
Elmira, X. Y
Elmira, X. Y
Flushing, X.Y
Fort Edward, X. Y...
Fredonia, X. Y
Genesoo 'Village, X. Y
Geneva, X. Y
Goshen, X. Y
Greene, X. Y
Hamilton, X. Y
Havana, X. Y
Hornellsville, X. Y. ..
Hudson, X.Y
Huntington, X. V
Ilion,X. Y
Ithaca. X.Y
Ithaca, X.Y
Jamestown, X. Y
Kingston, X. Y
Lansingbuigh, X. Y..
Little Fall.s, X. Y ....
Little Valley, X.Y...
Lockport, X. Y
ilatteawau, X. Y
Mayville, X. Y
Mi.iaietown,X.Y....
Morriaville, X. Y
ilorrisville, X. Y
Mr. Morris, X. Y
Xew Briglitou, X. Y..
Xewburgh, X. Y
N'e wburgh, X. Y
Xewburgb, X. Y
Xew York, X. Y
Xew York, X.Y
Xew York, X.Y
Xew York, X.Y
Xew York, X. Y
St. Lawrence University
Village Library
District School Library
Harmonic Library
Krakehlia Library
Poppenhusen Institute
Turner Society
Corning Library
Cornwall Circulating Library Association
Public LibraT-y
Cliemung County Law Library
Elmira Farmers' Club
German Library Association
Young Men's Christian Association.
Library Association
Fort Edward Collegiate Institute
State Xormal nud Training School
Wadsworth Library
Hobart College
Young Men's Christian and Library Asso-
ciation.
Library of School District Xo. 4
Madison University
Havana Library
Hornell Library
Franklin Library Association
Public Library
Free Library of Liberal Christian Society.
Cornell Free Fubl ic Library
Cornell University
City Circulating Library
Library of Third Judicial District
Public School Library
Union School
Cattaraugus County Law Library
Union School District Library
Howland Circulating Library
Union School
Middleto wn Lyceum
Chambers' Loan Library
Madison County Law Library
Union Free School
Sailors' Snug Harbor
Free Library
Xewburgh Theological Seminary
St. Patrick's Library
Academy of Sciences
American Bible Society
American Eclectic Libi ary
American Ethnological Society
American Geographical Society
E. E. Fisher, M. D.
Arthur Tswnsend.
Bernard Acheson.
Charles Gloeckner.
G. Decker.
Joseph Schrenk.
Franz Dockendorf.
Anna B. Maynard.
Mary C.Clark.
3*Uss Clare King.
John G. Copley, county
clerk.
Michael H. Thurston.
Joseph Surganty.
Ira F. Hart, corresponding
secretary.
C. Howells.
J. De "Witt Miller.
John "W. Armstrong.
Mrs. C. B. Olmsted.
Charles D. Vail, A. M.
O. E. Millspaugh.
Joseph E. Juliaud.
Prof. X. L. Andrews.
Lucy A. Tracy.
R. M. Tuttle, corresponding
secretary.
Miss Fannie Powers.
Miss Maria Downs.
"William J. Lewis.
\V. Iv. Humphrey.
Prof. Willard Fiske.
"Wilhe Dunnihuo.
W. H. Smith.
James C. Comstock.
Addie A. Appley.
E. A. Xash.
James Fergu.son.
Joseph X. Badeau.
Thomas J. Pratt.
Miss Ilosa Ogden.
William P. Chambers.
L. P. Clark, county clerk.
Burr Lewis,
llev. B. J. Jones.
R. V. K. Montfort.
Kcv. J. G. D. Findley.
John O'Brien.
B. G. Amend.
Edw. W. Gilman.
Robert S. Xewton.
Henry T. Drowne.
Alvan S. Southworth, sec'y.
116 4 Public Libraries in the United States.
Lint of Uhrarians in ihe United States — Continued.
Library.
Xatus of librarian or other
officer reporting.
New York, N. Y.
New York, X. y.
New York, N. Y.
New York,
N.
Y
New York,
N.
Y
New York,
N.
Y
New York,
N.
Y
New York,
N.
Y
New York,
N.
Y
New York,
N.
Y
New York,
N.
Y
New York,
N.
Y
New York
N.
Y
New York,
N.
Y
New York
N.
Y
New York
N.
Y
New York
N.
Y
New York
N.
Y
New York,
N.
Y
New York
N.
Y
New York,
N.
Y
New York,
N.
Y
New York,
N.
Y
New York,
N.
N.
Y ;.
New York,
Y
New York,
N.
Y
New York,
N.
Y
New York,
N.
Y
New York,
N.
Y
New York,
N.
Y".
New York
N.
Y
New York
N.
Y
New York
N
Y
New York
N.
N.
Y
New York
Y
New York
N
Y
New York
N
Y
New York
N
Y
New York
N
Y
New York
N
Y
New York
N
Y
New York
N
Y
Niagara Falls
N.Y
Norwich, N.Y
Oneida, N.
Y.
.Y
Oswego, N
Oswego, N
Y
Oyster Bay, >
'. Y
Port Cbester,
N.Y.
American Institute
American Institute of Architects
American Numismatic and Archseological
Society.
American Pliilological Society
Apprentices' Library
Aschenbroedel Vereia
Astor Library
j Bar Association ,
! Chamber of Commerce
! City Library
j College of the City of New York
[ Columbia College ,
Columbia College, School of Mines ,
Cooper Union
[ Fire Department Library and Lyceum
General Theological Seminary of P.. E.
Church. I
Grand Lodge F. & A . M j
Harlem Library j
House of liefiige '
Institution for Deaf and Dumb |
Ladies' Five Points Mission !
Law Institute |
Liederkranz
Lndlow Street Jail ;
Medical Library and Journal Association ..
Mercantile Library Association j
Medico-Legal Society i
Mott Memorial Free Medical and Surgical j
Library. |
New York Genealogical and Biographical
Society. I
New York Historical Society ;
New York Society Library .
Oriental Coterie Library
Presbyterian Hospital
Standard Club
Supremo Court, First Judicial District i
Turnverein i
Union Theological Seminary ■
Verein Freundschaf t '
■Washington Heights Library
Woman's Library ;
Young Men's Christian Association i
Young Women's Christian Association.
j Seminary of Our Lady of Angels .
I Circulating Library Association . .
I Oneida Community
j City Library
' Oswego High School
: Lyceum Library
, School District Library ,
John W. Chambers.
A. G. Blorr.
Isaac F. Wood.
David P. Holton, M. D.
J. Schwartz.
Nich. Oehl.
Frederic Saunders.
William J. B. Berry.
George Wilson.
C. L. Mather.
C. G. Herbermann, Ph. D.
Beverly R. Belts, A. M.
John F. Myer.
Oran W. ^lorris, M. A.
Joseph L. Perley, president
Rev. Samuel Buel, D. D.
Isaac B. Conover.
Thomas Wallace.
Luther S. Feek.
E.H. Currier.
John Campbell.
A. J. Vanderpoel.
G. Otto Wolkwitz.
Rev. A. B. Carter.
John C. Peters, president.
W. T. Peoples.
R. S. Guernsey.
Alex. B. Mott, M. D, presi-
dent.
Joseph 0. Brown.
George H. Mooie, LL. D.
W. S. Butler.
P. J. McAlear.
Jane S. Woolsey.
S. M. Hornthal, secretary.
Edward I. Knight.
Ludwig Trenn.
Prof. Henry B. Smith.
Hermann A. Biihr.
John McMullen.
Mrs. M. W. Ferrer.
Reuben B. Pool.
M. Beach, chairman library
committee.
Rev. M. J. Kircher, C. M.
George A. Thomas.
Chester W. Underwood.
A. Leonard.
A. Leonard.
E. R. Summer.s.
Miss L. M. Hoi ton.
List of Librarians.
1165
List of librarians in the Uniiid States — Continued.
Library.
Name of librarian or other
officer r''porting.
Poushkeepsie, N. Y
Riverhead, N. Y
Rochester, N. Y
Rochester, N. Y
Rochester, N. Y
Rochester, X. Y
Rome, N.Y
Sageville, X. Y
Saratoga Springs, N. Y
Saratoga Springs, N. Y
Saugerties, N. Y '
Schenectady, N. Y
Schenectady, N. Y
Schenectady, N. Y j
Somers, N. Y
Springville, N. Y j
Stamford,N. Y
Starkey, N. Y
Syracuse.N. Y !
Syracuse, N. Y
Syracuse, N. Y '
Syracuse, N. Y
Troy,N.Y
Troy,]Sr.Y
Troy,N.Y
Utica, N. Y
Utica, K Y
"Walden, N. Y
"Wappinger's Falls, K. Y". ..
Watertown, N. Y
Watertown, K. Y
Watertown, K. Y
"Watervliet, N. Y
"Watkins, N. Y
"West Point, K Y
Public Library „
Village Library Association
Athensenm and Mechanics' Association
Public School Central Library
Rochester Theological Seminary
University of Rochester
Young Men's Christian Association
Hamilton County Law Library
Steven's Circulating Library;
Union School Library
Saugerties Circulating Library
Library Fourth Judicial District
Union College ,
Young Men's Christian Association
Somers Library
Association Library
Judson Library
Georgic Library
Central Library
Court of Appeals
Syracuse University
Young Men's Christian Association
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ,
St. Josephs Provincial Seminary
Young Men's Association
Medical Library Xew York State Lunatic
Asylum.
School District Library
Public Library
Circulating Library and Reading-Room
Sterling & Mosher's Circulating Library
Public School Library
Young Men's Christian Association
School District No. 14
Schuyler County Law Library
United States Military Academy ,
White Plains, N. Y
Whitestown, N. Y
Yonkers, N. Y
Yonkers, N. Y
Yonkers, N. Y
Davidson College, N. C.
Fayetteville, N. C
Raleigh, N. C
Wilmington, N.C
Akron, Ohio
Alliance, Ohio
Ashtabula, Ohio
Bellefontaine, Ohio
Carthage, Ohio
Carthagena, Ohio
Chillicothe, Ohio
Lyceum Library
Whitestown Seminary
Free Reading-Room Library
Lyceum Library
Union Free School
Davidson College ,
Cross Creek Lodge No. 4, 1. 0. O. F
State Library
Library Association
Public Library
Linnn?an Library
Social Library Association
Brown Library A ssociation
Longview Library
Theological Semiuary of St. Charles Bor-
romeo.
Public Library.
Russell P. Osborne.
George A. Buckingham.
Mrs. C. B. Ayers.
S. A. Ellis.
Rev.R. J.W. Buckland,D.D.
Prof. Otis H. Robinson.
H. J. Ninde.
William H. Fry.
E. R. Stevens.
L. S. Packard.
Miss Nettie Van Buskirk.
Piatt Potter.
Jonathau'Pearson, A. M.
L. Hoyt.
Augustus Purdy.
W. W. Blakeley.
J. Harvey McKee.
Theseus ApoUeon Cheney.
John S. Clark.
R. Woolworth.
John P. Griffin, A. M.
O. L. F. Browne.
Prof. Dascom Greene.
Rev. P. A. Puissant.
F. H. Stevens.
John P. Gray, medic.il su-
perintendent.
Frank H. Latimer.
John V. Tears.
Mrs. E. A. Howaith.
Sterling Si. Mosher.
Daniel G. Griffin.
J. L. Hotchkin.
D. A. Buckingham.
Edward Kendall.
Captain Robert H. Hall,
Lieut. Col. U. S. A.
C. H. Tibbits.
Franklin P. Ashley.
E. Curtice.
Robert G. Jackson.
Emily A. Gault.
Professor P. P. Winn, M. A.
Professor James A. ]^IcRae.
Thomas R. Purnell.
J. L. Woostcr.
T. A. Noble.
W. A. Wright.
O. H. Fitch.
Lydia Canby.
W. H. Bunker.
Professor Rudolph Muellor,
Ph.D.
Hcnrv Waterson.
UGG
Public Libraries in the United States.
List of librarians in Ihe United Stales — Continued.
Library.
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio ;
Cincinnati, Ohio i
Cincinnati, Ohio
Circle ville, Oliio . •.
Circleville, Ohio
Clevelantl, Ohio
Clevelanil, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Clevelanil, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio \
Columbus, Ohio i
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio i
Dayton, Ohio I
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton, Oliio '
Dayton, Ohio i
Defiance, Ohio
Delaware, Ohio '
Delaware, Ohio
Elyria, Ohio i
Gambier, Ohio
Gambler, Ohio j
i
Granville, Ohio 1
Hamilton, Ohio i
Harrison, Ohio j
Jeflferson, Ohio j
Lancaster, Ohio ;
j
Lebanon, Ohio '
Lee, Ohio !
Mansfield, Ohio
Marietta, Ohio
Marysville, Ohio
Massillon, Ohio
Massillon, Ohio
Medina, Ohio
Milan, Ohio
Newark, Ohio ;
Catholic Institute
Cincinnati Hospital
Cincinnati Law Library
Historical and Philosophical Society
Lane Theological Seminary
Mendenhall's Circulating Library
Mt. St. Mary's Seminary of the West
New Church Library
Public Library
Society of Natural History
Young Men".s Christian Association
Young Men's Mercantile Library
Public Library
School Li Ijraiy
Public Library
Western Reserve and Northern Ohio His-
torical Society.
Young Mens Christian Association
You n g Men 's C li rislian Association Railway
Library.
Columbus Circulating Library
Columbus Turnverein
High School Library
Ohio State Library
Public Library and Reading Room
State Board of Agriculture
Dayton Law Library ,
National Soldier's Home
Public School Library
Union Biblical Seminary
Young Men's Christian Association
Library Association
Ohio Wesleyan Female College
Ohio Wesleyan University Library
Elyria Library
Kenyon College
Theological Seminary, Diocese of Ohio
Denison University ..
Lane Free Academy .
Society Library
Library Association .
State Reform School
Mechanics' Institute
Wells Library
Mansfield Lyceum
Marietta College
Literary and Library Association
Ryder's Circulating Library
Good &, Co. 's Circulating Library
Medina Library
First Presbyterian Society
Ladies' Circulating Library
I H. A. Theisseu.
H. M. .Jone.s, sup'iinten i't.
M.W.Myers.
\ Juliu.s Dexter.
Prof. E. D. Mori is.
I E. Mendenhall.
I Rev. B. H. Engbcr.-*, Ph. D.
j Miss H. W. Hobart.
I Rev. Thomas Viclcers.
I John M. Edwards.
j A. C. Scott.
: M. Hazen White.
E. P. Bauder.
I M.H.Lewis.
' L. M. Oviatt.
i Miss C. M. Seymour.
I
G.J. Bliss.
; George W. Cobb.
! A. R. Pearce.
I Paul Schall.
A. G. Farr.
Walter C. Hood.
J. L. G rover.
John H. Klippart.
J. O. Shoup.
Rev. William Earnshaw.
Minta Dryden.
George Keisler.
D. A. Sinclair.
Edwin Phelps.
Miss M. J. Styer.
W. F. Whitlock.
Miss Nettie £. Wheeler.
Rev. E. C. Benson, A. M.
Rev. William B. Badine,
A.M.
W. A. Stevens.
L. Skinner.
George B. Ameny.
C. S. Simonds.
George E. Hovre, superin-
tendent.
J. B. Graham, president.
Agnes L. Black.
James E. Wharton.
Charles K. Wells.
Franklin Wood.
G. L. Ryder.
J. C. Good & Co.
H. G. Blake.
Rev. J. H. Walter.
Mrs. V. H. Wright.
List of Librarians.
List of librarians in the United States — Continued.
1167
Library.
JJ'orwalk, Ohio Young Meu's Library
Oberlin, Ohio Oberlin College
Painesville, Ohio Young Men's Christian Association
Port Clinton, Ohio Ottawa County Law Library
Portsmouth, Ohio i Public School Library
Portsmouth, Ohio ' Young Men's Christian Association ...
Sandusky, Ohio I Ladies' Library Association
Sidney, Ohio '. Library Association
Springfield, Ohio E.KCelsior Society, "Wittemberg College.
Springfield, Ohio Public Library
Springfield, Ohio Young Men's Christian Association
Tiffin, Ohio Heildelberg Theological Seminary
Toledo, Ohio Public Library.
Toledo, Ohio .; School Kefereuce Library
Troy, Ohio Kelly's Circulating Library
Troy, Ohio. Union School Library _
Union Yillage, Ohio : Union Village Library
Urbana, Ohio i Library Association
Urbana, Ohio i Urbana University
Wellington, Ohio | Library Association
Wilniiugton, Ohio ! "Wilmington College
Wooster, Ohio i University of Wooster
Xeuia, Ohio : Young Men's Christian Association
Zancsville, Ohio i Athenaeum
Zanesville, Ohio : Young Men's Christian Association
Astoria, Oreg Pioneer and Historical Society of Oregon
; I
Corvallis, Oreg ! Library Association '
Portland, Oreg j Libiary Association
Salem, Oreg i Oregon Natural History and Library
sociation.
Salem, Oreg 1 State Library
The Dalles, Oreg
Abington, Pa
Allegheny, Pa
Allegheny, Pa
Allegheny, Pa
Allegheny, Pa.
Allentown, Pa .
Altoona, Pa .
Ashland, Pa
Bellefonte, Pa...
Bethlehem, Pa . .
Bethlehem, Pa . .
Bloomsburg, Pa.
Bristol, Pa
Carbondale, Pa. .
Carbondale, Pa. .
Carlisle, Pa
Carlisle, Pa
Public Library
Friends' Library
Allegheny Observatory
Public School Library
Theological Seminary, (United Presbyterian)
"Western Theological Seminary, (Presby-
terian.
Academy of Natural Science, Art, and
Literature.
Mechanics' Library and Reading-Room As-
sociation.
Library Association
Library A ssociation
Moravian College and Theological Seminary
Young Men's Christian Association
Columbia County Law Library
"William Penn Library
Catholic Young Men's Association
Young Men's Library Association
Cumberland County Law Library
Hamilton Library and Historical Sjciety ...
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Sophia Rowland.
Rev. Henry "Watson.
S. B. "Webster.
George R Clark.
John Row.
D. Patten.
A. E. Stern.
E. "^^alker Stowell.
D. H. Bauslin.
Virginia Hecklor.
H. B. Mayhew.
O. A. S. Harsh.
Mrs. Ann.i B. Carpenter.
Emma M. Taylor.
C. M. Baird.
J. W. Dowd, snperintend-
ent of schools.
Charles Clapp.
R. A. Boal.
H. C. Vetterling.
Ida "W. Van Cleef.
Prof. J. B. Unthank^B. S.
Rev. B. S. Gregory, D. P.
Rev. John Shields.
Mrs. Ellen Haziett.
Robert Miller.
Hon. T. P. Powers, presi-
dent.
L. Vinward.
Henry A. Okbt.
Rev. J. H. Babcock, secre-
tary.
W. J. Fentou, assistant.
B. S. Wor.sley.
Jacob Armitage.
S. P. Langlcy.
C."W.Beuney.
Mrs. Thompson.
Rev. John Lauritz.
"W. H. "Werner.
F. D. Casanavd.
Robert Frazer, jr.
John A. Hibler.
Prof. E. Klose.
J. T. Davenport.
B. G. Barr, prothonoiary.
Joseph B. Pennington.
LJ.Gilkey.
E. A. "Wheeler.
C. S. Humrich, secretary.
S.nmuei K. Humricb.
1168
Public Libraries in the United States.
List of librarians in the United iitates — Continued.
Library.
I Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Chambersburg, Pa Franklin County Law Library
Cbester, Pa Chester Library
Chester County, Pa Lincoln Uniyersity
Coatesville, Pa..
Columbia, Pa ...
Coudersport, Pa.
Doyleston, Pa...
Easton, Pa
Eaaton, Pa
Ebensburgh, Pa.
Erie, Pa
Erie, Pa.
Erie, Pa
Fallsington, Pa . .
Germantown, Pa.
Germantown, Pa.
Germantown, Pa.
Gettysburgh, Pa .
Gettysburgh, Pa .
Gettysburgh, Pa .
Gettysburgh, Pa .
Harleysyille, Pa..
Harrisburgh, Pa .
Harrisburgh, Pa .
Harrisburgh, Pa .
Harrisburgh, Pa .
Hatboro', Pa
Honesdale, Pa
Honesdale, Pa
Johnstown, Pa
King of Prussia, Pa.
Kingston, Pa
Lancaster, Pa
Lancaster, Pa
Lancaster, Pa
Lancaster, Pa
Lancaster, Pa
Lancaster, Pa
Lewisburg, Pa
Lewistown, Pa
Lewistown, Pa
Lock Haven, Pa...
Lock Haven, Pa . . .
Lower Merion, Pa.
Mauch Chunk, Pa.
Meadville, Pa
Meadville, Pa
Meadville, Pa
Library Association
Shock Library
Library and Literary Association
Library Company
Lafayette College
Library A ssociation
Fireman's Library
City Library, Young Men's Christian As
sociation.
Erie County Law Library
Masonic Library
Library Company , . . .
Friends' Free Librai'y
Germantown Library Company
Young Men's Christian Association.
Adams County Law Library
Lutheran Historical Society , . . .
Pennsylvania College
Theological Seminary, (Lutheran) ,
Cassel's Library
State Agricultural Society
State Library
Young Men's Christian Association
Young People's Association of Grace M. E.
Church.
Union Library
Franklin Lj-ceum
Law and Library Association
Cambria Library Association
Union Library
Bennett Library, Wyoming Seminary
Athenaeum and Historical and Mechanical
Society.
Lancaster Law Library
Linnsean Scientific and Historical Society. ..
Mechanics' Library
Theological Seminary, (Reformed)
Young Men's Christian Association
University at Lewisburg
Apprentices' Literary Society
Library Association
Clinton County Law Library
Library Company
Theological Seminary, St. Charles Borromeo.
Minerva Lyceum
Allegheny College
City Library
Meadville Theological School
John A. Hyssong, prothono-
tary.
Levis Pancoast.
T. W. Cattell.
Mrs. E. Coates.
S. H. Hoffman.
Christina A. Metzger.
Thomas Hughes.
F. A. March, LL. D.
Samuel H. Knowles.
Jesse S. Bolsinger.
H. S. Jones.
E. L. "Whittelsey, protbono-
tary.
F. W. Koehler.
Eliza Hance.
William Kite.
Miss Kay.
John Cooper.
Thomas G. Neely, prothono-
tary.
Rev. C. A, Hay.
L. H. Croll.
Charles A. Hay.
Abraham H. Cassel.
William H. Egle, M. D.
0. H. Miller.
D. R. Wyeth.
J. L Beggs, chairman.
E. P. Baugh.
L. H. Barnum.
H. M. Seely, secretary.
L E. Roberts.
J. G. Dannaker.
A. J. R. Randall.
J. B. Revinski, secretary.
D. G. Eshleman.
John B. Kevinski.
Peter McConomy.
Prof. E. A. Gast.
1. R. Wickel, secretary.
David J. Hill, A. B.
John T. McClure.
Annie J. Clark.
W. H. Brown, prothonotary.
J. H. Barton, M. D.
Rev. I. F. Worstmann, D. D .
H. B. Sackeld.
Charles W. Reid, A. M.
Miss M. B. Long.
George J. Abbott.
List of Librarians. 1169
List of librarians in the United Stofes— Continued.
I Name of librarian or other
-^^'*^*^y- officer reporting.
Meadville.Pa Philo-Franklin Society
Meadville, Pa Public High School
Mechanicsburgh, Pa Library and Literary Association
Media, Pa Delaware County Institute of Science .
Montrose, Pa Susquehanna County Law Library
Mt. Joy,Pa ; Cedar Hill Seminary
Mt. Joy, Pa Union Library
Nazareth, Pa Moravian Historical Society
New Brighton, Pa St. Josephs Literary Association
New Brighton, Pa Young Men's Library Association
Oil City, Pa , Library Association
Oxford, Pa Oxford Library
Philadelphia, Pa ' Academy of Fine Arts
Philadelphia, Pa Academy of Natural Sciences
Philadelphia, Pa i American Philosophical Society
Philadelphia, Pa Athenaeum of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pa ; Baptist Historical Society
Philadelphia, Pa \ Brotherhead Library
Philadelphia, Pa By berry Library
Philadelphia, Pa : Carpenters' Company
Philadelphia, Pa Catholic Philomathean Literary Institute. .
Philadelphia, Pa Catholic Philopatrian Literary Institute . . .
Philadelphia, Pa | Christian Hall Library
Philadelphia, Pa College of Physicians
Philadelphia, Pa I Crescent Library
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
Philadelphia, Pa .
74 E
Franklin Institute
Friends' Historical Association
George Institute
German Society of Pennsylvania
Girard College
Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, F. A. A. M. . .
Hahnemann Medical College
Hermann Literature Society
High School Observatory
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Hospital of the P. E. Church
House of Refuge, (colored)
House of Refuge, (white)
Institute for Colored Youth
James Page Library Company
Kensington Institute
Law Association
Library Association of Friends
Library Company of Philadelphia
Loganian Library
Library and Reading Room Association, (23d
ward.)
Locust Street Grammar School
Mechanics' Institute of Southwark
•Mercantile Library
M. C. Bailey.
Miss Eliza Dickson.
G. M. D. Eckels.
Anna M. Walker.
David Summers, prothono-
tary.
Austin F. Denlinger.
A. Hasteller.
E. T. Grunewald.
John Harnahan.
Henry M. Pugh.
Ormston & Hosey.
Isaac Rogers.
John Sartain, secretary.
Edward J. Nolan.
J. P. Lesley.
L. K. Lewis.
Henry E. Lincoln.
"W. Brotherhead.
"Watson Comly.
Richard K. Belts, secretary.
Charles P. Brady, corres-
ponding secretary.
James Mackey.
Andrew H. Fisher.
R. Bridges.
George N. Hutchinson, sec-
retaiy.
E. Hiltebrand.
Edward C. Jones.
Joseph S. "Wynn.
Alexander A. M. Loos.
Henry W. Argy.
Charles E. Meyer, chairman
A. R Thomas, dean.
Louis Graef.
James McClune, director.
John Jordan, jr., (acting.)
J. M. Bourke.
J. H. Laverty.
"West Funk.
F. M. Jackson.
John "W. Smith.
Preston Brearly, secretary.
George Tucker Bispham.
Caleb Clothier.
Lloyd P. Smith.
Lloyd P. Smith.
Susie Taylor.
"William Sterling.
Annie J. Harkness.
James G. Barnwell.
1170 Public Libraries in the United States.
List of librarians in the United States — Continued.
Library.
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
PMladelpliia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Philadelphia, Pa
Phoenixville, Pa
Phoenixville, Pa
Pittsburg, Pa
Pittsburg, Pa
Pittsburg, Pa
Pittsburg, Pa
Pittsburg, Pa ,
Pittsburg, Pa
Pittsburg, Pa
Pittston, Pa
Pottstown, Pa
Pottsville, Pa
Pottsville, Pa
PottsviUe,Pa
Quakerto-wn, Pa
Heading, Pa ,
Eenora, Pa
St. Mary's, Pa ,
St. Mary's, Pa
Scrantou,Pa
Selin's Grove, Pa
Somerset, Pa
South Bethlehem, Pa ..
State College, Pa
Stroudsburg, Pa
Susquehanna Depot, Pa
Swarthmore, Pa
Tidioute, Pa
Titusville, Pa
TJniontown, Pa
Upland, Pa
Moyamensing Literary Inatitute
New Church Book Room and Free Library. .
Northern Dispensary of Philadelphia
Numismatic and Antiquarian Society
Pennsylvania Hospital
Philadelphia City Institute
Philadelphia Divinity School, (P. E)
Presbyterian Board of Publication
Presbyterian Historical Society
Rosborough Lyceum
Sixth "Ward Public School
Soldiers' Orphan School
Southwark Library
Southwestern Grammar School
Spring Garden Institute
Tabor Mutual Library
Teachers' Institute
Theological Seminary, Evangelical Lutheran
Universal Peace Union
University of Pennsylvania
West Phila'delphia Institute
Catholic Literary Association
Young Men's Literary Union
German Library Association
High School Library
Pittsburg Female College
St. Michael's Theological Seminary
Utile Dulce Library Association
Young Men's Christian Association
Young Men's Mercantile Library
Library Association
Circulating Library
Public School Library
Schuylkill County Law Library
Stockton Library ■
Richland Library
Reading Library
Library and Reading Room Association
St. Mary's Priory •
St. Michael's Casino
Young Men's Christian Association
Missionary Institute
Somerset County Law Library
Reading Room and Library Association
Pennsylvania State College
[ Brown's Circulating Library
I Young Men' 8 Literary Association
Swarthmore College
Eden Lodge Library
I Hurd' 8 Circulating Library
I Bookclub
^ Bucknell Library, Crozer Theological Sem'y
T. Esmonde Harper.
M. L. Paschall.
Charles Carter, M. D.
Henry Phillips, jr., secre-
tary.
Frank Woodbury, M. D.
William Chapin, president.
Morris M, Berry, A. M.
John W. Dulles.
Samuel Agnew.
William Hutton.
Edward .J. Brodie.
M. C. Coxe.
C. C. Murray.
George H. Stout.
Thomas W. Summers.
Thomas Gamon, treasurer.
Miss Lindsay.
A. P. Pfleuger.
Alfred H. Love, president.
Prof R. E. Thompson.
Mrs. E. A. Ashmead.
William J. Kelly.
J. W. Kurtz.
Miss Louise Baetz.
Miss Jennie Ralston.
Mrs. Sarah J. Jameson, M
E.L.
Arthur Devlin.
Edward 0. Anderson.
R. A. Orr.
George E. Appleton.
G. S. Ferris.
A. M. Scheffer.
B. F. Patterson.
Col. William G. Johnson.
Miss A. Anman.
Stephen F. Penrose.
Mary E. Richards.
Joseph R. Ken dig.
Rev. Edward Hipelius.
Leonard Haas.
H. A. Chapin.
P. Born.
J. 0. Kimmel, chairman.
David I. Yerkea.
William A. Buckhout.
T. C. Brown.
S. Wallace.
Kate L. Rockwell.
James Beattie.
B. F. Hurd.
M. N. Lewis, secretary.
Rev. George R. Bliss.
List of Librarians.
List of librarians in the United States — Continued.
1171
Library.
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Villanova, Pa
Warren, Pa
"Washington, Pa
West Chester, Pa ,
Westtown, Pa
Wilkes-Barre, Pa
Wilkes-Barre, Pa ,
Wilkes-Barre, Pa
Williamsport, Pa ,
Womelsdorf, Pa
York, Pa
York, Pa
Ashaway, R. I
Centerdale, R. I
East Greenwich, R. I. .
Exeter, R. I
Foster Centre, 11. 1
Gloucester, R. I
Jamestown, R. I
Kingston, R. I
Lonsdale, R. I
Manville, R.I
Newport, R.I
Newport, R. I
Newport, R. I
New Shoreham, R. I. . .
North Scituate, R. I. . .
North Scituate, R. I...
NorthSmithfleld, R. I.
Olneyville, R. I
Pawtucket, R. I
Peacedale, R. I
Providence, R. I
Providence, R. I
Providence, R. I
Providence, R. I
Providence, R. I
Providence, R. I
Providence, R. I
Providence, R. I
Providence, R. I
Providence, R. I
Providence, R. I
Providence, R. I
Providence, R. I
Providence, R. I
Providence, R. I
Providence, R. I
Warren, R.I
Warwick Neck, R. I
Westerly, R. I
Woonsocket, R. I
Charleston, S. C
Villanova College, (Monastery)
Library Association
Washington County Law Library
Chester County Law and Miscellaneous Lib';
Westtown Boarding School
Law and Library Association
Wyoming Athenasum
Wyoming' Historical and Geological Society
Lycoming Coun ty Law Library
Library Association
York County Law Librarj'
Young Men's Christian Association
Ashaway Library and Reading Room
Union Library Association
Free Library
Manton Library
Foster-Manton Library
Manton Library
Philomenian Library
Kingston Library
Lonsdale Library
Manville Library
Mechanics' and Manufacturers' Library Ass'n
People's Library
Redwood Library and Athenasum
Island Library
Aborn Library
Lapham Institute
Slatersville Reading Room and Library.
Free Library Association
Library Association
Narragansett Library Association
Allen's Circulating Library
Arnold's Circulating Library
Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers
Brown University
Franklin Lyceum
New England Boarding School of Friends .
Perrin's Circulating Library
Providence Athenfeum
Providence Reform School
Rhode Island Historical Society
Rhode Island Hospital
Rhode Island Society for Encouragement of
Domestic Industry.
State Law Library
State Library
Union for Christian Work ,
Young Men's Christian Association
Public Reading Room Association
Old Warwick Library
Pawtucket Library Association
Harris Institute Library
Charleston Library Society
A. P. McCranor, O. S. A.
I. L. Harrison.
J. P. Miller, prothonotary.
John A. Rupert.
Lewis Forsythe.
A. Barnes.
Robert L. Ayers.
Harrison Wright, secretary.
H. H. Blair, prothonotary.
John F. Schonom.
Frank Geise, prothonotary.
P. P. Strawniski.
L. Burdick.
Frank C. Angell.
Joseph Eastman.
George A. Thomas, (acting.)
Mowry P. Arnold.
Mrs. Simeon Sweet.
T. Giles Carr.
P. K. Taylor.
H. Kilbum.
William D. Aldrich.
James H. Goddard.
E. M. Dame.
Benjamin H. Rhoades.
Arthur W. Brown.
G. R. Fisher.
W. S. Stockbridge.
Fred H. Potter.
Mrs. Frederica Bonvard.
Mrs. M. A. Sanders.
Alexander Lochhead.
J. H. Allen.
George O. Arnold.
Walter F. Brown.
Reuben A. Guild, LL. D.
Henry W. Allen.
Hannah E. Bean.
Daniel Perrin.
J. D. Hedge.
James M. Talcott, sup't.
Edwin M. Stone.
Charles Nason, sup't.
Joseph S. Pitman, secretary.
Daniel W. Fink.
J. M. Addemann.
William M. Bailey.
Thomas T. Crocker.
Mary E. Drowne.
J. Torrey Smith.
Orville Stillman.
Mrs. Ellen M. Bosworth.
Arthur Mazyck.
1172 Public Libraries in the United States.
lAat of librarians in the United States — Continued.
Library.
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Charleston, S.C
Charleston , S. C
Charleston, S.C
Columbia, S.C
Columbia, S.C
Colambia, S. C
Georgetown, S. C
GreenviUe, S. C
Waterboro', S. C
Chattanooga, Tenn. .
Columbia, Tenn
Culleoka, Tenn
Dyersburg, Tenn
Edgefield, Tenn
Edgefield, Tenn
Greenville, Tenn
Knoxville, Tenn
Lebanon, Tenn
Memphis, Tenn
Nashville, Tenn
Nashville, Tenn
Nashville, Tenn
Nashville, Tenn
Nashville, Tenn
Pulaski, Tenn
Austin, Tex
Austin, Tex
Galveston, Tex
Galveston, Tex
Houston, Tex
Houston, Tex
San Antonio, Tex . . .
Tyler, Tex
St. George, Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Barnet, Vt
Bennington, Vt
Bradford, Yt
Brattleboro', Vt
Burlington, Vt
Burlington, Vt
Burlington, Vt
Burlington, Vt
Chelsea, Vt
Cavendish, Vt
Derby, Vt
Grafton, Vt
Hyde Park, Vt ,
Irasburg, Vt
Lunenburg, Vt
Middlebury, Vt ,
College of Charleston
Medical Society of South Carolina..
South Carolina Historical Society. ..
Presbyterian Theological Seminary .
State Library ,
University of South Carolina
Winyaw Indigo Society
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Philomatliean Society
Gleahill and Cady's Library
Athenaeum Library
Reading Club
Excelsior Library
Edgefield Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons
Public Library
Library Junto
Library and Reading-Room Association
Cumberland University
Memphis Bar and Law Libjary Association
Historical Society of Tennessee
Library Association
Nashville Institute
State Library
Toung Men's Christian Association
Pulaski Lyceum
Library Association ,
State Library
Free Library
New Church Library
City Library
Public Library
Alamo Literary Society
Supreme Court
Library Association
City Library
Territorial Library
Ladies' Library
Free Library
Scientific Association
Brattleboro' Library
Fletcher Free Library
Parish Library, First Unitarian Church.
University of Vermont -
Toung Men's Association
Library Association
Fletcher Library
Derby Academy ^
Public Library
Agricultural Library
Library Association
Cutting's Library
Ladies' Library Association
L. A. Frampton.
H. W. De Saupun, jr., M. D
F. A. Porcher, president.
Rev. George Howe, D. D.
LL.D.
Adolph Feininger.
Major E. W. Everson.
A. P. Hamby.
Rev. W. Williams, D. D.
John D. Warren, jr.
J. H. Cady.
Robert D. Smith.
William E. McGhee.
Frank D. Roberts.
R. W. Weakley.
J. P. Barthell.
M. G. Price.
William Hersey.
Prof John I. D. Hinds.
Thomas Flanagan.
G. P. Thruston, correspond-
ing secretary.
Mrs. M. V. Brown.
Miss Carrie V. Dyer.
Mrs. P. Haskell.
John R. Frizzle.
John A. Tinnon.
F. C. Higby.
Frederick Voigt.
Emily F. Carnes.
A. Duckett.
G. W. Baldwin.
W. F. Pack.
Charles Seabaugh.
R. P. Roberts.
James G. Bleak.
Miss Georgia Snow.
W. C. Staines.
William Burbank.
Olivia A. Dixon.
Roswell Farnham.
E. J. Carpenter.
Thomas P. W. Rodgers.
Henry H. Reed.
J. E. Goodrich.
Enos W. Taft.
Mrs. E. A. M. Brown.
R. H. Dutton.
Joseph G. Lorimer.
S. W. Goodridge.
Carroll S. Pa^e.
L. H. Thompson.
Hiram A. Cutting, M. I).
Mrs. William S. Goodrich.
List of Librarians.
List of librarians in the United States — Continned.
1173
Library.
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Middlebury, Vt
Montpelier, Vt
Montpelier, Vt
Northfleld, Vt
Pittsford.Vt
Post Mills Village, Vt.
Proctorsville, Vt
Eoyalton, Vt
St Albans, Vt
St Johnsbury, Vt
South Woodstock, Vt .
Springfield, Vt
"Wells River, Vt
West Randolph, Vt . . .
Windsor, Vt
Alexandria, Va
Near Alexandria, Va.
Bethel Academy, Va.
Blacksburg, Va
Hampden Sidney, Va.
Hampden Sidney, Va. . .
Hampden Sidney, Va...
Hampton, Va
Hampton, Va ..i
Harrisonburgh, Va
Lexington, Va
Lexinp:ton, Va
Lexington, Va
Lexington, Va
New Market, Va
Norfolk, Va
Norfolk, Va
Petersburgh, Va
Richmond, Va
Richmond, Va
Ricl-mond, Va ,
Richmond, Va
Richmond, Va ,
Richmond, Va
Richmond, Va
Richmond, Va
Salem, Vl
Salem, Va
University of Virginia, Va
Olympia, Wash
Bethany, W. Va
Parkersbnrg, W. Va ,
Wheeling, W. Va
Wheeling, W. Va
BeloitWis
Middlebnry Historical Society
State Library
Vermont Historical Society
Library Association
Maclure Library
Peabody Library
Library Society
Agricultural Library Association
Free Library
Social Library
Town Library
Library Association
Ladies' Library Association .
AthenEBum
Alexandria Library
Theological Seminary of Protestant Episco-
pal Church.
R. E. Lee Library
Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical Col-
lege.
Philanthropic Society, Hampden Sidney Col-
lege.
Union Society, Hampden Sidney College ...
Union Theological Seminary
Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institnte
National Military Home, Southern Branch .
Rockingham Library Association
Franklin Society and Library Company
State Library, Virginia Military Institute . .
Virginia Military Institute
Washington and Lee University
Lee Literary Society, Polytechnic Institnte
Library Association
Odd Fellows' Library
Library Association
Central Public School
McGill Lyceum
Pierce Library, Richmond Institute
Richmond College
St Mary's Sodality
State Library
Teachers' Library
Virginia Historical Society
Roanoke College
Lutheran Theological Seminary
University of Virginia...
Territorial Library
Bethany College
Young Men's Christian Association
Library Association
State Library
Beloit College
Philip Battell, secretary.
Hiram A. Hnse.
M. D. Gilman.
George H. Richmond.
Barton Shaw.
Harvey Dodge.
Kendall Taylor.
J. W. Metcalf.
A. C. Wardwell.
William W. Thayer.
Joseph W. Smith.
Mrs. E. M. Diggins.
Anna D. Leslie.
Mrs. Abby Hutchinson, sec*
retary.
Miss E. L. Blanchard.
M. Slaughter, secretary.
Joseph Packard.
Edward F. Walden.
Professor V. E. Shepherd.
Clement C. Gaines.
John S. Simpson.
Rev. B. M. Smith.
M. F. Mackie.
George H. Hickman.
James Kennoy.
John W. Fuller.
M. McDonald.
M. McDonald.
William Dold.
R. J. Walker.
Miss Kina H. Tnnstall.
John T. Redmond.
W. L. Baylor.
Miss Fanny Blake.
W. M. Baggett
Professor Sterling Gardner.
R. H. Pitt (acting. )
Joseph Ross.
James McDonald.
Captain Robert A. Camm.
R. A. Brock, secretary.
Professor F. C. Bittle.
Rev. S. A. Repass.
William Wertenbaker.
B. F. Tantis.
Julian B. Crenshaw.
William T. Heaton.
Mrs. S. F. Patterson.
E . L. Wood.
R ev. J. Emerson, M. A.
1174 Public Libraries in the United States.
List of librarians in the United States — Concluded.
Name of librarian or other
officer reporting.
Black Elver Falls, Wis
Eau Claire, Wis
Fox Lake, Wis
Fond du Lac, Wis
Fond du Lac, Wis
Galesville, Wis
Janesville, Wis
La Crosse, Wis
Madison, Wis
Madison, Wis
Madison, Wis
Madison, Wis
Madison, Wis
Manitowoc, Wis
Milwaukee, Wis
Milwaukee, Wis
Milwaukee, Wis
Milwaukee, Wis
Neenah, Wis
Oshkosh, Wis
Platteville, Wis
Kacine, Wis
Eacine, Wis
Sheboygan, Wis
Shebojrgan Falls, Wis . .
Waupaca, Wis
Waupun, Wis
Wausau, Wis
Cheyenne, Wyo
Laramie, Wyo
Black Kiver Falls Library
City Library
Library Association
Neocosmian Library
Young Men's Association
Galesville University
Young Men's Association
Young Men's Library Association
Free City Library
Madison Institute
State Agricultural Society
State Historical Society
State Library
Jones Library
Milwaukee Law Library Association
South Side Library and Literary Association
Turnverein ,
Young Men's Association
Scandinavian Library Association
Library Association
Young Men's Library Association
Public School Library
Eacine College
Congregational Library
Library Association
News and Library Association
Library Association
Pine Knot Library
Cheyenne Library
Wyoming Library and Literary Association .
Oscar F. Clapp.
Edna Sears.
Charles E. Merwin.
Miss Augusta Ball.
W. F. Boland.
Eev. D. S. Howes, A. B.
E. D. Stone.
G. M. Woodward, chairman.
Miss V. C. Eobbins.
Miss Maggie A. Mayers.
W. W. Field, secretary,
Daniel S. Dnrrie.
Francis Massing.
Mrs. E. Sharpe.
William W. Wight.
E. L. Babcock.
L. Kobler.
Edwin Upson.
Erick Nilson.
Miss A. Olcott.
T. W. Thomas.
E. H. Tripp.
Eev. J. J. Elmendorf, S. T.D.
Oscar C. McCuUoch.
Laura Buck.
H. C. Mead.
Edwin Hillyer.
Valentine Eingle.
Mrs. P. H. Pickett.
Walter Sinclair.
INDEXc
A.
Abbot, Ezra, his alphabetico-classed catalogue for
Harvard TJniversity Library noticed, 539-541,
547 ; hia plan for a card catalogue described, 556-
558.
Academies, libraries of, 58.
Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia,library
of, 969-973.
Adjutant-General's OflBlce, library of, 266
Administration, of college libraries, 505-52 5 ; of
public libraries, ratio of cost of, to whole ex-
pense unsatisfactory, 430. (See, also. College li-
braries.)
Age of readers no criterion of mental capacity ,
412-414.
Alabama Historical Society, 332.
Albany Institute, Albany, N. T., 323, 352.
Allibone, S. A., the index to his Dictionary of
Authors, 727.
Alphabetical catalogues. (See Catalogues.)
Alvord, Gen. B., F. S. A., relates an incident show-
ing the value of a newspaper map, 461, note.
American Antiquarian Society, 345.
American Baptist Historical Society, 363.
American Ethnological Society, 355.
American Geographical Society, 356, 939-941.
American Institute of New York, library of, 933.
American Library Journal, xxvii ; prospectus of,
xxviii-xxix.
American Numismatic and Archseological So-
ciety, 356.
American Oriental Society, 70, 334.
American Philological Society, 356.
American Philosophical Society, originated in the
"Junto," 3; Franklin's interest in, 11; its li-
brary noticed, 31, 363, 962.
American Seamen's Friend Society, libraries of,
276-278.
Ames, Ohio, early social library at, 446.
Amherst College Library, 75-78; classification,
arrangement, indexing, and cataloguing of, de-
scribed, 623-648.
Amicable Library, united with Philadelphia Li-
brary Company, 5, 953.
Andover Theological Seminary, library of, 144-146.
Appleton Library, 128, note.
Apprentices' Library of New York, plan of
Schwartz's catalogue of, 541-543, 657-660 ; sketch
of, 936-938.
Apprentices' Library of Philadelphia, 973.
Archer, O. A., his account of origin of Blackinton
Library, 404, note.
Architecture, improvement of, through art muse-
ums ; its principles should be taught in colleges
and schools of science, 436.
Army Headquarters Librjiry, 274.
Arnold, Matthew, on the need of culture by all
classes, 411.
Arrangement of books in college libraries, 510.
Art education in England, progress of, 435 .
Art museums, and their connection with publio
libraries, xxi, 434-444 ; art collections in Boston
Athenaeum, 434; collections and exhibitions in
other cities, 434 ; the United States behind other
nations in art education, 435 ; progress of art
education in England, 435 ; art museums in Eng-
lish public libraries, 435 ; influence of art muse-
ums on taste and manners and on national in-
dustries, 435 ; art education in Swiss canton of
Berne, 435 ; art training necessary to national
prosperity, 435-436; influence of art museums
on architecture, 436-437; instruction in archi-
tecture in colleges and schools of science, 437 j
an American type of architecture, 437; educa-
tional value of art museums as means of recrea-
tion, 437-438 ; John Stuart Mill on the need of art
education in the United States, 433, note ; feasi-
bility of founding, in the larger towns, 439 ; mu-
seums consisting of copies of works of art, 439 ;
establishment of, by cities, by associations, by
individuals, 439 ; lack of an intellectual interest
in American cities, 439-440 ; economy of con-
necting museums with libraries, 440 ; Emerson
on art museums in public libraries, 440, note ;
works of art, where obtainable and at what cost,
443-444.
Art works, where obtainable and at what cost,
443-444.
Artillery School Library, 265.
Association Library Company united with Library
Company of Philadelphia, 953.
Aetor, John Jacob, his gifts to Astor Library, 931,
935.
Astor, William B., his gifts to Astor Library, 935.
Astor Library, catalogue of, 737-738; sketch of,
931-936.
Asylum and hospital libraries, 58.
Asylum for the Insane, library of, 270.
AthenaBums, statistics of, 384. (See Mercantile li-
braries.)
Auburn Theological Seminary, library of, 151.
B.
Balbi, A., on European library statistics, 745-758.
Baltimore, Md., sketches of public libraries in,
837-851 ; Peabody Institute, 837-840 ; Mercantile
Library, 840-843; Maryland Institute, 844-846 ;
Library Company, 847 ; Maryland Historical
Society, 847-848 ; Society for Aid of Mechanics,
(Der allgemeine Unteistiitzungs-Verein fiir
kranke Aibeiter,) 848, 849 ; State Normal School,
Academy of Sciences, and Library Company Bal-
1176
Public Libraries in the United States.
Baitimore, Md.— Continued,
timore Bar, 849 j Odd Fellows' Library, 849-850 ;
Normal School, (colored,) Friends' Elementary
and High School, and City Library, 850.
Bangor Historical Society, 338.
Baptist Theological Seminary of Chicago, library
of, 14:5.
Bar Association Library of New York, 944.
Barnard, Henry, his eflforta in behalf of school li-
braries in Rhode Island, 45.
Bateman, Newton, author of list of books for school
libraries in Illinois, 55.
Beginning of free libraries, 35.
Benefactions to libraries, xvi, 814.
Berne, Switzerland, art instruction in, 435.
Bibliography of libraries, 733-744 ; Edwards' Me-
moirs of Libraries and Hand-book of Library
Economy, Petzholdt'a Katechismus der Biblio-
thekenlehre, 733 ; articles on libraries in cyclo-
paedias, hand-books for readers, report on condi-
tion and management of Library of British Mu-
seum, 734; catalogues as contributions to, 734;
literature of catalogues, 735 ; notices of several
important catalogues,735-738 ; list of books and
articles in periodicals on the subject of libraries,
739-744.
Binding, best material for, 491, 674, 712; binding
and preservation of books, 673-678 ; importance
of, and general directions respecting, 673 ; leather
the only material for permanent binding, 674;
rebinding deteriouates books, 674 ; cheap binding
really the most expensive, 674; muslin and
leather bindings compared, 675; quality of
leather of cardinal importance, 675; different
kinds of leather and their relative value for pur-
poses of binding described, 675 ; color of binding,
676 ; directions to be given binder, 676-677 ; re-
specting the binding of pamphlets, 677-678 ; gen-
eral directions respecting the treatment of books,
678.
Bingham, Caleb, establishes library for youth, at
Salisbury, Conn., 45.
Birmingham, England, free library catalogue, plan
of, 538.
Blackinton Library, origin and use of, 404.
Bodleian Library, catalogue of, 736.
Bonnauge, F., his " Projet d'un catalogue uni-
versel," etc., noticed, 558-560.
Book indexes, 727-736 ; illustrations of what they
should not show, 727 ; remarks on, by Dr. John-
son, Lord Campbell, and Carlyle, 727-728 ; books
that need not be indexed, dictionaries, novels,
and poems, 728 ; books of facts and for reference
should be indexed, 728 ; the rule often violated,
728-729; the practice of Gernjan booksellers,
729 ; cost of indexing the journals of the English
House of Commons, 729 ; considerations that
govern in making, 729 ; directions for making,
729-731 ; directions for searching indexes, 732.
Books, purchase of, competition to be sought in,
423 ; selection and purchase of, 479-483 ; binding
and preservation of, 673-678.
Books, titles of. (See Titles of books.)
Books and reading, professorships of, 230-251.
Books in college libraries, arrangem'ent of, 510 ;
disposition of old books,_ 510-512.
Boston and Albany Kail way Library, notice of, 875.
Boston and vicinity, sketches of public libraries in,
851-878; Massachusetts Historical Society, 852;
Boston Library, 852-853 ; Social Law Library, 853 ;
Boston Athensenm, 854-856 ; Mercantile Library
Association, 856-857 ; State Library, 857-859 ; So-
ciety of Natural History, 859 ; New England His-
toric-Genealogical Society, 860 ; Roxbury Athe-
naeum, 863 ; Boston Public Library, 863-872;
Congregational Library, 873 ; Odd Fellows' Li-
brary, 873-874 ; General Theological Library,
874-875 ; Boston and Albany Railway Library,
875-876 ; Deaf-Mute Library, 876-877 ; Post Li-
brary of Fort Warren, Boston College Library,
Perkins' Institution for the Blind, 877 ; other col-
lections, 877-878.
Boston Athenaeum, art collections in, 434; cata-
logue of, 738 ; sketch of, 854-856.
Boston College Library, 877.
Boston Numismatic Society, 340.
Boston Public Library, report of examining com-
mittee respecting the kinds of books that free
libraries should contain, 395 ; catalogues and
class lists of, 4U8, 538, 737 ; influence of class list
of history and fiction on circulation of, 549-550 ;
committee's report on printing catalogue of, 555 ;
classified circulation of, 821-823 ; sketch of, 863-
872.
Bowdoin College Library, 73.
Brazil, public libraries in, xxxiii-xxxiv.
Brevoort, J. Carson, superintendent of Astor Li-
brary, 935.
Brigham, Charles, architect, joins with Mr. Sturgis
and Mr. Winsor in preparing ideal plan of
library building, 472.
British Free Libraries, art museums in, 435, 440,
note ; results of uniting art museums with, xxi-
xxii.
British Museum Library, gifts and bequests to,
304 ; its rules for cataloguing, 490 ; reference
books in, 687-688 ; report of select committee on
condition and management of, 734; its cata-
logues, 735-736.
Brooklyn, sketches of public libraries in, 878-852 ;
Mercantile Library Association, 878-881 ; Long
Island Historical Society, Young Men's Chris-
tian Association, Youths' Free Library, 881 ;
Hamilton Literary Association, Library Asso-
ciation, E. D., Hawkins' Circulating Library,
other collections, 882.
Brooklyn Mercantile Library, Noyes' catalogue of,
described and illustrated, 543-545, 648-656;
sketch of, 878-881.
Brothers in Unity of Yale College, library of, 30,
67, 68.
Brown University Library, 118-121.
Bryant, William C, founder of the Bryant Library,
at Cummington, Mass., 459.
Buffalo Historical Society, 354.
Buildings for libraries. (See Library buildings.)
Bureau of Education, library of, 269.
Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, library of, 267.
Bureau of Navigation, library of, 267.
Bureau of Ordnance, library of, 266.
Bureau of Statistics, library of, 264.
Burnet, Governor, notices Franklin, 3.
Index.
1177
c.
California scliool district libraries, 53-54.
Camiibell, Lord, proposes a penalty for authors
who publish books without indexes, 727-728.
Cauar'a, public libraries in, xxx-xxxi. (See, also,
Ontario.)
Card catalogue, arrangement of, 496. (See, also,
Catalogues.)
Cards for cataloguing, size and material of, 489-490.
Carlyle, his remarks on indexing, 728.
Castine (Me.) .Social Library, xxxiv, »io(€ ; articles
01 association of, 44G.
Catalogue of Public School Library of St. Louis,
classification of, 660-662.
Catalogues, 526-622; what kind, 526; what ques-
tions they should answer, 527 ; author catalogue
defined, 527-528, note; title, subject, form, die
tionary, and classified catalogues defined, 528,
note; questions answered by, 528 ; classed, differ,
ence in, 529 ; systems of classification, advan-
tages and disadvantages of , 530-532 ; alphabet-
ical catalogues, plan of, 532 ; variety and history
of dictionary catalogues, 533-539 ; Poole's plan
for catalogue if 1S54 of Boston I^Iercantile Li-
biary, 534, 539 ; Low's Index to the British Cata-
logue, 535 ; Panizzi on advantages of a subject
index to alphabetical catalogues, 535 ; Cresta-
doro's pamphlet on the art of making catalogues
noiiced, 535-536, S39 ; Jewett's plan for indexing
books in Lower Hall, Boston Public Library,
(1858,) 538-539 ; British catalogue, (1858,) 538 ;
recent catalogues of Manchester, Birmingham,
and Liverpool libraries noticed, 538 ; notice of
Prof. Abbot's alphabetico-classed catalogue of
Harvard College Library, 539-541, 547 ; notice of
Schwartz's catalogue of New York Apprentices'
Library, 541-543, 548-549 ; notice of Noyes' Cata-
logue of Brooklyn Mercantile Library, 543-545 ;
plan of, Catalogue of Library of Congress, 545.;
proposed plan of alphabetico-classed catalogue,
545-547 ; advantages of and objections to dic-
tionary plan, 547-548; synonyms in dictionary
catalogues, 549, note ; on the fulness of the cata-
logue, 549 ; the ideal catalogue, 549 ; class lists of
Boston Public Library noticed, 549-550 ; notice
of Quincy Library catalogue, 550-551 ; analyses,
551 ; author and subject catalogue may be sepa-
rate or mixed, 552 ; advantages and disadvantages
of printed catalogues, 552-554 ; typographical
dilflculties in printing catalogues, 5-i5-556 ; card
catalogues, plans of Prof. Abbot and M. Bon-
nange noticed, 556-560 ; catalogue nomenclature,
560 ; classification of catalogues, 561-563 ; how
difl'erent catalogues economize, .564 ; information
given by difterent catalogues, 564-565 ; different
catalogues compared, 565-567; statistics of re-
cently printed catalogues, 568-571 ; answers to
circular respecting printed catalogues, 572-575 ;
chronological table of printed catalogues of pub-
lic libraries in the United States, 576-622.
Catalogues and reports of public libraries should
be furnished to State libraries, 302.
Cataloguing, 489-490. (See, also. Catalogues. )
Cataloguing and indexing, cooperation in, xxx.
Cataloguing college libraries, 512-514; cooperative
catalogues advocated, 512-514.
(Catholic libraries, 137-142 ; distinctive features of,
137-138; of theological schools and colleges;
Georgetown College Library, 138 ; composition
of, 138-142 ; growing collections ; Catholic publi-
cations, 141 ; valuable private collections ; Catho-
lic association libraries ; need of a general Cath-
olic library, 142.
Catholic young men's associations, 388.
Cayuga County Historical Society, 352.
Census (Xinth) of the United States, General F.
A. Walker's remarks on library statistics of,
quoted, xvii, 759.
Centennial Exhibition, report on libraries part of
exhibit of Bureau of Education at, vii.
Charleston and the Southern States, libraries in,
882-892 ; causes of slow development of public
libraries in the Southern States, 882-883 ; loss of
books during the civil war, 883-884 ; Charleston
Library Society, sketch of, 884-888 ; State libra-
ries, 888-899 ; college libraries, 889-890 ; need of
public libraries in the Southern States, 890-892.
Charleston Library Society, account of, 12 ; bequest
of John M'Kenzie to, 13 ; sketch of, mi-mi.
Chester Library Company organized in 1769, 11.
Chicago, sketches of public libraries in, 893-895 ;
Chicago Historical Society, 893; Young Men's
Association Library, 893-894; Public Library,
894-895 ; statistics of other collections, 895 ; New-
berry legacy for a public library, 896-898.
Chicago Historical Society, 337, 893.
Chicago Public Library, sketch of, 894-895.
Chicago Theological Seminary, library of, 143.
Chronological table of printed catalogues in the
United States, 577-622.
Church libraries, 127, note.
Cincinnati, sketches of public libraries in, 898-917 ;
the Cincinnati Library, 898-899; Cincinnati
Circulating Library, 899-900 ; Apprentices' Li-
brary, 9U0-9O1 ; Ohio Mechanics' Institute, 901-
902 ; Young Men's Mercantile, 902-904 ; Histori-
ical and Philosophical Society, 904-906 ; Theo-
logical and Keligious Library, 906-907 ; Public
Library, 907-916 ; Lane Seminary, College of St.
Xavier, St. Mary's Seminary of the West, Cin-
cinnati Law Library, Ohio Medical College, Cin-
cinnati Hospital, 916 ; statistics of other collec-
tions, 917.
Cincinnati Public Library, sketch of, 907-916.
Circulation of books in libraries an uncertain
measure of usefulness, 399.
Clap, President, 28 ; extracts from bis Annals of
Yale College, 28-29.
Classed catalogues. (See Catalogues.)
Classification of books in public libraries, 492 ; in
college libraries, 509.
Clayton, J. M., Secretary of State, bis reply to Brit-
ish parliamentary committee respecting Amer-
ican public libraries, 759.
Clinton, Governor De Witt, recommends estab-
lisbment of school libraries, 39.
Coast Survey Office, library of, 265.
Cogswell, Joseph G., first superintendent of the
Astor Library, 931 ; his selections for the libra-
ry, 932-934 ; prepares catalogue of the library,
935.
Colby University Library, 74.
1178
Public Libraries in the United States.
College departments, libraries of. (See individual
colleges.)
College libraries, statistics of, 125-126.
College libraries, their use aud accessibility, 60 ;
their proper division and distribution, 61 ; col-
lections characterized, gifts of private collections
to, amount of library funds belonging to several,
62 ; sketches of libraries abridged, 62 ; adminis-
tration of, general considerations touching, .505 ;
functions of, 506; how used, importance of
knowing, 507 ; how they should be prepared for
use, management of growth, 508 ; classification
considered, 509 ; arrangement of books in, 510 ;
old books and pumphlets in, 510-512 ; cooperative
cataloguing for, 512-514; indexing, 514; stu-
dents' privileges in, 515-520 ; instruction to stu-
dents in, by librariansand teachers, 520-525. (For
sketches of libraries of individual colleges see
names of colleges.)
College library administration. (See College libra-
ries.)
CoUegeofNew Jersey Library, 30; burned in 1801,
30 ; sketch of, 99-103 ; students' society libraries,
103.
College of Physicians of Philadelphia, library of,
968.
College of the City of New York, library of, 945.
College of "William and Mary, 26 ; library de-
stroyed by fire, 26, note ,- appeal in behalf of the
library, 26, 7iote ; gifts to and description of li-
brary of, 27-28, note.
College professorships of books and reading, 230-
251. (See Professorships of books and reading.)
College society libraries. (See individual colleges.)
College students, library privileges granted to,
515-520 ; instruction to by librarians and teach-
ers, 520-525.
Colonial government libraries, 292.
Colorado school district libraries, 57.
Columbia College Library, 30 ; early gifts to, 30 ;
books scattered during the Revolution, 30 ; sold
for grog by British soldiers, 30 ; sketch of, 104-105.
Common school libraries, 38-53 ; benefits resulting
from, 38 ; causes of failure of system in several
States, 38-39 ; in California, 53-54 ; in Colorado,
57 ; in Connebticut, 44-45 ; in Illinois, 54-.55 ; in
Indiana, 46-49 ; in Iowa, 46 ; in Kansas, 55 ; in
Kentucky, 56 ; in Maine, 49-50 ; in Massachu-
setts, 41-42 ; in Michigan. 42-44 ; in Minnesota,
56 ; in Missouri, 53 ; in New Jersey, 56 ; in New
York, 39-41 ; in Ohio, 50-52 ; in Oregon, 54 ; in
Pennsylvania, 55 ; in Rhode Island, 45-46; in
Virginia, 56 ; in Wisconsin, 52, 53 ; aggregate
number of volumes in, 1011.
Congregational Library, Boston, 340-873.
Congress, Library of, its catalogue noticed, 259,
545, 736-737.
Congressional documents, distribution of, by act of
1813, 293.
Congressional Library. (See National Library.)
Connecticut, district school libraries in, 44, 45 ;
free town libraries in. 453.
Connecticut Historical Society, 333.
Convention of librarians of 1853, results of, xxvi ;
proposed convention in 1876, xxvii.
Coon Skin Library, Ames, Ohio, influence of, 447.
Cooperation in making catalogues, 512-514.
Cooper Union, use of reading room of, 463; sketch
of library of, 943.
Copyright, returns of in National Library, 260-261;
outline of legislation respecting, from 1783 to
1875, 279-281 ; deposit of copyrights in State li-
braries suggested, 304.
Cornell University Library, 105-108.
Cost of administration of libraries great, 430.
County law libraries. (See Law libraries.)
County libraries in Indiana, 454.
Crestadoro, A., his pamphlet on the art of making
catalogues noticed, 535-536, 539.
Crozer Theological Seminary, Library of, 155.
Cutler, Ephraim, patron of the Coon Skin Library,
447.
Cutter, Charles A., author of " Rules for a Diction-
ary Catalogue," XV, 490; on library catalogues,
(with tables,) 526-6220
Dartmouth College Library, notice of, 31-97 ; so-
ciety libraries, 98.
Dauphin County Historical Society, 362.
Deaf-Mute College, Washington, library of, 270.
Deaf-Mute Library, Boston, 876.
Decimal classification and subject index, 623-648 ;
manner of classifying and numbering books un-
der, 624-625 ; arrangementof books, 626-627; use
of alphabetical subject index, 628 ; shelf arrange-
ment, 628-629 ; various catalogues and shelf lists,
629-630; check-bos, its uses, 631, 632; size num-
bers for books, 633; duplicates, 633; allowance
of space, 634 ; the advantages of relative location
of books, 634-635 ; advantages of the subject in-
dex, 636-637 ; various advantages of the general
system described, 637-639 ; cards described, 639 ;
experience with the system in Amherst College
Library, 639-640; acknowledgments, 640-641;
specimen pages of classification, 642-643; speci-
men page of the subject index, 644 ; catalogues
in use, with explanations, 645-648.
Dedham Historical Society, 343.
Delaware Historical Society, 336.
Department of Agriculture, library of, 272.
Department of Justice, library of, 272.
Department of State, library of, 262-264.
Department of the Interior, library of, 269 ; classi-
fied circulation of libtary, 823-827.
Department of the Navy, library of, 266.
Department of the Treasury, library of, 264.
Department of War, library of, 265.
Dewey, Melvil, managing editor of American Li-
brary Journal, xxviil; his description of the classi-
fication, arrangement, indexing, and cataloguing
of Amherst College Library, 623-648.
Dickinson College Library, 115.
Dictionary Catalogue, Rules for a, by C. A. Cutter,
XV, 490. (See, also. Catalogues.)
Diocesan libraries, 316, note.
District school libraries. (See Common school
libraries.)
Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal
Church, library of, 157.
Divoll, Ira, his efi'ort.s in behalf of Public School
Library of St. Louis, 981, 982.
Dix, John A., an advocate of school libraries, 40.
Dix, Miss D. L., report on prisons quoted, 219, 220.
Index.
1179
Dog tax in Massachusetts, proceeds of, appropri-
ated to public schools or town libraries, 451.
Drew Theological Seminary, library of, 148.
Duties on imported books, legislation respecting,
290-291.
Dwight, Theodore, report on prisons quoted, 218,
221-225.
East India School, gifts for, noticed, 21, note.
Eaton, John, Commissioner of Education, his letter
to the Secretary of the Interior, submitting re-
port on public libraries, vii-ix.
Editors, associate, of American Library Journal,
list of, xxviii.
Education, influence of art museums on, 438 ; pub-
lic libraries and education, xi.
Edwards' Memoirs of Libraries and Hand-book of
Library Economy noticed, 733.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, on the need of professor-
ships of books and reading, 245 ; on art museums
in connection with public libraries, 440, note.
English books, number of, annually printed, 244.
Ephemeral literature, causes perplexity in the
smaller libraries, 711 ; large libraries should ac-
cumulate by exchange, 711 ; smaller libraries
should contribute to the larger, 711 ; a valuable
reflex of thei times, 712 ; the duty of the State
respecting, 712 ; librarians should make anni-
versary collections of, 712.
Episcopal Theological Seminary near Alexandria,
Va., library of, 159.
Essex Institute, Salem, Mass., 323-344.
Ewing, Hon. Thomas, aids in establishing the Coon
Skin Library, 446.
Exchange of State documents, 293-294.
Executive Mansion Library, 262.
F.
Faculty of Advocates' Library, (Edinburgh,) cata-
logue of, 736.
Fiction, a free library without works of, 394 ; re-
marks respecting use of, 394-395, 410-411.
Finding lists, plan of, 496-497.
Firelands Historical Society, Norwalk, Ohio, 359.
First Auditor's Office, library of, 264.
First public library in Boston, 36-37, note.
Force, Peter, his library sold to National Library ;
description of the collection, 257 ; his collections
relating to American history, 257, 683.
Franklin, Benjamin, his early opportunities for
reading, 2 ; interview with Governor Burnet, 3 ;
his " pretty collection " of books, 3 ; with others,
forms "The Junto " in 1729, 3 ; prints catalogue
and account of Philadelphia Library, 9-10 ; pre-
pares inscription for tablet in library building,
10; statue of, 11 ; his interest in the Philosophi-
cal Society, 11, 962 ; his claims respecting the in-
fluence of public libraries, 11; founder of Library
Company of Philadelphia, 953 ; his statement as
to number of newspapers in the colonies in 1771,
460.
Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, library of, 973,
974.
Free libraries, 389-402: duty of the State toward,
influence of, on society and government, 390;
special benefit of, to students, 390 ; what books
Free libraries — Continued,
may be properly bought for free libraries
with public money, 393 ; a free library that con-
tains no works of fiction, 394; popular books
needed, 395; a definite line respecting selections
of books for, impracticable, 396 ; responsibility of
librarians, 396-399 ; number of books circulated
an uncertain measure of usefulness, 399 ; possible
benefits of, 399-402 ; art collections in, 401, 434-
444. (See Art museums and their connection
with public libraries ; see, also, Public libraries
and Free town libraries.)
Free reading rooms, 460-464 ; as a means of popu-
lar education, 460; periodical literature, extent
and value of, 460-461 ; illustrated magazines,
their educational influence, 461-462; newspapers
and books, comparative influence of, 462 ; estab-
lishment of, in cities and the larger towns, 462;
of the Cooper Union and Newburyport Free
Library, 463; as adjuncts of free libraries, 463-
464.
Free reference libraries in Massachusetts, act for,
451.
Free town libraries, 445-459 ; outgrowth of social
and school libraries, 445 j early social libraries,
445-446 ; estimated number of volumes in public
libraries in the year 1800, 445 ; Castine Social
Library, its articles of association, 446 ; origin
of early library at Ames, Ohio, 446 ; early
social library at Cincinnati, 447 ; relation of
public school to town libraries, 447 ; examples of,
prior to legislation authorizing taxation for, 447 ;
in Connecticut, legislation, number, and circula-
tion of, 453 ; in Illinois, legislation, number, and
circulation of, 455 ; in Indiana, legislation, 454 ;
number and circulation of, 455 ; county libraries,
454 ; Maclure libraries, 454 ; in Iowa, legislation,
number, and circulation of, 453 ; in Maine, legis-
lation, number, and circulation of, 45-.i; in Mas-
sachusetts, leginlation, 448-451 ; origin of Way-
land Public Liorary, 448 ; Kev. John B. Wight,
author of town libraries' act of 1851, 448 ; free
reference libraries, 451 ; appropriation of dog tax
for, 451 ; number of, in 1860 and in 1874-75, 451-
452 ; income, aggregate number of volumes, and
circulation of, 451-452 ; in New Hampshire, leg-
islation, number, and circulation of, 447-448 ;
origin of Peterborough Town Library, 448 ; in
Ohio, legislation, number, and circulation of,
452 ; in Texas, legislation, Public Library of Gal-
veston, 455 ; in Vermont, legislation, number,
and circulation of, 452 ; in Wisconsin, legisla-
tion, number, and circulation of, 452-453 ; vote
establishing, in a number of towns, 455-456.
(See, also. Free libraries and Public libraries.)
French revolution, fugitive literature relating to,
Friends' Free Library, Germantown, Pa., contains
no works of fiction, 394 ; sketch of, 968.
Friends' Historical Society , 364.
Friends' Library of the Four Monthly Meetings,
31, 968.
Fugitive literature, value of, to the historian, 681-
683.
a.
Galveston Historical Society, 369.
Gardiner, O. C, his sketch of Bryant Library, 459^
1180
Public Libraries in the United States.
Genealogical and Biographical Society, 357.
General Government, libraries of the, why estab-
lished, 252 ; sketches of, 252-273.
General Land-Office, library of, 270.
General Theological Library of Boston, 146, 874.
Geneial Theological Seminary of the Protestant
Episcopal Church, library of, 1.^2.
Georgetown College Library, Georgetown, D. C,
71.
Georgia Historical Society, 336.
German books, number of, annually printed, 244.
German libraries, arrangements in, for loaning
books through one another, 916.
German Society of Pennsylvania, 365, 969.
German universities, proposed study of library
science at, xxiv-xxvi.
German young men's Christian associations, 388.
Gettysburg Theological Seminary, library of, 1.56.
Government, National, its interest in libraries;
importance of its publications, xii-xiii.
Government expenditure for libraries and sundry
publications, xii, 832-836.
Gray, Francis C, author of Prison Discipline in
America, quoted, 220.
Hamilton College Library, 108-110.
Hamilton Library and Historical Society, 361.
Harris, William T., his modification of Bacon's
classification of knowledge adopted in the Cata-
logue of the Public School Library of St. Louis,
660-662, 986.
Harvard College Library: founded, 21; burned,
22 : measures for its restoration, 22-23 ; gifts of
Thomas Hollis, 23; other notable gifts, 23-24;
extent and composition of the library at the
outbreak of the Revolution, 25; its removal
from Cambridge for safety, 25; during the
present century, 78-85 ; Dane Law School
Library, 85-86 ; Divinity School Library, 86-87,
147 ; Medical College Library, 87 ; Library of
Museum of Comparative Zoology, 87-88 ; Library
of Lawrence Scientific School, 88 ; Library of the
Botanical Garden, 88 ; libraries of the Observa-
tory and of the Bussey Institution, 89; studentfi'
society libraries, 89; catalogue of, 540-541,547.
Henrico College, Va., 21, note; books and money
subscribed for, 22, note.
Hertzog Hall. (See New Brunswick Theological
Seminary.)
Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, 358,
904-906.
Historical and Scientific Society of Mason County,
338.
Historical societies, 312 ; number of, formed since
1789, 312 ; their objects and mode of organiza-
tion, 313 ; libraries of, 313; manuscripts in, 313;
museums, 314; publications of, 314; other work
of, 314 ; membership, 315 ; income, whence
derived, meetings, 315; State and local societies,
315-316; ecclesiastical and other historical
societies, 316 ; valuable results achieved, 317 ;
genealogical work of, 318 ; town histories, 318-
320 ; plans for future work, 321-325 ; national
convention of, 325, note; importance of, 325;
scantiness of historical material, 325-326; what
historical libraries should collect and contain.
Historical societies — Continued.
327-328 ; a spirit of historical research developed
by them, 328-332 ; statistics of, 375-377. (For
sketches of historical societies and their collec-
tions, see names of individual societies, 332-374.)
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 365, 974-975.
Historical Society of Roanoke College, 372.
History of Printing in America, 345, note.
Hollis, Thomas, his gifts to Harvard College, 23.
Holmes, O. "W., his index to The Poet at the
Breakfast Table, 728.
Hospital libraries, 58.
Houghton County Historical Society and Mining
Institute, 346.
House of Representatives, library of, 261.
Hydrographic Office, library of, 267.
I.
Illinois, school district libraries in, 54-55; free
town libraries in, 455, 478.
Illustrations of library buildings, list of, vii;
selection of examples as, xix.
Imported books, when exempt from payment of
duty, 290-291.
Indexes. (See Book indexes.)
Indexes and tables of contents of books, improve-
ment of. (See Titles of books.)
Indexing college libraries, 514.
Indexing periodical and miscellaneous literature,
663-672 ; necessity and value of indexes, 663 ;
kinds of works requiring indexes, 663-664 ; es-
pecial value of monographs to students, 664;
indexes required when titles of books are not
explicit, 665 ; no complete index of periodicals,
665 ; Poole's Index„C65 ; indexes should be con-
tinuous, 666 ; no plan for an index generally
adopted, 666 ; the author's plan described, 666-
671 ; cross references, 671 ; ease of keeping up
such an index, 671 ; fancy titles, 671 ; a coopera-
tive system of indexing suggested, 672.
Indiana, school district libraries in, 46-49 ; free
town libraries in, county libraries in, 454.
Indiana Historical Society, 337.
Introduction to special report on libraries, xi-
XXXV.
Iowa, school district libraries in, 46; free town
libraries in, 453.
Iowa Historical Society, 338.
J.
Japan, public library recently established at
Tokio, xxxiv.
Jefferson, Thomas, promotes establishment of Na-
tional Library, 253 ; sells his private library to
the General Governrt ent, 254.
Jewett, C. C, his report on public libraries, xviii;
author of rules for cataloguing, 490 ; his ^lan for
indexing catalogue of Lower Hall, Boston Public
Library, 538-539.
Johnson, Dr., his remarks on book indexes, 727-
728.
Juliana Library, account of, 12.
" Junto " formed in 1729, 3.
Juvenile literature, its place in public libraries,
412-418.
Juvenile readers, their eflect on library statistics.
433.
Index.
1181
K.
Kansas school district libraries, 55.
Kentucky school district libraries, 5ti.
Kentucky University Library, 73.
King "William's School Library, Annapolis, Md.,
35, note.
King's Chapel Library, 34.
Kite, William, his remarks respecting use of fic-
tion, 394.
L..
Lafayette College Library, 115.
Lancaster Theological Seminary, library of, 156-
157.
Lane Theological Seminary, library of, 154.
Law association libraries. (See Law libraries.)
Law Association Library of Philadelphia, 973.
Law books, classified, 161 : extent of common and
statute law publications, 161-162 ; expense of,
'162.
Law libraries, 161 ; public, defined, 164; State law
libraries, 164-166 ; county law libraries, 166-167,
note ; law association libraries, how formed,
objects, particular collections named, 167 , law
school libraries, number of, 168 ; American char-
acterized, 168 ; EnglisU law libraries noticed,
168 ; rise and growth of American, in present
century, 168-169 ; statistics of, 169-170.
Law reports, number and extent of, 161; published
in 1874, 162; multiplication of, in the United
States and England, 162, note ; publication and
sale of, 163.
Law school libraries. (See Law libraries.)
Leather for binding books, 491, 675-676.
Lenox, James, founder of Lenox Library, 946.
Lenox Library, sketch of, 946-950.
Leominster Social Library, founded in 1763, 20.
Leypoldt, F., publisher of American Library Jour-
nal, xxviii-xxix.
Librarians, list of, 1143.
Librarians, of popular libraries fail ia their duty if
they do not strive to elevate the tastes of read-
ers, 432 ; qualifications and choice of, 488-489 ;
women as librarians, 430 ; should acquire an ex-
pert's knowledge of book binding, 712.
Library bibliography, 733-744. (See, also, Biblio-
graphy of libraries.)
Library buildings, 465-475 ; selection of sites for,
465 ; design of, to be subordinated to plan of ad-
ministration, 465 ; economy of space and time to
be regarded, 466 ; plan of Roxbury Branch of
Boston Public Library, 466-467 ; numbering of
cases and shelves, 467-46S ; labor saving devices,
468 ; officers' quarters, 469 ; unpacking room, 469 ;
catalogue rooms, 470; bindery, extra work
rooms, 470 ; branch libraries, 470 ; adaptation of,
to anticipated growth, 470-471 ; newspaper and
duplicate room ; Patent-Office specifications
room, cabinets for special collections, students'
room, pamphlet room, 471 ; leading room for pe-
riodicals, stock room, janitor's quarters, toilet
rooms, 471-472 ; de.scription of library building
of one million volumes' capacity, with illustra-
tions, 472-47.1.
Library Company of Philadelphia, organized iu
17)1, 4 ; first books received for, 4 ; gift of Peter
Collinson, 4 ; privileges granted to James Lo-
gan, 5 ; early puuhases for, 5 ; donation of Will-
Library Company of Philadelphia— Continued,
iam Rawle, 5 ; books removed to State-House, 5 ;
to Carpenters' Hall, 5 ; the Union and the Ami-
cable Associati m Library Companies united
with, 5; Loginian Library transferred to, in
1792,9; its influence described, 9; first printed
catalogues of, 9 ; description of books in, 9; ac-
count of, by Franklin, 10 ; its privileges ex-
tended to Congress, 10 ; is used by British ofli-
cers, 10 ; ■ building for, 10 ; catalogue of, 738 ;
sketch of, 953-962.
Library scitnce, study of, at German universities
suggested, xxiii.
Licking County Pioneer and Historical Society,
359.
Light-House Board, library of, 264.
Ligue nationalefran§aise of San Francisco, library
of, 1006.
Linnsan Scientific and Historical Society, 362.
Linonian Society of Yale College, library of, 30, 67-
68.
Liverpool (England) Free Library Catalogue, plan
of, 538, 736.
Local libraries should collect ephemeral publica-
tions, 683.
Logan, James, privileges granted to, by Philadel-
phia Librarj- Company, 5 ; founder of Loganian
Library, 6 ; extract from his wi , 6 ; donation of
library building, 6 ; conditions of bequest, 6.
Logan, William, his bequest to the Loganian Li-
brary, 6.
Loganian Library, founded by James Logan, 6 ;
bequests of James and William Logan to, 6;
transferred to Philadelphia Library Company,
9, 954 ; endowment of, 954.
Long Island Historical Society, 353, 881.
Low, Sampson, his Index to the British Catalogue
noticed, 535.
Lucas, Governor Robert, his efforts in behalf of
school libraries in Ohio, 50.
Lutheran Historical Society, 361.
ITI.
M'Kenzie, John, his bequest to Charleston Library
Society, 13.
McLaughlin, J. "W., architect of Cincinnati Public
Library, 912.
Maclure, William, his gifts and bequests for work-
ingmen's libraries, 454.
Madison University Library, 110.
Maine, school district libraries in, 49 ; free town
libraries iu, 452.
Maine Historical Society, 339.
Management of town libraries, details of, 423-430.
Manchester (England) Free Public Libraries, cir-
culation of, 405 ; catalogue of, 538, 736.
Mann, Horace, his efforts in behalf of school libra-
ries, 41.
Manual of reference to contents of books, need of.
(See Titles of books.)
Manuals of reading, 231-232, 249, 734.
Manufacturing towns, public libraries in, 403-411.
Maps, etc , iu books, directions for binding, 677.
Marietta College Library, 113.
Maryland Historical Society, 333, 847-848.
Maryland Institute Library, 844-846; School of
Design, 846.
1182
Public Libraries in the United States.
Massachusetts, school libraries in, 41-42; free town
libraries in, 448-452, 477 ; patronymic libraries
in, 456.
Massachusetts Historical Society, 341, 852.
Massachusetts State Library, sketch of, 857-859.
Meadville Theological Seminary, library of, 157.
Mechanics' and apprentices' libraries, statistics of,
385. (See Mercantile libraries.)
Mechanics'Institute Library, San Francisco,sketch
of, 1004.
Medical Journal Association of New York, library
of, 944.
Medical libraries, 171 ; in Boston, 172; in New
York, 173; in Philadelphia, 173-174; in Cincin-
nati, 174 ; in Washington, 175 ; of eclectic and
homoepathic schools, 175, note; importance of
medical periodicals, theses, and dissertations,
178 ; respecting formation of, 179 ; binding of
pamphlets, 180 ; bibliography of medical works,
181 ; statistics of, 182. (See Surgeon-General's
Office and Medical periodicals.)
Medical literature, extent of, 171.
Medical periodicals, number of, published since
1679,177; importance of, in medical libraries,
178; difficulty of procuring back numbers of
178 ; no complete collection at any one place, 178;
some that are rare, 178.
Medical theses and dissertations, value and im-
portance of, 178 ; number of, 179.
Medico-Legal Society, notice of, 173, note 2.
Mein's Circulating Library, 35.
Mercantile libraries, 378-385 ; primary objects, 379 ;
they bear different names, 379 ; a part of the edu-
cational movement, 379 ; when first established,
379 : may be changed into free public libraries,
380; educational features of, 381; character of
books in, 381, 362 ; conditions of use, 382; business
management of, 382; statistical table of, 383;
sketches of Mercantile Library of Baltimore,
840-843; of Boston, 8.56-8.57; of Brooklyn, 878-881 ;
of Cincinnati, 902-904; of New York, 928-931;
of Philadelphia, 963-965; of St. Louis, 977-981;
of San Francisco, 992-1002.
Mexico, public libraries in, xxxi-xxxiii.
Michigan, district school libraries in, 42-44.
Michigan State Pioneer Society, 347.
Middlebury Historical Society, 320, 370.
Military Academy, library of, 266.
Military Post Library Association, 273.
Military posts, libraries at, 27.3-274.
Mill, John Stuart, on need of art education in
America, 438, note.
Minnesota Historical Society, 347.
Minnesota school district libraries, 56.
Missouri Historical'Society, 348, 985.
Missouri school district libraries, 53.
Moravian Historical Society, 362.
Mount Holyoke Seminary Library, 90.
Museums of art in connection with public libra-
ries, 440. (See, also. Art museums.)
Museums of natural history, archaeology, etc., in
State libraries, 306-307.
Mussey Medical and Scientific Library, deposited
in Cincinnati Public Library, 912.
IV.
Nashua Historical Society, 350.
National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers,
libraries of, 274-275.
National Library, origin of, 253 ; first legislation
respecting, 253-254 ; early history of, 254 ; burned
by British, 254 ; Jefferson's library purchased,
254 ; history of, from 1815 to 1851, 255 ; it is again
nearlydestroyedby fire, 255; its growth from 1851
to 1875, 255-261 ; the library of the Smithsonian
Institution acquired, 256 ; the Force Library
purchased, 257 ; appropriations for Law Library
of, 257 ; character and extent of law department,
258 ; extent and character of the whole collec-
tion, 258-259 ; catalogue, 259 ; copyright depart-
ment, 260-261; reasons for a national library,
261 ; its growth, 295.
National Library of France, catalogues of, 735.
Naval Academy, library of, 268.
Naval Observatory, library of, 267.
New Brtinswick Theological Seminary, library of,
129, note, 149.
New England Historic-Genealogical Society, 318,
341, 8G0.
New England Library, 33.
New Hamp.shire, free town libraries in, 447.
Nesv Hampshire Antiquarian Society, 349.
Hew Hampshire Historical Society, 349.
New Haven Colony Historical Society, 335.
New Jersey Historical Society, 350.
New Jersey school district libraries, 56.
New London County Historical Society, 335.
New Mexico, manuscript collection in library of,
294.
New York Academy of Medicine, library of, 941.
New York City, sketches of public libraries in,
'918-950 ; Library of the City Records, 918-919 ;
Society Library, 919-923 ; New York Hospital
Library, 923-924 ; Historical Society Library,
924-928; Mercantile Library, 928-931 ; Astor Li-
brary, 931-936 ; Apprentices' Library, 936-938 ;
New York Law Institute Library, 938 ; Ameri-
can Institute Library, 938-939 ; American Geo-
graphical Society Library, 939-941 ; College of St.
Francis Xavier Library, 941 ; New York Acad "
emy of Medicine Library, 941-942 ; Young Men's
Christian Association Library, 942-943 ; Cooper
Union Library, 943-944 ; Medical Journal Asso-
ciation Library, 944 ; Bar Association Library,
944-945 ; Library of College of City of New York,
945-946 ; Lenox Library, 946-950 ; other collec-
tions, 951-952.
New York Historical Society, 357, 924-928.
New York Hosjiital Library, 923.
New York Law Institute Library, 938.
New York Mercantile Library, catalogue of, 738 ;
sketch of, 928-931.
New York school district libraries, 39-41.
New York Society Library, 14 ; historical sketch
of, 14. 919-923.
New York State Library, catalogues of, 738.
Newberry legacy for a public library at Chicago,
896-898.
Newport Historical Society, 367.
Index.
1183
Newspapers, their biatory and number, GS0-C81 ; In
the colonial period, 460.
Newton Theological Institution, library of, 147.
Northwestern University Library, 72.
Norton's Literary Gazette, its summary of results
of library convention of 1853, xxv-i.
Novel reading, effect of, 393.
Noyes, S. B., his plan of Brooklyn Mercantile Li-
brary catalogue noticed, 543-545, 648-656.
Numismatic and Antiquarian Society, 366.
O.
Ohio, school strict libraries in, 50-52 free town
libraries in, 452, 477-478.
Ohio Wesleyan University Library, 114.
Old books and pamphlets in college libraries, dis-
position of, 510-512.
Old Residents' Historical Association, Lowell,
Mass., 343.
Ontario, province of, school libraries in, 57.
Orange, Mass., votes money for a town library in
1846, 447.
Oregon Pioneer Association, 360.
Oregon school district libraries, 54.
Oregon State Library, sketch of, 1009.
Organization and management of public libraries,
476-504 ; need of a manual on, 476 ; public library
defined, 476-477 ; preliminary steps in organiza-
tion, 477-479; statutes respecting taxation for
public libraries in Massachusetts, Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, 477-473 ; choice of board of directors,
478 ; principles to be observed in selection of
books, 479-481 ; economy of buying books in col-
lections, 480-481 ; average cost of books, 481 ;
methods of purchasing books, 481-483 ; discount
on books, 482 ; purchasing by auction, 483 ; es-
sential points in design and situation of li-
brary building, 483-465; reading room necessary
adjunct of a public library, 484 ; space required
for libraries of different sizes, 485 ; shelving and
cases ; plan of cases, 485-487 ; plan of desk, coun-
ter, and delivery room, 487-488 ; qualifications
and choice of librarian, 48-'-489 ; receiving- and
entering books, 489 ; rules for cataloguing. Cut-
ter's Rules for a Dictionary Catalogue, 490 ; econ-
omy of employing skilled cataloguers, 490; objec-
tions to covering books, 4&0, 491 ; best mate-
rial for binding, 491 ; stamping and labeling,
491-492 ; system of classification of books, 492 ;
arrangement of books, 492-493"; system of shelf
marks, 493-494 ; description of tags, 495 ; shelf
lists, 495-496 ; card catalogue and finding lists,
496 ; styles of catalogue and expense of printing,
497-498 ; methods of delivery of books, 498-499 ;
regulations and by-laws, 498-499 ; registration
of borrowers and books, 499-500 ; systems of
registry of Boston Public, New York Mercan-
tile, and Chicago Public Libraries, 500-502 ; reg-
ister of circulation, 50-2-503 ; yearly examination
of library, cleaning of books and shelves, 504.
Pacific Mills Library, example of class of mill
libraries, 403.
Pamphlets, disposition of, in college libraries, 510-
512; binding of, 677; notable collections of, 684-
635; incompletely reported, 1011.
Panizzi, A., on subject index to alphabetical cat-
alogue, 535.
Parish libraries not included in report, 1011.
Parochial libraries in the colonies, 32-34, note.
Passaic County Historical Society, 351.
Patent-Office Library, 271.
Patronymic libraries, rapid increase in number of,
456 ; number of, recently established in Massa-
chusetts, 456; Bryant Library an example of,
459.
Peabody, George, founder of several libraries, 445 ;
his gift to Newburyport Free Library, 463 ; to
Peabody Institute, Baltimore, 837.
Peabody Institute, Baltimore, Md., 837-840.
Penn, Thomas, establishes Juliana Library, 12.
Pennsylvania Hospital Library, 31, 969.
Pennsylvania school libraries, 55.
Pennsylvania Seamen's Friend Society, libraries
of, 278.
Pepperell, Sir William, one of the founders of the
Revolving Library of Kittery and York, Me., 20.
Periodical and miscellaneous literature, indexing
of, 663-672.
Periodical literature and society publications, 679-
685 ; place of, in a public library, 679 ; collection
and preservation of, by librarians, 679-680 ; num -
ber of American and foreign newspapers, 680-
681 ; value of periodicals and pamphlets increases
with age, 681-682 ; some notable collections of
fugitive literature, 682-683 ; reviews and maga-
zines, 663 ; reports and transactions, and printed
indexes to them, 683-684 ; pamphlets, 684-685.
Perkins Institution for the Blind, library of, 59, 877.
Peterborough, N. ST., established a town library in
1833, 448.
Petzholdt's Katechismus der Bibliothekenlehre,
733.
Philadelphia, sketches of public libraries in, 952-
976 ; general remarks, 952-953 ; Library Com-
pany, 953-962 ; Ridgway Library, 959-962; Amer-
ican Philosophical Society Library, 962-963 ;
Mercantile Library, 963-965 ; University of Penn-
sylvania Library, 965-967 ; Library of Four
Monthly Meetings of Friends, 968 ; Philadelphia
Athenaium, 903; Friends' Free Library and
Reading Room, (Germantown,) 968 ; Library of
College of Physicians, 968-969 ; Library of the
Pennsylvania Hospital, 969; Library of the
German Society, 969 ; Library of Academy of
Natural Sciences, 969-973 ; Law Association Li-
brary, 973 ; Apprentices' Library, 973 ; Franklin
Institute Library, 973-974 ; Southwaik Library,
974 ; Library of Historical Society of Pennsyl-
vania, 974-975 ; other collections, 975-977.
Philadelphia Athenieum Library, sketch of, 968.
Pilgrim Society, Plymouth, Mass., 344.
Pioneer and Historical Society, Astoria, Oreg., 360.
Plan of a library of one million volumes' capacity,
description of, with illustrations, 472-475.
Plan of new catalogue of Brooklyn Mercantile Li-
brary, 648-6.56 ; it belongs to the dictionary type,
648 ; how it differs from others of the same type,
648-649; its analysis of polygraphic works, 649 ;
explanations, 650 ; examples, 650-656.
Pomeroy, Jesse, the boy murderer, a reader of
"dime novels," 396.
1184
Public Libraries 'in the United States.
Poole, William F., on the organization and man-
agement of public libraries, 476-504 ; his cata-
logue of Boston Mercantile Library noticed, 534 ;
author of Index to Periodical Literature, 665 ;
author ofCatalogueofCincinnati Public Library,
912 ; proposed completion of his Index to Peri-
odical Literature, xxix.
Popular libraries, reading iu, 431-433.
Portland (Me.) Library formed in 1766, 19; notice
of, 19.
Portland (Oreg.) Library Association, 1009.
Post-Office Department, library of, 269.
Presbyterian Historical Society, 366.
Presbyterian Theological Seminary of Columbia,
library of, 158.
Presbyterian Theological Seminary of Chicago,
library of, 144.
Prince Library, 32 ; deposited in Boston Public
Library, 127, note.
Princeton Theological Seminary, library of, 149.
Printers iu New York and Philadelphia in 1723, 3.
Prison convicts, proportion of, that can read, 218-
219.
Prison libraries, 218 ; their design and origin, 219 ;
their condition in 1845, 220; account of donation
by convicts, 220 ; growth of, 221 ; legislative
grants to, 221 ; regulations respecting use of
boots in, 220-223 ; character of bonks composing,
223; extentofusebyconvictsindifterentprisons,
223-224 ; influence of, on convicts, 224-226 ; sta-
tistics of, 228-220.
Private libraries not considered in this report ;
remarks of Gen. F. A. Walker, Superintendent
of the Ninth Census, on census statistics of pri-
vate libraries, xvii.
Privileges to readers in college libraries, 515-520.
Professorships of books and reading, 230-251 ; field
not occupied by existing professorships, 230-231 ;
purposes and scope of, 231 ; a proper additional
professorship, 232 ; objections to considered, 233,
248 ; reading as a subject of scientific instruction,
231 ; courses and manuals of reading insufficient,
231-232, 249 ; the multitude of books necessitates
guidance in reading, 233-234,242-245; yearly
number of printed books ; extent of newspaper
and magazine literature, 234 ; reading at present
unorganized and unscientific, 235 ; inferior qual-
ity of American literary work, 235; would im-
prove the national literature, 23.5-236 ; influence
of trained thinkers and students in directing
choice and valuation of books, 236 ; qualifications
and duties of the professor, 237-239, 249-251 ;
value of books as a means of culture, 240-242 ;
Emerson on the need of, 245; would economize
time, 245-246 ; methods of reading, 247-248.
Providence Library established in 1753, 19.
Public documents, laws and regulations respect-
ing distribution of, 281-284 ; exchange of, with
foreign governments, 284-285 ; of States, 301.
Public libraries. (See Free libraries ; Town libra-
ries ; Free town libraries ; Organization and man-
agement of public libraries; Statistics.)
Public libraries a hundred years ago, 1-37.
Public libraries and the young, 412-418 ; the read-
ing of the young should be properly dir. cted.
413, 417 ; age of readers not always to be .consid-
ered, 413-415 ; choice of books for youth, 415-418.
Public libraries in manufacturing communities,
403-411; special demands and opportunities for,
403; mill libraries, how established and sus-
tained, and how used by operatives, 403 ; Pa-
cific Mills Library, 403; character and use of
Blackinton Library, 404, note ; social and en-
dowed free libraries in manufacturing towns,
404-405; in England and the United States, 405;
circulation of Manchester (Eng.) Free Libraries,
405 ; situation and construction of library build-
ings, 406-407 ; management of, qualifications
of librarians and attendants, 407-408 ; regulations
in respect to loans, 408-409 ; choice of books for,
410-411 ; function of public libraries, 411.
Public Library at Annapolis, Md., 35, note.
Public School Library of St. Louis, how classified,
660-662 ; sketch of, 981-987.
Pycroft, J., his Course of English Reading noticed,
734.
Quincy Public Library Catalogue, notice|of, 550, 551.
R.
Railway libraries, 875, 876.
Randall, S. S., remarks respecting effect of legis-
lation of 1864 on school libraries of New York, 41.
Reading in popular libraries, 431-433 ; the greatest
encomiasts of public libraries, 431 ; it is not easy
to select books adapted to all classes of readers,
431 ; fixed standards of taste not considerate,
432 ; librarians should strive to elevate the tastes
of readers, 432 ; natural tendency of reading, 432 ;
the number of young readers swells the issues of
fiction from the libraries, 433.
Reading room, necessary adjunct of public library,
484. (See Free reading rooms.)
Redwood, Abraham, his gift for a library, 15.
Redwood Library, established in 1747, 15 ; Red-
wood's gifts to, 15; historical sketch of, 15-16.
Reference books for libraries, 686-710; number of,
in British Museum Library, 687-688 ; hints and
directions respecting, 713. (See, also, Works of
reference.)
Reform schools, when first established, 226 ; libra-
ries of, 2^7 ; number of inmates in, 227 ; utility
of libraries in, 227.
Register of books and of circulation, 499-504.
Report on public libraries, necessity for, xi-xii ;
plan of, xiii-xv ; method of gathering statistics
for, xviii-xix.
Reports and statistics of public libraries, xv-xvi.
(See Statistics.)
Reviews and magazines in public libraries, 683.
Revolving Library, 20.
Rhees, William J., his manual of American libra-
ries, xiii, xviii, 760, 882.
Rhode Island College Library, notice of, 31.
Rhode Island Historical Society, 368.
Rhode Island school district libraries, 45, 46.
Ridgway Library, sketch of buildiug, 961, 962.
Robinson, Prof. O. H., first suggests cooperative
catalogues, 514, jiofe; his plan of indexing peri-
odical and miscellaneous literature described,
663-672; on cooperative cat^iloguing among the
colleges of New Yoik, xxx, note.
Rochester Theological Seminary, library of, 153.
Index.
1185
Jioxbuiy Braudi of Toston Public Library, de-
scription ofbuildiDg of, 466, 467.
Itnles for a Dictionary Catalogue, by C. A. Cutter,
XV, 4!)0.
ICnllman, Dr. F., bis pamphlet on the science of li-
brary arrangement and library science as a
special study at the German uuiver.sities quoted,
xxiii-xxvi.
Itush, Dr. James, his bequest for Ridgway Library
building, 961, 962.
S.
Sacramento Library Association, 1007.
St. Charles Borroraeo Seminary, library of, 158.
St. Francis Xavier College Library, 941.
St. Louis, sketches of public libraries in, 977-991 ;
Mercantile Library, 977-981 ; Public School Li-
brary, 981-987; Law Library Association, 987,
988 ; St. ^iOui^Uuiversity Library, 988 ; St. Louis
Academy of Science Library, 988-989 ; St. Louis
Medical College Library, 980; Odd Fellow.s' Li-
brary, St. Louis Turnverein Library, Academy
of the Visitation Library, 989 ; Ursuline Acad-
emy, College of the Christian Brothers and
Young Men's Sodality Libraries, 990 ; Washing-
ton University libraries, 99C-991 ; German Lu-
theran Concordia College Library, Missouri Med-
ical College Library, 991.
St. Louis Academy of Music, Art Society, Institute
of Architects and Medical Society Libraries de-
posited in Public School Library, 984-985.
St. Louis Academy of Science, library of, 988.
St. Louis University Library, 96, 988.
St. Mary's Seminary of St. Sulpice, 128-129.
St. Maiy's Theological Seminary of the West, li-
brary of, 154.
St. Xavier College Library, 114.
Salem Social Library, founded 1700, sketch of, 20.
Salisbury, Conn., early library at, 45, 447.
San Fraucisco, sketclies of public libraries in, 991-
1007 ; introductory remarks, 991, 992: Mercantile
Library, 992-1(102; Odd Fellows' Library, 1002--
1004; Mechanics' Institute Library, 1004, 1005;
Art Association Library, 1006; la Ligue Na-
tionale Francaise Library, 1006-1007 ; other col-
lections, 1007.
San Francisco Mercantile Library, catalogue of,
738 ; sketch of, 992-1002.
San Francisco Theological Seminary, library of,
142.
San Jo.se Library Association, 1008.
School libraries. (See Commou school libraries.)
School libraries in province of Ontario, Canada, 57.
Schools for secondary instruction, libraries of, 56.
Schools of art and design on the continent of Eu-
rope, how they i)romote national industries, 435.
Schwartz, J., notice of his catalogue of the Appren-
tices' Library, 541-543, 545, 657-660.
Scientirtc annuals and catalogues, general, 189 ;
mathematics, 189-190; physics, 191; chemistry,
192-196 ; zoology, 196-198 ; anatomy, 198-200 ;
anthropology, 200 ; botany, 201 ; geology, 203.
Scientific journals and transactions, 683-684.
Scientific libraries, 183-217; scientific works in gen-
eral libraries, 183 ; in Washington, 184 ; in Balti-
more, 185 : in Philadelphia, 185 ; in Xew York,
186 : in New Haven, 186 ; in Boston, Cambridge,
and Salem. 187 ; in other cities, 187-188 ; inijior-
75 E
Scientific libraries — Continued,
tance to, of the annual records of scientific
progress, 188 ; list of scientific annuals and cata-
logues, 189-204 ; bibliographical works for, 204-
214 ; explanation of statistics, 214 ; statistical
tables, 215-217.
j Scientific works, bibliographical, general, 205 ;
mathematics, 206 ; zoology, general, 207 ; orni-
thology, 210; ichthyology, 211; conchology, en-
tomology, 212 ; botany, 213.
Second Social Library, Hiugham, Mass., founded
1773, sketch of, 21.
Secondary instruction. (See Schools for seccmdary
instruction and Academies.)
Sensational reading harmful, 395, 390.
Service Creek, Pa., early theological school at,
128-129.
Sharp, Rev. John, bequest of books to Xew York, 4.
Shelf marks and shelf lists, system of, 493-496.
Ship libraries, 276-278.
Signal-Office, library of, 266.
Smithsonian Institution, libraiy of, transferred to
the National Library, 256 ; its system of exchanges
described, 285-288 ; record of exchanges from
1850 to 1875, 288-289 ; present regulations gov-
erning exchanges, 289-290.
Social Law Library at Boston, 853.
Society for Propagation of the Gospel, donation of
books by, to New York, 14.
Society of California Pioneers, 332.
Society of Natural History, Boston, library of, 859.
Society publications and periodical literature,
679-685.
Soldiers' Home Library, Washington, D. C.,273.
Solicitor of the Treasury, library of, 272.
South Carolina Historical Society, 368.
Southern Historical Society, 371.
Southern States, libraries in. (See Charleston
and the Southern States.)
Southwark Library, Philadelphia, 974.
SpotTord, A. It., his sketch of the Library of Con-
gress, or National Library, 253-261 ; on the
binding and ijreservation of books, 673-678; on
periodical literature and society publications,
679-685; on works of reference for libraries,
with list of reference books, 686-710 ; on library
bibliography, 733-739 ; his list of books and arti-
cles on periodicals relating to libraries, 739-744.
State and Territorial libraries, 292-311 ; ancient
government libraries, 292; government libraries
in American colonial period, 292-293 ; origin of
system of exchange of documents between
States, distributionof documents by onler of Con-
gress, 293 ; periods of establishment of, 293-294 ;
national grants for Territorial libraries, 294 ; ex-
change of judicial decisions proposed by South
Carolina in 1844, 294; Vattemare's system of
international exchange, 294-295 ; State grants to,
29p ; expenditures for law departments of, 296 ;
general character, conditions of use, and sys-
tem of control of, 297-298; museums of natural
history and of archaeology and art in connection
with, 297, 307 ; extent and growth of, 299 ; sets
of State publications ; collections relating to
State and local history, 301-302 ; reports and cat-
alogues of public libraries should be furnished
to, ma.iuscript collections of, 302 ; as custodians
1186
Public Libraries in the United States.
State and Territorial libraries — Continued.
of ancient State documents, 303, copyrighted
^orks, 304; copyrights in Library of Congress,
304; as depositories of individual collections,
304-305 ; gifts and bequests to British Museum
Library, 3ff4 ; selection of books for, 305-306 ;
tenure of office of librarians, 406 ; duties of trust-
ees, 307-308 ; statistics of, 309-311.
State law libraries. ' (See Law libraries.)
State libraries as custodians of ancient State doc-
uments, 302.
Statistics of college libraries, 125-1'26; of theolog-
ical Jibrarics, 159-160 ; of law libraries, 169-170 ;
of medical libraries, 182; of scientific libraries,
214-217; of prison libraries, 228-229; of reform
school libraries, 227; of State and Territorial
libraries, 309-311 ; of historical society libraries,
375-377; of mercantile libraries, 383; of young
men's association libraries, 384 ; of atheuieum
libraries, 384 ; of mechanics' and apprentices"
libraries, 385; of young men's Christian associa-
tion libraries, 388.
Statistics of libraries, xv-xvi ; remarks on, 714,
1010-1011. (See Statistics of public libraries.)
Statistics of printed catalogues, 568-571.
Statistics of public libraries, xv-xvi, 745-836 ; dif-"
liculties of comparing, M. Balbi's comparative
statistics of European libraries, with table, 745-
758 ; his remarks on disparity of estimates of
numerical contents of European libraries, 756-
758; in Europe as given in recent American
publications, 758-759 ; Secretary Clayton's reply
to British Parliamentary committee's inquiry
respecting American public libraries, 759 ; Gen.
F. A. Walker's remark.s on value of, in Niuth
Census. 7.59-7C0 ; souices of, in table showing
size of American public libraries by periods,
760-773 ; of libraries iu 1776, 1800, and 187ii, with
table, 774-777; growth of public libraries by
periods, with tables, 778-701 ; libraries graded
according to size, 792-796 ; classified statistics of
jibraries, with table, 797-801 ; funds of libra-
ries, with table, 802-809 ; classified statistics of
iSixty-two libraries, 810-813; benefactions, 814;
loss and wear of books. 814-816 ; classified cir-
culation, 816-819 ; .statistics of twenty-four libra-
ries, 820 ; Boston Public Library, 821-823 ; De-
partment of the Interior Library, 823-827 ; analy-
ses of, 828-831 ; expenditures for libraries by
General Government, 832-836 ; remarks on table
of, 1010-1011.
Straznicky, E. R., former superintendent of Astor
Library, 935.
Sturgis, J. H., architect, joins Mr. Brigham and
Mr. Wiusor in preparing ideal plan of library
building; 472.
Sunday reading in public libraries, xx-xxi ; iu St.
Louis Public School Library, 985-986 ; ih Cinciu-
nati Public Library, 915.
Sunday School libraries, not included in report,
1011.
Supervising Architect's Office, library of, 265.
Surgeon-General's Office, library of, 175 ; catalogu-
ing and indexing of, described, 175 ; indexing
periodicals, 170 ; its collection of medical peri-
odicals, 178 ; collection of medical theses, 179 ;
hiuding pamphlets and theses, 160.
T.
Table, general, of public libraries, remarks on,
1010-1011.
Tags for books, form and material of, 495.
Taxation and town libraries, 4.55.
Teaching to read properly, importance of, recently
greatly enhanced, 506-507.
Tennessee Historical Society, 369.
Territorial libraries, national grants for, 294, 833.
Territorial pioneers of California, 333.
Texas, free libraries' act of, 4.55.
Theological and Ileligious Library of Cincinnati,
906.
Theological libraries, 127-142 ; of theological semi-
naries ; general theological libraries at Boston
and Cincinnati, 127 ; of theological departments
of colleges, 127-128 ; first theological libraries in
the United States, 128-129 j number Established
iu the first (jnarter of this century, 129 ; present
number and extent of; early college libraries at
first largely theological ; theological departments
of Astor and Boston Public Libraries, 130 ; ad-
vantages of distinctively theological libraries ;
growth of ; deficiencies of, 131 ; acquisition of
individual collections by gift or purchase, 131-
1,32 ; libraries of Van Ess, Neander, Niedner,
Liicke, Gie.seler, and Hengstenberg added to
American theological libraries, 132 ; number and
extent of, 133 ; in Europe, archiepiscopal, paro-
chial, monastic, 133-135; Amei-ican and European
compared, 135 ; need of, in seminaries, 136 ; more
funds needed for, 136-137 ; awakened interest in,
137 ; Catholic, distinctive features of, and needs,
137-142. (See Catholic libraiies.)
Thomas's History of Printing in America, 345,
note.
Titles of books, 715-726; good sense required in
naming books, 715; misleading titles, 715-716;
titles of miscellanies, 716; of polytopical books,
716-717 ; fancy titles, 717 ; enigmatical titles, 717-
718; explanatory titles, 718; amusing examples
of, 719 ; general titles, 719-720 ; incompleteness
of title pages a source of perplexity, 720-721 ;
obscuring titles, 721-722 ; need of a guide to the
contents of books, 722-724 ; suggestions for a ref-
erence dictionary or library manual, 724-725;
value of a guide to contents of books to profes-
sors and students, 725-726.
Todd, Rev. John, his plan of indexing noticed, 727.
Tokio, Japan, notice of a public library at, xxxiv.
Toledo Historical and Geographical Society, 360.
Town histories, 318-320.
Town libraries, how to make, successful, 419-430 ;
business-like management of, essential, 419-420 ;
choice of books for, 420-421 ; immature tastes to
be gratified, 421,422; special tastes should be
gratified, 422; reference books and periodicals
to be supplied, 422 ; competition to bo sought in
purchases, 423 ; details of management, 423-430.
Towns should be required to send copies of all
their documents to State library, 712.
Transylvania University Library transferred to
Kentucky University, 73.
Trinity College Library, 64.
Tufts College Library, 90.
Indejc.
1187
i.
Uiiiiiii Library of Uatboiousb, or;;aDizeil in 1755,
U.
Vuioii Library united with PLilailclpbia Library
Company, 5, 953.
I'nion Tbeologiciil Seminary, library of, 153.
L'uited States Census, General F. A. "Walker's re
marks on library statistics in, xvii, 759.
L'uited States Senate Library, 261. j
Uuiversalist Historical Society, 342. |
I'liiversity of California Library, C3.
University of Micbisan Library, 96. i
University of North Carolina Library, 1 12.
University of Pennsylvania Library, 30 : sketch of,
116,965,967. j
University of Pochester Library, 111.
University of South Caro'ina Library, 121.
University of Vermont Library, 122.
University of Virsinia Library, 123.
Vassar CoUejre Library, 112.
Tatteuiare, Alexandre, bis system of international
exchange, 285, 294.
Vermont, free town libraries iu, 452.
Vermont Historical Society, 370.
Vickers, Kcv. Thomas, on the arrangement in
German libraries for lending books to scholars
living at a distance, 916.
Villanova College, library of, 158.
A'incenues (Ind.) Library, date of establishment of,
454.
Vineland Historical and Autiiiuariau Society, 351.
Virginia Historical Society, 371.
Virginia school libraries, 56.
Vogel's bibliography of catalogues and works re-
lating to libraries, 734.
W.
Wadsworth, James, his efforts iu behalf of school
district libraries, 39.
Walker, Gen. F. A., his remarks ou the statistics
of libraries in the Ninth Census, xvii, 759.
AVashington and Lee University Library, 124.
Washington University, (St. Louis,) library of,
990-U91.
Watts, Thomas, his article in Knight's Cyclopa-dia
on libraries, 734.
'W'aylaud Free Library, origin of, 448.
Wellesley College Library, 93. 94.
AVesleyau University Library, Middletown, Conn.,
64.
West Virginia Historical Society, 373.
Western Reserve and Northern Ohio Historical
Society, 358.
Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny. Pa..
libi-ary of, 155.
Wight, Pev. John P., author of Massachusetts
•town libraries act of 1851, 448.
Williams College Library, 95.
Wines, E. C, his report on prisons quoted, 218,
221-225.
Winsor, Justin, his plan for a library building,
XX ; joins Mr. Sturgis and Mr. Brigham in
preparing ideal plan of library building, 472 ;
descriprion of plan, 472-475; suggests that pub-
lishers furnish with each book a card with
printed title, etc., of book, for insertion in
library catalogue, 513, 514, noU.
Winyaw Indigo Society, organized iu 1740, 13.
Wisconsin, school district libraries in, 52; free
town libraries in, 4.52.
Wisconsin State Historical Society, 373.
Women should be employed as librarians, 430.
Woodstock College, library of, 144.
Works of reference for libraries, 686-710; their
necessity and relative value, 686-687; selection
of, 687-688; should be accessible to readers.
687-688 ; list of, 688-710.
Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, 367.
X.
Xavier Union cf New York, library of, 941.
Y.
Yale College Library. 27: description of its earh
growth, 28-29: sketch of, 65-67; Liuonian and
Brothers Library. 30, 1.7-68; Law School Library.
68; Conneclicut Academy of Arts and Sciences.
69 ; Sheffield Scienlifi.; School Library, 69 ; Yale
Theological Seminary Libraries, 69-70; Yale
Medical School Library, 70 ; Yale School of Fine
Arts Library, 70; Peabody Mu.soum of Natural
History Library, 70: Anu>iicau Oriental Society
Library, 70-71.
Young men's as.sociation.s, statistics of, 384. (See
Mercantile libraries.)
Young men's Christian association libraries.
386-388; when begun, 386; present nun) her and
extent of, 380 : character of the collections and
use of, 387: reading rooms connected with, 387.
462; statistics of, 388; sketch of library of
Young Men's Christian Association of Xew
York, 942-943.
Young men's institutes, statistics of, 384. (See
Mercantile libraries.)
Youth, when to be excluded from public libra-
ries, 413; their reading should be properly di-
rected, 412-413: choice of books for, in publii
libraries. 415-41?.
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